Ovation from the city of Courtrai

"For a while, I had set up my field of activity close to the city of Courtrai and had been working there for quite some time. Then, around mid-July, the following happened: The English, and to a large extent also the French, flew to Courtrai at night and bombarded the city. Courtrai has about thirty thousand inhabitants and is the city with the most millionaires. No fewer than one hundred and fifteen people of this class live there. One can imagine that, as a result, the city makes a very pleasant impression from the outside, with so many chimneys piling up. However, our opponents seemed to take particular pleasure in paying these gentlemen frequent visits at night. They usually missed their targets. Occasionally they hit something, but then it was always the Belgians. I myself stood in front of a Belgian house that had collapsed like a house of cards after being hit by one of these French bombs. No fewer than fifteen Belgians had been killed in this house. Now voices were raised among the population who were not very happy with the behaviour of their dear allies. A large number of these insolent bomb throwers always had to pay the price, and so I shot one such customer towards morning. He had just come from Courtrai, where he had once again wreaked havoc among the inhabitants. One occupant was dead, the other shot and slightly wounded; he was taken to a military hospital in Courtrai. The following day, the following occurred: the inhabitants had found out that this prisoner was not an Englishman, but a Belgian, who came from Courtrai itself and now, with his extensive knowledge of the area, was greeting his hometown and its dear citizens with bombings. This had rightly caused great outrage. So a group of men with flags, dressed solemnly in top hats and black coats, went to the commandant's office and asked for the offender to be handed over. Of course, their request was denied, which only increased the anger among the population. They then asked for permission to at least give their saviour, namely me, an ovation for shooting down this fellow. I only found out about this later."