Rehearsals: The German Army in Belgium, August 1914

3. Aarschot

CHAPTER 3 Aarschot “A VERY KINDLY, GOOD MAN” The Germans approached Aarschot very early on the morning of August 19. At 5:30 a.m., their artillery began bombarding Belgian positions east of the town. The 9th Regiment of the 3rd Division was not attempting to hold Aarschot, but was covering the Army’s retreat to the Antwerp forts. The regiment was outnumbered by about five to one. Before the final assault that carried them into the town, the Germans, according to Captain Georges Gilson, commanding the 4th Company of the regiment’s 1st Battalion, drove before them four young women, each holding in her arms a child, along with two little girls. The Belgians ceased firing, but the German machine-guns rattled away. Only one of the women was wounded.¹ At about 8:00 a.m., the Belgian forces began pulling back. Some soldiers skirted the town; most retreated through it.² There was some sporadic firing from behind buildings.³ Belgian troops may even have fired their rifles at a passing plane from the church bell tower, and possibly on advancing troops, ⁴ though no German witness makes this potentially damning allegation.⁵ (In Schaffen, outside Diest, German troops murdered twenty-three and burned the town to the ground after being strafed by machine-gun fire from Belgian troops in the church steeple.)⁶ At least one witness had an even more incendiary story. A Belgian soldier dressed in civilian clothes fired on the Germans from a house in Mechelsestraat,thoughtheciviliandidnothimself witnessthis.⁷Another witness thought that retreating soldiers may have fired from homes, but he, too, did not actually observe this. The Germans, once again, seem not to have been aware of any such incident. When Aarschot’s troubles began that evening, around 7:00 p.m., no accusations were made about franc-tireur activity early in the morning. Bertha Hubert Tielemans, wife of the burgomaster of Aarschot, had attempted to take her children, Louis and Florence, to church at about Aarschot before the war. A notice from Tielemans posted a week before his death urging residents to remain in their homes, to refrain from carrying or, especially, shooting weapons, and to offer the passing troops food and drink. Jozef Tielemans, burgomaster of Aarschot. Aarschot 127 8:00 a.m., but the bullets were still flying in the streets. At about 9:00, some wounded Belgian soldiers limped by, their faces bloodied. Mme. Tielemans flung open one of the windows of the big house on the Grote Markt and asked what was happening. A soldier told her the obvious: “We’re retreating. The Germans are pursuing us.”⁸ Some Belgian soldiers urged the townspeople to flee. The 3rd Division had defended Liège, and had heard graphic accounts of the German operations in Melen, Soumagne, Olne, and elsewhere.⁹ “The Germans entered the village and broke all the doors and windows and stole everything that came into their hands,” one witness recalled .¹⁰ There was widespread looting. Several men unlucky enough to be caught outside were gunned down or bayoneted.¹¹ According to one witness, six men were stabbed to death in a corridor between two houses .¹² Residents were then evicted from their homes on the main streets. During this process, still more civilians were shot. Guillaume Pauwels, a furniture-maker, watched in horror as his brother-in-law was killed as he emerged from Pauwels’ house, just as he’d been ordered to do. The soldiers then shot Pauwels’ uncle, who was seated peaceably in a chair in the front room. The old man was 91.¹³ As usual, a great number of shots were fired at upstairs windows and, for good measure, several houses were set ablaze.¹⁴ Of those evicted from their homes, the men were compelled to march, with hands raised, first to the Grote Markt and then on to the Demer. Some time later, the women and children were ordered to follow . The Germans changed their minds once again, and the women and children were freed.¹⁵ The crowd of somewhere between 1000 and 1200 men waited for nearly three hours. Soldiers amused themselves by telling their captives that everyone would be shot. And an officer passing by at the head of a column shouted “Durch den Kopf schiessen” and spat at the men nearest him.¹⁶ At about 11:00 a.m. the burgomaster, Jozef Tielemans, addressed the crowd. He consulted his notes several times. “Every person among you who has weapons must...