Wwi Atrocities And Pr

[Mikel2]

Don't want to derail the very interesting WWI threads.

Here is one to discuss the real and invented atrocities of WWI.

 

How many Belgians did the Germans kill in their anti-franc-tireur reprisals? Didn't they do something similar during the Franco-Prussian war?

[T-44]

I'll check some books for exact figures when I get home, but in total it did for certain amount to the low thousands in total (with some famous 'individual' cases, like the city of Dinant, already amounting to 674 victims).

The franc-tireur myth is just that: a myth. There where propably almost no cases of real franc-tireurs, and if German troops had been shot at in cities it was probably by friendly fire or remnants of the regular Belgian army. That is not to say that German soldiers were not wary of franc-tireurs (indeed inspired by the 1870 war, although there as well the franc-tireurs had been blown out of proportion), which probably in part accounted for the atrocities (mass hysteria etc.). But in some cases, the massacres and violence seem to have been premeditated, a sort of 'shock and awe', and reprisals also happened when the Belgian Army slowed down the German advance in the Liège neighbourhood (remembeer, Germany had largely excepted that Belgium would let them pass or only put up a symbolic defence, lik the Grand-duchy of Luxembourg did in fact - they did not take lightly the fact that the Belgian Army put up an actual - even if not successful - fight).

 

That's not to say that all those stories of raped nuns, decapitated babies etc.are true: the massacres were exploited and exagerated in British press and propaganda, while the German side started its own campaign to dismiss or diminish the actual facts (that dìd include the execution of women and children, by the way)

[BillB]

Don't want to derail the very interesting WWI threads.

Here is one to discuss the real and invented atrocities of WWI.

 

How many Belgians did the Germans kill in their anti-franc-tireur reprisals? Didn't they do something similar during the Franco-Prussian war?

As I cited in the other thread, 6,000 dead civvies, 25,000 assorted buildings destroyed and 1.5 million Belgian civvies displaced, equivalent to twenty per cent of the overall Belgian population. Have a look at the Wiki page, it's quite detailed and has good footnotes & bibliography: http://en.wikipedia....Rape_of_Belgium

@ T-44 - good post FWIW, look forward to what you come up with.

BillB

[Guest Jason L]

Whether or not the nun story is true, there certainly was plenty of rape.