The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-03-29
AERSCHoT, MALINES, vILv0RDE,
AND LOUvAIN QUADRANGLE.

cavalry masking the general advanc
of the First and Second German
Armies was thrown forward into tn
provinces of Brabant and Limbure
The progress of the invaders wa
contested at several points, probabl,
near Tirlemont on the Louvain road
and at Diest Haelen, and Schaffen
on the Aerschot road, by detach
ments of the main Belgian Army
which was drawn up upon the lin
of the Dyle. In their preliminar.
skirmishes the Belgians more thai
once gained advantages, but afte
the fall on Aug. Is of the last o
the Liege forts the great line o
railway which runs thru Liege to
ward Brussels and Antwerp in ont
direction and toward Namur and thu
French frontier in another fell in
to the hands of the Germans. From
this moment the advance of the MAR
army was swift and irresistible. On
Aug. 10 Louvain and Aerschot were
occupied by the Germans, the former
without resistance, the latter after 9
struggle which resulted early in the
day in the retirement of the Belgian
Army upon Antwerp. On Aug. 20
the invaders made their entry into
Brussels.
The quadrangle of territory bound
ed by the towns of Aerschot, Malines
Vilvorde, and Louvain is rich agri-
cultural tract, studded with small
villages and comprising two con-
siderable cities, Louvain and Ma
lines. The district on Aug. 10 pass
ed into the hands of tho Germans
and owing perhaps to its proximity
to Antwerp, then the seat of the
Belgian Government and headquar-
tiers of the Belgian Army, it became
from that date scene of chronic
outrage, with respect to which the
committee has received great mass
of evidence.
The witnesses to these occurrences
are for the most part imperfectly
educated persons who cannot give
accurate dates, so 1t is impossible in
some cases to fix the dates of par
ticular crimes; and the total number
OF outrages is SO great that we can
not refer to all of them In the body
of the report or give all the deposit
tions relating to them in the ap-
pendix. The main events, however
are abundantly clear, and group
themselves naturally around three
dates-Aug. 10, Aug. 25, and Sept
IL.
The arrival of the Germans in the
district on Aug. 10 was marked by
systematic massacres and other out
RACES at Aerschot itself, Gelrode, and
some other villages.
On Aug. rs the Belgians, sallying
out of the defenses of Antwerp, at
AnOhCu IhC OOAud pOolCiOuo a. hd-
lines, drove the enemy from the
town, and reoccupied many of the
villages, such as Sempst, Hofstade
and Eppeghem, in the noighborhood
And, just as numerous outrages
against the civilian population had
been the immediate consequence OF
the temporary repulse OF the Ger
man vanguard from Fort Fleron, SC
a large body of dispositions testify tc
the fact that a sudden outburst OF
cruelty was the response of the Ger
man Army to the Belgian victory al
Malines. The advance of the Ger
man Army to the Dyle had been &C.
companied by reprehensible, and, in.
deed lin certain cases), terrible out
RACES, but these had been, it would
appear, isolated acts, some of which
are attributed by witnesses to in.
dignation at the check at Haelen
while others may have been the con.
S6QutuCc VI uAhChAGOos DuI LhS
battle of Malines had results of 9
different order. In the first place
it was the occasion of numerous
murders committed by the German
Army in retreating thru the villages
of Sempst, Hofstade, Eppeghem
Elewyt, and elsewhere. In the sec.
ond place, it led, as it will be shown
later, to the massacres, plunderings
and burnings at Louvain, the signal
for which was provided by shots ex'
changed between the German Army
retreating after its repulse at Ma.
lines and some members Of the Ger.
man garrison of Louvain who mis-
took their fellow-countrymen fol-
Belgians. Lastly, the encounter al
Malines seems to have stung the Ger.
mans into establishing q reign q
terror in SO much Of the district