World War I began on July 28, 1914. By September of that same year, the streets were already thick with bodies of the dead.
Below is an article describing the brutal scene in Charleroi, Belgium.
Streets Filled With Bodies of the Slain
LONDON — The Times correspondent, describing the fighting in and about Charleroi, says:
Already Charleroi has been captured and recaptured five times and its streets are filled with slain.
French infantrymen, in describing the ferocious street fighting, declaring the roads so jammed with dead that those killed remained standing up where they were shot, resting on their dead brothers.
The first shell that crashed through the railway station roof on Saturday was the beginning of a well-nourished bombardment.
The French troops made what amounted to a medieval sortie, but finding the enemy in much greater force than was expected were compelled to withdraw, and the bombardment continued relentlessly.
When the Turcos (French-African troops), with legendary bravery, debouched from the town with gallantry, which must surely live in history, they actually charged a German battery, bayoneting the gunners. Their losses, it is feared, exceeded those of the light brigade at Balaklava, for out of a battalion of 500 Africans only 100 returned unscathed.
Germans Keep on Advance
Their bravery was, however, powerless against the German advance, which crept foot through the outskirts of the town to the heart of Charleroi.
There, in the narrow streets of the town, the carnage was almost indescribable. Before the railway station, in front of which passes the canal, for two hours the Germans fought for the bridge.
Once they had captured it, after a heavy loss, the Germans gained ground all along the line, mastering successively the village of Marchiennes, Landelis and Montignies, and the country nearly as far as Walcourt.
French Fire on City
Later in the day the French artillery in its turn opened fire upon the stricken town of Charleroi. the Germans in the earlier stages of the engagement had poured their shells upon the upper town. The French artillery now turned its hall of shells upon the lower portion of the city.
Under the supporting fire of their artillery the French infantry advanced slowly in the face of stubborn resistance upon the town they had just evacuated. They retook several villages and became once again masters.
The last stand of the French was along the line between Thuin and Mettet. Both sides were completely worn out. The next morning (Monday) before dawn the French artillery again bombarded Charleroi. Once more the indefatigable troops of France swarmed down the slope toward the lower town, recapturing the villages of Chatlet, Chatlet-Inou, Bouffroix, Marchiennes and Couillet.
Source: The Hays free press. (Hays, Kan.), 12 Sept. 1914.
