That the German Army was no exception to this rule is proved not only by
many Belgian witnesses, but by the most irrefragable kind of
evidence--the admission of German soldiers themselves, recorded in their
war diaries. Thus Otto Clepp, Second Company of the Reserve, says, under
date of Aug. 22: "Three A.M. Two infantry regiments shot at each
other--9 dead and 50 wounded--fault not yet ascertained." In this
connection the diaries of Kurt Hoffman and a soldier of the 112th
Regiment, (Diary No. 14,) will repay study. In such cases the obvious
interest of the soldier is to conceal his mistake, and a convenient
method of doing so is to raise the cry of "francs-tireurs!"
Doubtless the German soldiers often believed that the civilian
population, naturally hostile, had, in fact, attacked them. This
attitude of mind may have been fostered by the German authorities
themselves before the troops passed the frontier, and thereafter stories
of alleged atrocities committed by Belgians upon Germans, such as the
myth referred to in one of the diaries relating to Liege, were
circulated among the troops and roused their anger.
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