The witnesses to these occurrences are for the most part imperfectly
educated persons who cannot give accurate dates, so it is impossible in
some cases to fix the dates of particular crimes; and the total number
of outrages is so great that we cannot refer to all of them in the body
of the report or give all the depositions relating to them in the
appendix. The main events, however, are abundantly clear, and group
themselves naturally around three dates--Aug. 19, Aug. 25, and Sept. 11.
The arrival of the Germans in the district on Aug. 19 was marked by
systematic massacres and other outrages at Aerschot itself, Gelrode, and
some other villages.
On Aug. 25 the Belgians, sallying out of the defenses of Antwerp,
attacked the German positions at Malines, drove the enemy from the town,
and reoccupied many of the villages, such as Sempst, Hofstade, and
Eppeghem, in the neighborhood. And, just as numerous outrages against
the civilian population had been the immediate consequence of the
temporary repulse of the German vanguard from Fort Fleron, so a large
body of depositions testify to the fact that a sudden outburst of
cruelty was the response of the German Army to the Belgian victory at
Malines.
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