The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-03-22
ALLEGED GERMAN ATROCITIES
CONTINUED from first page.)


On the25th the hospital at Namur
was set on fire with infammable
pastilles. the pretext being that sol
diers in the hospital had fired upon
the Germans.
At Denee, on the 28th OF August,
a Belgian soldier who had been TAX
en- prisoner saw three civilian fell
1ow-prisoners shot One was a Grip
pie and another an old man of
eighty who was paralyzed. 1t was
alleged by two German soldiers that
these men had shot at them with
rifles. Neither Of them had a rifle,
nor had they anything in their
pockets. The witness actually saw
the Germans search them and moth
ing was found.
CHARLEROI DISTRICT
In Tamines, large village on the
Mouse between Namur and Char
leroi, the advance guard of the Ger
man Army appeared in the first
fortnight in August, and in this as
well as in other villages in the dis
trict, it is proved that a large num-
Der of civilians, among them aged
people, women, and children, were
deliberately killed by the soldiers.
One witness describes how she saw
a Belgian boy of fifteen shot on the
village green at Tamines, and day
or two later on the same green a
little girl and her two brothers
(name given), who were looking at
the German soldiers, were killed be-
fore her eyes for no apparent reason.
The principal massacre at Tamines
took place about Aug. %. A witness
describes how he saw the public
square Uttered with corpses, and
after search found those of his
wife and child, little girl of seven.
Another witness, who lived near
Tamines, went there on Aug. 27,
and says at is absolutely destroy
ed ana mass OF ruins.
At Morlanwelz, about this time,
the British Army, together with
some French cavalry, were compelled
to retire before the German troops.
The latter took the Burgomaster and
his man servant prisoners and shot
them both in front of the Hotel de
Willie at Peronne (Belgium), where
the bodies were left in the street
for forty-eight hours. They burned
the Hotel de Vile and sixty-two
houses. The usual accusation of fir
ing by civilians was made. 1t is siren
uously denied by the witness, who
declares that three or four days be-
fore the arrival of the Germans, cir
culars had been distributed to every
house and placards had been posted
in the town ordering the deposit of
all fire arms at the Hotel de Vile
and that this order had been COM
piled with.
At on the
21st of August, young man of
eighteen was shot in the garden.
His father and brother were seized in
their house and shot in the court
yard of a neighboring country house.
The son was shot first. The father
was compelled to stand close to the
feet of his sons corpse and to fix
his eyes upon him while he himself
was shot. The corpse of the young
man shot in the garden was carried
into the house and put on bed.
The next morning the Germans ask
ed where the corpse was. When
they found it was in the house, they
fetched straw, packed it around the
bed on which the corpse was lying,
and set fire to it and burned the
house down. A great many houses
were burned in Monceau.
A vivid picture of the events at
Montigny-sur-Sambre has been given
by a witness of high standing who |
had exceptional opportunities of OBJ
servation In the early morning of |
Saturday, Aug. %, Uhlans reached |
Montign. They French Army was
about four kilometers away, but on
a hill near the village were a de-
tachra ent of French, about $50 to
200 strong, lying in ambush. At
about 1880 o'clock the main body of
the German Army began to arrive.
with them were two
groups of so-called hostages, about
400 in all. OF these, 800 wore sur
rounded with a rope held by the
front, rear, and outside men. The
French troops in ambush opened fire,
and Immediately the Germans COM
menced to destroy the town. In
cendiaries with distinctive badge
on their arm went down main street
throwing handfuls of inf1ammatory
and explosive Dastilles into the
houses. These pastilles were car
ried by them in bags, and In this
way about 100 houses were destroy
ed in the main street. BY 1880 p.