irst few days of the invasion every possible precaution
had been taken by the Belgian authorities, by way of placards and
handbills, to warn the civilian population not to intervene in
hostilities. Throughout Belgium steps had been taken to secure the
handing over of all firearms in the possession of civilians before the
German Army arrived. These steps were sometimes taken by the police and
sometimes by the military authorities.

The invaders appear to have proceeded upon the theory that any chance
shot coming from an unexpected place was fired by civilians. One
favorite form of this allegation was that priests had fired from the
church tower. In many instances the soldiers of the allied armies used
church towers and private houses as cover for their operations. At
Aerschot, where the Belgian soldiers were stationed in the church tower
and fired upon the Germans as they advanced, it was at once alleged by
the Germans when they entered the town, and with difficulty disproved,
that the firing had come from civilians. Thus one elementary error
creeps at once into the German argument, for they were likely to
confound, and did in some instances certainly confound, legitimate
military operations with the hostile intervention of civilians.

Troops belonging to the same army often fire by mistake upon each other.
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.

Th