GERMAN BRUTALITY

Taihape Daily Times, 28 December 1918, Page 5

GERMAN BRUTALITY

BRITISH SOLDIERS SLAIN Authentic details of a peculiarly infamous case of German brutality have been received by a London paper. Eleven British soldiers, finding themselves behind enemy lines in France, managed to evade capture for several weeks, by hiding themselves in fields and subsequently taking shelter in a house.

The woman in whose house they found shelted, says she and her husband, knowing the soldiers were hiding in a field took them in and lodged them in an attic. Unfortunately some outsiders knew they were there and a neighbour denounced them to the German commandant at Guise. He sent troops to arrest the soldiers, who gave themselves up immediately without making any resistance. Three days later they were tried. The eleven soldiers and the husband of the woman who had sheltered them were sentenced to death and were executed on the same day. The woman was sentenced to four years at forced labour, her daughter. Ito two years and her son to three years,'while a woman who had given the soldiers some food was sentenced to ten years at forced labour and her daughter to one year. \