l and high-explosive 15-c.m. shells from the German heavy
position-batteries of howitzers, which weapons the Germans prefer for such
work, although they also use guns of the same calibre, are seen bursting
in front of the French troops.
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46--THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, NOV. 18, 1914.
[Illustration: HOME AFTER A GERMAN VISITATION: A ROOM IN A HOUSE AT
NIEUPORT AFTER A SHELL HAD BURST.]
Nieuport has been badly damaged by the German bombardment, and it is said
that half the houses in it appear to have been struck by shells, yet that
it has not been so utterly ruined as some of the surrounding villages. The
worst loss as regards buildings at Nieuport has been the destruction of
the church, which, as many photographs show well, has been almost
completely demolished. It was a fine specimen of one of the few stone
churches found in that part of the country, with twelfth-century Gothic
windows. The walls and pillars stand bare, the roof has gone, and half the
tower, whose bells lie buried on the ground amid the wreckage. Desultory
fighting continued at Nieuport after the main German attack shifted south
to Ypres.--[Photo. by C.N.]
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THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, NOV. 18, 1914--47
[Illustration: WHAT IT MEANS TO VILLAGERS TO HAVE GERMANS BILLETED UPON
THEM: MOTOR-CORPS OFFICERS ASLEEP IN A COTTAGE.]
The inhabitants of those parts of France and Belgium which are still
groaning under the German incubus are greatly to be pitied. Beyond the
terrible agony inflicted by the invaders upon defenceless populations, in
the form of executions and house-burnings and various forms of outrage,
there is a great mass of less drastic but still intolerable misery to be
borne by those unfortunate householders who are compelled to house and
feed the soldiers of the enemy. Some idea of the nature of the infliction
to which they are subjected can be gathered from such a drawing as that
here reproduced. It shows some officers of the motor-corps of the
Nineteenth German Army Corps asleep in a house upon which they have been
billeted. The drawing is by a German artist.
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48--THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, NOV. 18, 1914.
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