International agreements of the late 19th - early 20th centuries secured an unshakable fact: the red cross guarantees the safety of its bearers, that is, persons, institutions and vehicles performing a humanitarian function. Even in the heat of hard battles.
But what did the red cross mean for the Austro-German military?
Sanitary transports under attack
On 14.08.1914, the ambulance lines loaded with wounded Russian soldiers moved to Soldau (East Prussia). The transport arrived in the city - and then the German artillery carefully worked not only along the lines, but also around the house in which the wounded were placed. The blow was struck despite the flags and signs of the Red Cross - available both on vehicles and on the premises. As a result, many of the wounded were killed or seriously injured.
This was the very beginning of the war.
Perhaps it was a mistake, even though the document says about "intensified" artillery fire?
29.08.1914 in local. Trempen (East Prussia) were the dressing posts of the 40th artillery brigade and the 159th infantry regiment. Red Cross flags were mounted on large poles. And the German airplane dropped a bomb - which exploded from these points about 50 paces away. An eyewitness reported that the airplane circled over these points for a long time - and struck them quite deliberately. There were no military units or carts nearby.
Also at the end of August and also in East Prussia (near Eidkunen), an ambulance train with wounded on its way to the Russian border was attacked. The Germans damaged the railway track with hand grenades, and then opened rifle fire on the train - point-blank. An eyewitness (senior non-commissioned officer of the 228th Infantry Regiment) recalled that all the cars had flags and signs of the Red Cross - which the Germans could not help but see. As a result, out of 300 wounded, no more than 30 people were saved - the Germans shot the wounded who were leaving the train, trying to hide in the forest.
A 08.10.1914, an enemy airplane dropped 3 bombs at the station located near the station. "Sambor" (Galicia), a dressing and feeding station of the Red Cross No. 2 and a medical train full of numerous wounded departing from the station. The orderly Malygin was killed by fragments of the bombs, the orderly Tsukerman, doctor Neykirch and 2 sisters of mercy - Sokolskaya and Eremina were wounded. There were no military units nearby; Red Cross flags fluttered on the wagons and buildings. Moreover, the airplane flew at an insignificant height and, before dropping the bombs, circled over the station for a long time.
Forward dressing station vehicle. The emblem of the Red Cross is clearly visible.
On December 3 of the same year, near Lodz (Malchev), the dressing station of the 40th artillery brigade again came under attack - despite the emblems (flags and signs) of the Red Cross. The enemy's light and heavy artillery was firing - and there were no Russian military units nearby either. The intentionality of the enemy's shelling of the sanitary facility was revealed during the withdrawal of the dressing station. The ambulance lines moved over rough terrain - and when they disappeared from the field of view of enemy observers, the artillery fire on them temporarily stopped, in order to resume again as soon as the first transport carrying the Red Cross flag appeared on the hill.
11.03.1915 in the town of Ostrolenka, the 526th mobile field hospital, the Red Cross feeding and dressing station and two ambulance trains were hit by enemy airplanes. In total, the Germans dropped about 100 bombs - from the explosion of which 12 people from the staff of the hospitals were killed and about 20 were injured. And until April 2, German airplanes daily terrorized Russian sanitary facilities in the area. Those who were in localities were bombed especially systematically. Voytsekhovichi used as a hospital barracks of the 32nd infantry regiment, 513th, 526th and 527th mobile field hospitals, Vladivostok and Grodno mobile hospitals.
As noted by eyewitnesses, the airplanes flew at such a height that the pilots dropping bombs could not help but see the emblem of the Red Cross - some of the flags were specially very large, and on the roof of the 527th mobile hospital was laid out an almost 18-meter flag of the Red Cross. But … there were days when German airplanes dropped up to 80 bombs.
A roughly similar episode occurred in August 1916, when the 230th hospital train stationed in Lutsk was bombed by airplanes - as a result, 1 orderly died and 2 were injured.
The enemy soldiers were not embarrassed by the signs of the Red Cross even in direct contact with their bearers. So, on 14.08.1914 in East Prussia in the region of the Masurian Lakes, wounded Russian soldiers, in the amount of about 100 people, were loaded onto 8 sanitary lines - and the transport went to the rear, to the Russian-German border. When the transport, which had installed decals and flags of the Red Cross, was several kilometers from the border, it was suddenly attacked by a German cavalry detachment. 3 German squadrons, jumping up to the transport at a distance of no more than 200 steps, opened fire on it - although they could not help but see the flags of the Red Cross that were protecting the transport. After the end of the shelling, all the wounded survivors, as well as the medical officers accompanying the transport, were captured and sent to Germany, while many of the wounded during the shelling were killed.
