Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914

13. Explanations

CHAPTER 13 Explanations FRANC-TIREURS? Were German soldiers responding, albeit harshly, to attacks by Belgian civilians? The question as to whether or not there were any franc-tireurs had been discussed in the chapter on Liège. To recapitulate briefly, any determination has to rest ultimately on the plausibility of Belgian accounts, as opposed to the claims of the depositions in the German White Book, and readers have already had ample opportunity to compare the two sets of testimony. There is, however, abundant and persuasive circumstantial evidence to support the conclusion that there were no organized franc-tireurs attacks, as the German government claimed. To summarize some of the more important evidence, there is: 1. the matter of timing Until the appearance of the luckless Gemmenich gendarmes in Visé, the first German troops to reach the Meuse were unopposed on the first day of the war. No civilian sharpshooters felled the cavalrymen leading the invasion. Yet if Belgian citizens had been sufficiently enraged by the violation of their territory to attack the aggressor, the uhlan patrols, the cyclists, and the infantry scouts would have made inviting targets. And if there had been a guerilla uprising planned and coordinated by the government, a key objective would have been to disrupt the German spearheads before they could probe the Meuse defenses. Yet the invaders observed no traces of guerilla activity the opening day, along the crucial northern route or any of the other three. While there were occasional random shootings of civilians on the 4th , in general the German troops behaved correctly in almost all the towns and villages they passed through. The conciliatory proclamation of von Emmich was distributed and read. It was still hoped by authorities that the Belgians would offer only token resistance. It was only after German setbacks in front of the Liège forts the following day, the 5th , that civilians were butchered en masse. Then, after the savage slaughter of civilians in the Melen-Soumagne- 544 CHAPTER 13 Olne crescent on the 6th and 7th , following heavy German losses, the killing virtually ceased between the 9th and the 14th . As mentioned, the hiatus coincided with a second sugary communique urging the Belgian government to cooperated with the invaders. After this was rejected, the terror campaign was renewed. Then, once again, after Leuven, the practice of mass executions was halted – this time, in Belgium, for good. (By no means did terrorism entirely cease, however. Aalst, Dendermonde, and other towns in Flanders suffered grievously in September, as did Lier in Brabant.) While, again, there is no evidence of specific orders to this effect, acute officials in the German Foreign Ministry, and, especially, on the staff of General von Lüttwitz in Brussels (Major von Herwaerts and Baron von der Lancken, among others), if not embarrassed themselves by the events, had the sagacity to recognize the horrendous impression German depredations were making on public opinion in neutral countries.¹ As soon as the killings were halted, the propaganda campaign commenced, beginning with the Kaiser’s telegram to Wilson. Executions, then, appear to have been carried out not because there were franc-tireurs, but according to the exigencies of the campaign. 2. the matter of logic The behavior of the Belgian franc-tireurs, as depicted by witness after witness in the White Book, defies belief. Unlike their counterparts in other times and places, they seldom ambushed troops from concealed positions in woods or ravines or from behind hedges. Their modus op­ erandi, stubbornly adhered to despite its obvious disadvantages, was to shoot down on large bodies of German troops from their homes. Even in Dinant, with the Citadel at their disposal, the franc-tireurs apparently preferred to fire on the invaders from the comfort of their living rooms. But when their homes were broken into, the reckless desperados never fired on the Germans, let alone held out to the last man. In town after town, seemingly oblivious to the lethal consequences of being caught, they meekly walked out of their homes, hands held high. Some Germans, including even von Manteuffel, were astute enough to recognize the implausibility of this scenario, and instead claimed that Belgian soldiers disguised as civilians had forced their way into homes Explanations 545 and fired on soldiers. Needless to say, the notion that residents would quietly submit to this, and then breathe not a word about it subsequently, is hardly more plausible than that they...