Evening journal., 1918-02-21

them myself There were about s or 9
altogether. some had been shot from
behind others bayoneted. One man had
been bayoneied In the chest. This man
was butcher He was hatless
and bootless, and appeared 10 have
been brought straight from his house
The bayonet wounds had evidently been
made with saw-edged bayonets, judging
from The character OF the wounds
which I saw
After they had taken Alost. the Ger
mans advanced on Erpe. driving 25 in
habitants OF Alost In front Of them as
Q screen At Erpe the Belgian Army
made a stand. q number Of the men in
the screen were killed: and the Ger
mans set fire to houses in Erpe itself,
and shot the male inmates as they ran
into tho street.
GD Across the scheldl.
Thus by the beginning Of October the
Germans had made ready for the as
sault on Antwerp. which they delivered
during the FIRST two weeks Of tha'
month No exact figures are yet avail
oblo OF The enormous loss Of propcrt,
and destruction of life which accom-
panied the siege, whether through dc
liberate murder and lncendlarism or as
a result OF the bomhardment But it is
tablshed that. in The ACCOMPLISHMENT
Of Antwerp as a whole. without count
ing the city, 3ii houses were vantOnll
burnt down, and there is evidence that
women and children were murdered
and used as screens at a number o.
places between the lines from which
the Germans advanced ana the zone o.
the Antwerp forts
Similar ouirqges were committed In
the regions Of Belgian and French
Flanders across the Scheldt, which the
Germans oycrran in the latter half o.
october, when the fall Of Antwerp had
opened the way
Near Lokeren, the German troops
drove 20 civilians in front Of them as
a screcn-ihcro. were women with
babies in their arms among the number
They used civilian screens again az
Quairechl and Melle. At Melle a Ger
man broke into a room where a womai
OF so was lying IN In bed, and struC
her on the chest with his rlne-huil
others surrounded a woman and stabbed
a child In her arms. Near Harlebekc
they shot a boy and q young man nea
"a lNANAf lnAhl"liNA0tf nll ANlUtu lNt
house TO the ground They used civil
llans as a screen at Nazareth and Thieli
and Roulers. They massacred % civil
lians at Staden AZ Dadizeele they
burned houses and shot civilians as
franc-tircurs At Zonnebebe. during the
lighting east of Npres. British soldiers
found a corpse lying in the pig-stye Of
a farm with bayonet wounds in the
lomach, and in a room upstairs the
corpsos. Of two little grls--about six
and eight years old-both shot through
the head
There were outrages Of this kind
throughout The Npres district for the
Germans, when they encountered mill
tary resistance, Invariably took their
revenge on the civilian population. In
one place tho corpscs were found OF 2
boys and a girl. between seven and
twelve years old; IN another tho corpses
of a woman and i2-monihs-old baby
both their ihrOais We're cut. and the
bed ON which they were lying was
soaked in blood
The hloodshed was varied by sexual
besiialiiy. AZ Wyischaetc for example,
whore there is 20 evidence Of massacre,
most of the women 10 the Village were
raped hy Dhlan patrols, 40 Locre
woman was raped when she was on
The point Of giving birth 10 q child. At
Banleul. on the French side OF the