Private TN Ivanchikhin, a volunteer of the 3rd Siberian Rifle Regiment, recalled: “From September 23 of last year to November 5, I was on the German front. Skerniewitz, to the regimental dressing point, where the reinforced transport of the wounded began; the Germans, seeing this, began to fire at this point with shrapnel. orderlies, and everyone else who could move fled."
A similar fact was reported by senior non-commissioned officer K. G. Kobrin. According to him, on September 27, 1914, outside Novo-Alexandria (Lublin province), after the battle, the Germans fired at a house in one village where the field hospital was located - as a result, the hospital caught fire and all the wounded died in the fire.
The report of the commander of the 26th Siberian Rifle Regiment to the head of the 7th Siberian Rifle Division of November 11, 1914 contained the following information: “Yesterday and today it was established that the Germans were firing at the orderlies carrying the wounded. So, when yesterday the wounded commander of the 15th company was carried out captain Dobrogorsky the Germans opened fire, killed one orderly, another wounded. The officer who was badly wounded in the region of the heart fell. Today the same story repeated. an orderly and two are injured, despite the fact that all the orderlies are wearing Red Cross bandages."
In early February 1915, the transport of the forward dressing station, following from near Krakow and consisting of 60 wounded ambulance carts, was shelled by Austro-German artillery. Transport moved from the gorge to the mountain, with the ambulance carts constituting separate groups, following the road with significant intervals between groups. All the carts had Red Cross flags mounted on poles. But, as one of the eyewitnesses, Pyotr Kopylov, noted, the enemy was waiting for a separate group of carts to appear on the mountain - and strenuously fired at them. In total, in this way, all 60 carts with the wounded and personnel on them were successively destroyed.
Private M. Yu. Zarembo reported: “In April, I don’t remember the date, in the Carpathians on the Sana River, on the way to Sambor, I witnessed how the Germans fired heavy artillery shells at the dressing station of our regiment and killed many of the sick and wounded. Above the dressing station was a flag clearly visible to the enemy with the sign of the Red Cross."
The testimony of the orderly I. G. Boreyko was similar: “On April 28, 1915, about 8 versts from Przemysl, our transport went along the highway, carrying the wounded. All the wagons were fitted with long poles bearing Red Cross flags. The German-Austrians suddenly began shelling us; they could not help but see the flag, since they saw the transport itself, and their goal was clear - to harm the sanitary transport. They were shooting with heavy shells "suitcases". I was wounded by one of the shells - my right arm and left leg were blown off. Another "suitcase" killed one of the orderlies and wounded the other. None of the wounded was injured, the shelling quickly stopped."
On May 12-13, 1915, located 12 km from Stryi, a dressing station and a neighborhood of the 12th Finnish Infantry Regiment, despite the Red Cross flags protecting them, were subjected to repeated shelling by enemy heavy artillery. There were no Russian military units or carts that could serve as a target for the enemy in this area. When the Russians captured the enemy artilleryman, the latter admitted during interrogation that from the observation post at which he was located and from which the artillery instructions were given, the flags of the Red Cross that surrounded the point and the neighborhood were clearly visible.
Dressing station of the 293rd Infantry Izhora Regiment
At the end of June 1915 located in the village. Torsk Red Cross infirmary came under fire from heavy artillery. The infirmary was located on the outskirts of the village, in an elevated position, and was fenced with Red Cross flags. The shelling was carried out for 3 hours - and immediately stopped as soon as the Red Cross flags were removed from the poles and the infirmary took off.
