The Calumet news., 1914-09-26
DRAGGED OUT OF
HOMES; SHOT BY
GERMAN TROOPS
Devastation of Liege and Namur
Described by TagebIatt

Berlin, Sept. 26.-The following de-
scriptions of the devastation at Liege
and Namur are translated from ac-
counts in the Tageblatt
I'VE reached Licge on the evening
streets where the smoke OF burned
houses was still curling upward.
streets that showed no signs of life.
Patrols marched through the city.
The beautiful shops across from the
university were Il field of ruins. | was
told that two nights before, on August
2lst, shots came from these shops AZ
If by prearrangement. The inhabitants
OF the houses were dra aged ont, the
| women were torn from the men. and
whoever had n weapon In his hands
was shot In few minutes the streets
was sown with cOrpses. The houses
were set on fire.
Many In Forts Killed.
Eye witnesses described for me the
details of the conquest of Liege. Lou
Gin the strongest fort, was bombarded
by the newest Krupp guns, which were
stationed in the market place, in the
middle of the city. Every window pane
in the vicinity was broken by the con-
cussion, and pieces of roof fell from
some of the houses. The fort soon
surrendered a division of Jaeger were
the first men to enter the fort The
destruction was terrible. About 400
corpses lay piled inside the stone walls.
The stencil was unbearablc. About 200
wounded were counted. The only man
uninjured was the commandant. a
wounded man, who evidently was
about to be operated on, lay in the
lazarett. He had been killed by shell. |
Liege had altogether thirteen forts |
Nine were taken by infantry storm,
the others were reduced by artillery. !
The forts are being repaired for Ger
man use by the inhabitants OF the city, |
who get six francs n day for their |
work.
liege Set on Fire.
"A German, who had lain in Bel |
gian fort as prisoner and witnessed the |
whole bombardment, described the
course of the battle. The lombard
ment. he said, began at midnight on
August 9Th. one shell after another
exploded, and Liege was soon afire in
many places. From every roof and
window in the houses came a rain of
bullets. Under this fire the Germans
stormed through the village Of Ron
court and deployed in a wheat field.
Two hundred Germans opened rapid
fire on 1000 Belgians, of whom 500
fell Nineteen German prisoners were
confined i'm cellar when the Germans
heavy artillery began firing. They
could hear the shells coming through
the air. and every time they exploded
gas. jowder, earth and cement dust
flew into the cellar until the men were
nearly suffocated Finally an explo-
sion blew i'm the iron door of the cell
lar and shortly thereafter the Bel
gians surrendered. freeing the prison
ers.
Great Damage In Namur.
con the following morning ! went to
Namur. In Liege certain streets had
been burned out, but i'm Namur whole
blocks were destroyed. The Grand
Palace. with it's beautiful Rathaus. had
been blotted out of existence. In It's
place were heaps of ruins, from which
smoke was still coming. The destruc-
tive effect of grenades could he noted
on many houses. The city was with
out bread. German patrols were guard
ing the bakeries. which were being
stormed by the people. BY o'clock in
the afternoon even the largest hotels
had no provisions of any kind left. our
troops were fed from the vast quanti-
ties of food stored in the forts. In the;
city there was a shortage of every
thing, especially potatoes and salt.
I'm the afternoon we went on to
Gembloux. The famine was still worse
there. The soldiers declared that they
had been unable to get bread or beer
from the people for fourteen days" 4