Poem ~ Children and Canadians Crucified - Thursday, 13 May 1915

Impression sketch of alleged Crucified Canadian - by Jamie. The original can be seen at: https://shrineodreams.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/crux_cur.jpg

The House of Commons was to hear,

Questions by the Under Secretary

Of State for War - to be by Mr Houston.

This was to address the fate of three

Canadian soldiers, who had been

Captured by Germans, to be crucified.

It was alleged that by use of bayonets,

Germans nailed them to a structure -

Mr Tennant had no confirmation of this.

Mr Houston later said he had spoken

With one man, who had gained words

Of a dying office who witnessed this.

Murders of children also occurred -

At a farmhouse at Haecht - by hands

And feet a child no more than three,

Found nailed to a door - in garden

Was found a girl's body – having

Had been shot in the forehead.

Further shocking reports came in,

To say two children found in a cart,

At Capelle-au-Bois, were murdered.

Then at Eppeghen discovery of how

A child, aged two, had a German

Lance pinning them to the ground.

Yet to be confirmed, Louvain events 

Leading to vile massacred civilian
Attacks and the town partially burnt.

An enquiry was to see those taken

And killed had made wrongful acts,

Or if it was deliberate enemy policy.

Captured German diaries showed

Their armies disregard for Belgian

Civilians moved through Duisburg.

Along with the Oberburgomaster,

Civilians were subjected to martial

Law and 80 were accordingly shot.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Crucifixion of Canadians. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 13 May. P.9. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11593230/Daily-Telegraph-May-13-1915.html [Accessed: 13 May 2015].

Anon.,1915. Child Nailed to a Door. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 13 May. P.11. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11593230/Daily-Telegraph-May-13-1915.html [Accessed: 13 May 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 13 May 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11593230/Daily-Telegraph-May-13-1915.html

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