He reports a statement made to him by
Lieut. Wengler of the Heavy Artillery, who claims he is the officer who
shelled the cathedral, at which he fired two shots, and "only two."
Wengler says, "The French observer on the cathedral was first noticed on
Sept. 13 ... the fellow continued 'on the job' quite shamelessly until
the 18th, when I aimed two shots at the cathedral and only two. No more
were needed to dislodge him. One from a 15-centimeter howitzer struck
the top of the 'observation tower,' the other, from a 21-centimeter
mortar, hit the roof and set it on fire. I wanted to dislodge the
observer with the least possible damage to the fine old cathedral ...
the French also had a battery placed about 100 yards from the
cathedral."
Editorially THE TIMES says such a statement may prove of "value as
evidence." May I also, as evidence, tell what I saw? I arrived at the
cathedral at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the day Lieut. Wengler says
he fired two shells, one of which hit the observation tower and one of
which set fire to the roof. Up to the hour of 3, howitzer shells had
passed through the southern wall of the cathedral, killing two of the
German wounded inside, had wrecked the Grand Hotel opposite the
cathedral, knocked down four houses immediately facing it, and in a
dozen places torn up immense holes in the cathedral square. Twenty-four
hours after Lieut.
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