August 28, 1914 Heavy fighting raged on three fronts in Europe. In East Prussia, the Battle of Tannenberg entered its third or fourth day (depending on who was counting), as German forces gradually encircle the Russian First Army. The desperate Russian commander, General Samsanov, rides to the front to direct the battle personally. In Ukraine, the Battle of Komarow continues, along with other scattered fighting across Galicia. The French army does some restructuring, and orders a strong force under General Foch to dig in along the Marne River. On the same day, Foch learns that both his son-in-law and his only son were both killed in recent days in the fighting near the Meuse River. At the ancient university town of Louvain in Belgium, a delegation of international observers, including members of the Swedish, Mexican, and American diplomatic staff in Belgium, arrives after three days of brutal behavior by German troops towards Belgian civilians, which culminated in the Germans expelling the towns entire population and forcing the refugees to walk towards France. In one of the first modern examples of worldwide exposure of what would today be called war crimes, the shocked diplomats behold whole neighborhoods systematically burnt down, town officials and civilians murdered and lying in the streets, and the immense and ancient library of the Catholic University of Louvain and its thousands of irreplaceable ancient and medieval manuscripts, burnt to the ground with firebombs. German atrocities towards Belgian civilians, the subject of a misguided attempt to pacify through massive retaliation, had already become a worldwide controversy and had virtually eviscerated the Kaisers attempts to win allies outside of his existing prewar clients in Vienna, Istanbul, and Rome. The French and British press, meanwhile, would make endless hay with the Rape of Belgium for years to come. The ruins of the Catholic University of Louvains library: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Louvain_Library_WWI.jpg
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:59:15 +0000
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