Massacre at Dinant. The Battle of Dinant was an engagement fought by French and German forces in and around the Belgian town of Dinant in the First World War, during the German invasion of Belgium.
The French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force advanced into Belgium and fought the Battle of Charleroi and Battle of Mons from the Meuse crossings in the east, to Mons in the west. On 15 August 1914, German troops captured the Citadel of Dinant which overlooked the town; the citadel was recaptured by a French counter-attack during the afternoon.
French troops spent the next few days fortifying the Meuse crossings and exchanging fire with German troops on the east bank. A German raiding-party drove into Dinant on the night of but the attack degenerated into a fiasco, in which Germans may have fired at each other.
Rather than assume that the small-arms fire had come from the French on the west bank, the Germans blamed Belgian civilians, killing seven and burning down 15 to 20 houses in reprisal. The raiders ran away, with and On 23 August, the Germans attacked Dinant again, under the impression that the town was full of francs-tireurs and massacred Belgian civilians, while fighting the French, who were dug in along the west bank and on the east end of the bridge.
The massacre was a systematic attack on assumed civilian resisters and was the largest German atrocity perpetrated during the invasi
The French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force advanced into Belgium and fought the Battle of Charleroi and Battle of Mons from the Meuse crossings in the east, to Mons in the west. On 15 August 1914, German troops captured the Citadel of Dinant which overlooked the town; the citadel was recaptured by a French counter-attack during the afternoon.
French troops spent the next few days fortifying the Meuse crossings and exchanging fire with German troops on the east bank. A German raiding-party drove into Dinant on the night of but the attack degenerated into a fiasco, in which Germans may have fired at each other.
Rather than assume that the small-arms fire had come from the French on the west bank, the Germans blamed Belgian civilians, killing seven and burning down 15 to 20 houses in reprisal. The raiders ran away, with and On 23 August, the Germans attacked Dinant again, under the impression that the town was full of francs-tireurs and massacred Belgian civilians, while fighting the French, who were dug in along the west bank and on the east end of the bridge.
The massacre was a systematic attack on assumed civilian resisters and was the largest German atrocity perpetrated during the invasi
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