The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-12-10
TRAIL OF ATROC|TY ON EUROPEAN
BATTLEF|EL.DS DIFFICULT To TRACE
War Correspondent Hears Plenty of Cruel Stories but Gets Little
ProOt-Mstake Made of Blaming Country for Acts of
Possibly Criminal Individual - Each Nation Makes
Accusations Against Enemy.

out and tongue torn out by the roots.
Can you hear me?" he said to the
observer. Il am going to shoot you'll"
The mutilated man barely nodded,
and the other held his revolver to his
friends head and put him out of his
misery.
Il staggered away" he said, in tell
ing of this experience, "and if l had
found any civilian crossing my path
| should not have been content to kill,
Should have tortured him to death"
Charges Against the English.
There are comparatively few stories
of atrocities tolo against the French.
There have been isolated cases of
franc.tireurism and cases of the
French firing on the Red Cross and
destroying food, even cases of the
French plundering their own villages.
But these stories, were they all true,
would not make in bulk anything like
the stories told against the English.
Everywhere in the German army there
is a deep respect for the French and
their gallant and civilized fight. Such
a feeling, however, is not felt for the
English.
The story / heard most often re-
peated about the English was that
they had given the sign of surrender,
and then, when the Germans ad-
vanced, had fired upon them. l have
heard several versions of this story,
generally from intelligent. cool-mind-
ed officers who seemed to know what
they were talking about. The last
time heard the story was in Frank.
fort-on-the-Main from personal
friend who had just come from gen.
eral headquarters to which he is as
signed. The English, he said, had
given the sign of surrender, their off,
GERS standing at the edge of the
trenches, hands raised. The Germans
advanced, and when they came quite
close up they were met by deadly
fire from English troops firing from
between the officers legs.
$50 now there is no more quarter
being given English soldiers" he
ended.
Some English Ingenuity.
Another story about the English
which has the authority of a German
army officer who witnessed 1t is the
following:
In a small engagement in France
the Germans were facing the English
and were suffering from artillery fire
of a rather uncanny nature. In the
first place, the location of the enc
my's artillery was a mystery, and no
reason could be found for its deadly
accuracy. Before long the artillery
was disclosed II was in a large
building flying the Red Cross flag and
was firing from the windows of this
hospital" Later it was found that
an English officer was in che town
where the Germans had their head
quarters, and had walled himself in
the cellar. Here he communicated
with the outer world through an air.
shaft, where the village priest gave
him observations about the accuracy
of the English artillery. which he then
telephoned to the hospital"
With the army corps where had
the privilege of minglfng freely with
soldiers behind the lines ] heard in
Vulnerable stories about the English
firing on the Red Cross. 1t was so
terrific, this inhrman battle, that dur
ing the early days Of the trench
fighting, / was told, Germans were
forced to lie in their trenches for As
hours with the dead and their dying
comrades about them. No Red Cross
assistance could be brought because
the enemy ruthlessly shot down any
one coming with relief.
"No More English Prisoners"
These stories were always conclud-
ed by the statement, always signifi-
cantly added, that now no more Eng
glish are being taken prisoners"
tried to find out just what truth there
was in this of: repeated statement,
and, while / found it believed every.
where, / could never run across an
officer in whose particular corps or
regiment this order had been given.
1t was always in the next corps" or
the next regiment" Finally an off,