The head of the head evacuation station No. 105 recalled that "The shelling of the Kalkuny station and the institutions of the 105 Head evacuation station entrusted to me in its area with heavy German artillery began on February 16, 1916. Every day or every other day, from 5 to 80 shells were fired (6 and 8 -mi-inch caliber, from a distance apparently over 12 versts.) The heaviest shelling was on February 17 and March 15, when, in clear weather, the shelling was corrected with the help of enemy airplanes flying over the Kalkuny. On March 15, about 40 heavy shells were fired, and the points were completely destroyed: the dressing room, the operating room, the sorting room and the room of the doctor on duty, located in the building of the Kalkuny station of the North-Western Railway, the surgical and internal department of the mobile field hospital attached to point 447, located in the buildings of the railway department near the station, was severely damaged. the building of the hostel is severely damaged o branch office - in the locomotive depot of the station. During the shelling, 75 wounded and sick, who were at the checkpoint and in the hospital, were transferred under fire from shells to the teplushki of the control room and taken out of the sphere of fire; at the same time one of the personnel of the checkpoint was killed, two orderlies were seriously wounded and two orderlies were wounded. The enemy could not be unaware of the fact that medical institutions were located in the station buildings and other railway buildings, since the enemy pilots, who accurately corrected their artillery fire from airplanes, could not help but see the huge white flags with Red Crosses flying over the premises of the point " …
Easy target
And second lieutenant A. L. Shevchukov, in turn, said: "On February 26, 1915, having been brought from a position in Zyrardovo for further evacuation to the city of Warsaw, at the moment when our orderlies carried me and other wounded from the hospital to a hospital train, I saw how the enemy airplane circled all the time over the train and the Red Cross hospital, and several bombs and a large number of metal arrows like a long nail with a screw-shaped notch on top were dropped from it. In addition, several civilians suffered from the throwing of the same bombs. On the train, as well as on the hospital building, the signs of the Red Cross were clearly visible, the airplane hovered quite low and therefore he could see exactly where he was throwing bombs. " …
Objects under the Red Cross, as we can see, were the favorite targets of enemy pilots. So, on March 19, 1915, enemy aircraft appeared over the city of Yaslov and began to drop bombs on the city. One airplane, having separated from the group, began to circle around the field hospital located outside the city and dropped four bombs into it - some of the wounded were killed, and some received new damage. The infirmary was fenced off with flags of the Red Cross fixed on poles, which in sunny weather the airplane descending to a relatively low altitude could not help but see.
Private I. I. Tatsiy also reported that “On April 24, 1915, at the Yaslov station, at about 8 am, the orderlies carried me, wounded by a shrapnel shrapnel, on a stretcher to an ambulance train. Suddenly, two enemy airplanes, white with black stripes on the wings, appeared over the train. Both airplanes threw one bomb into the ambulance train, and one of them damaged the second train carriage from me, in which at that time there were three wounded and one orderly. The bomb explosion killed the orderly and two wounded, and the third previously wounded was wounded. Fortunately, the rest of the wounded had not yet been brought into the carriage. The bombings caused a commotion among the wounded, and they began to jump out of the cars."
On May 17, 1915, an enemy airplane dropped two bombs on an ambulance train loaded with wounded near the Stryi station, fenced with Red Cross signs - and 4 people died and 15 were injured.
The next day, a similar incident occurred 20 km from the "Stryi" - on the line Stary Bolekhiv. There was also a dressing station where the Red Cross flag was flying. The day was clear and sunny. Suddenly, an Austrian airplane appeared, which descended rather low above the dressing station, and began to throw bombs at the last one. 4 people were wounded and 10 people were killed.
On May 24, 1915, an enemy airplane attacked a field hospital in the vicinity of Przemysl (fenced with significant Red Cross flags), and on July 17, 1915, the airplane bombed the dressing station of the 41st Infantry Division and 5 to the Siberian detachment of the All-Russian Union of Cities. The location of the sanitary facilities was also fenced with Red Cross flags mounted on poles. At the station at that time there was only an ambulance train receiving the wounded.
A telegram from the Chief of Staff of the Northwestern Front, Lieutenant General Gulevich, to the Quartermaster General of Headquarters on July 27, 1915 read: “The Chief of Staff of the First Army telegraphed that on July 24, 1915, at Malkin station, five German airplanes were sent to ambulance train No. 227 during loading many bombs and arrows were thrown to the wounded, causing casualties in people.
And senior non-commissioned officer ND Manzheliy recalled: “On July 31, 1915, I was at the station of Brest-Litovsk station to follow after a shell shock to the hospital in the city of Melitopol. there was an ambulance train on which there were signs of the Red Cross. At one o'clock in the afternoon, four German airplanes appeared over the station and dropped four bombs within the station, the explosions of which killed and wounded several refugees, and one of the bombs was thrown by the pilot on the named ambulance train and its explosion broke the roof of the carriage, and in the last one killed four sisters of mercy and two doctors."
All these facts indicate that the enemy did not hesitate to strike at the wounded, sick and medical personnel, that is, people whose safe status was guaranteed not only by international norms, but also by universal human principles and considerations of humanity and morality. And we see that the Red Cross has become for those who despised all conceivable and inconceivable norms of waging war, the Austro-Germans only a target, under which it became simply unsafe.
