a Boche column to protect it from being enfiladed.  Near Malines, six German soldiers who were taking with them five young girls, on meeting a Belgian patrol, placed the girls all round them to prevent the enemy from firing.  At Jodoigne they put a Cure in front of them and made him walk with his arms folded, and they did the same at Hougaerde to another Cure who was killed.  A similar fate befell several civilians at Mons. At Senlis, our men were firing to cover our retreat, and the Germans took some inhabitants out of the houses and made them walk in the middle of the streets while they themselves kept along by the walls.  Many of these unfortunate people were killed.  “In numerous places,” says the Belgian Commission of Enquiry, “the Germans made civilians—­men and women—­walk in front of them.”  In this way a German column passed through Marchienne, pushing ahead of them a body of several hundred civilians.  They took the road for Montigny-le-Tilleul, where the first important battle with the French forces took place.  At Sempst, during the fighting on the 25th August, men and women were placed in the front rank of the firing line.  At Erpe, on the 12th September, a German column, attacked by a Belgian motor-machine-gun, took out of the houses twenty to twenty-five men and young people (including a child of thirteen), and made them walk in front in the middle of the road.  The machine-gunners, seeing civilians in front of them, ceased firing.  At Alost, a German company attacked the bridge.  In front marched some thirty civilians with a machine-gun hidden behind them.  At Nimy, with the butt-ends of their rifles, they drove in front of them 500 men, women and children towards the English, who in consequence dared not fire; and in this way the 84th and 85th Schleswig Regiments were able to continue their heroic march as far as Maubeuge.

When their adversary cannot actually see the human shield that they are using, they send a warning.  On the 7th September, 1914, the Death’s Head Hussars shut up all the inhabitants of the village with them in the Chateau of Saint Ouen-sur-Morin, and then, to avoid being shelled, informed the English of their “dispositions.”  They fired on anyone who tried to escape.  At Mouzon, we saw a number of civilians being pushed in front of the enemy with the butt-ends of rifles, and we stopped firing.  The wretched people moved suddenly to one side of the road, uncovering the Germans, and then we fired.  The Boches, furious, fired their first volley not at us, but point blank at these non-combatants, who were decimated.

The cowards chiefly used civilians as shields, but sometimes they also made use of prisoners.  At Keyem, they pushed one hundred Belgian soldiers in front of them, some with their hands tied, and others with their arms in the air.  At Dixmude, they advanced under the shelter of forty disarmed marines who had been taken prisoners.  When they got in front of our lines our marines shouted, “For God’s sake fire, these are Germans,” and these heroes fell gloriously under the French bullets.  Such deeds are countless.