Читать книгу Craven's Part in the Great War - John T. Clayton - Страница 14

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One of the outstanding features of the war was the ruthlessness which marked German methods throughout. In the invasion of Belgium and Northern France no measure was too base to adopt in order that the spirit of the invaded countries might be broken. Looting on the part of officers and men was officially recognised, as also was the wholesale destruction of property, machinery and valuable works of art.

Later, the barbarity of the Hun method was demonstrated by the submarine campaign, in the course of which defenceless merchant and passenger vessels, and even hospital ships were “sunk at sight” and the survivors either shot or left to drown. German warships also bombarded such “fortified” places as Scarborough, Whitby, Lowestoft and Margate; while their Zeppelins, and subsequently their aeroplanes, visited England again and again, causing many casualties—a large proportion of them women and children—in a vain endeavour to create panic in this country.

Other methods by which the Germans revealed their inhumanity in warfare included the abominable treatment of prisoners of war; the deportation of thousands of the civilian population of France and Belgium to serve as slaves behind the German lines; and the execution of Nurse Cavell and Capt. Fryatt.