The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

160 AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ATROCITIES

the date of August 8/21st, that on August 7th/20th he observed the following conditions in Leshnitza :

The entire town had been sacked. In many houses the windows were smeared with fecal matter. Everything, down to the smallest things, had been carried off. He was convinced that the Austrians had poisoned the wells at the moment of their retreat. Whatever the enemy soldiers could not take away, they destroyed. Grain was soaked in petrol and burnt. Within the church everything was thrown into disorder and wrecked. (I have nowhere received any information which would lead me to believe that the Austrians poisoned the wells before retiring. My enquiry proves that, on the contrary, they feared such action on the part of our population, but they do not seem to have perpetrated this infamy themselves.)

No. 4

Colonel Alexander Petrovitch, Commander of the 6th Infantry Regt., of the 2nd levy, reports under the date of August 8/21st :

According to the depositions taken down in the official reports, all the shops and houses in Leshnitza have been wrecked.

No. 5

General Mikailo Rashitch reports under the date of August 18/26th, that the Austrians have plundered all the shops and private houses in the village of Z'chokeshina. They even wrecked the monastery which is in the vicinity of the village.