The already angry people of Balangiga, feared that they would starve in the coming rainy season without their food stores, and decided to attack the US garrison. At 6.45 a.m. on 28 September, 1901, the villagers made their move. Having killed the few armed sentries, the chief of police, Valeriano Abanador, ordered his people to attack. The US soldiers, who were having breakfast at the time, were taken completely by surprise as men rushed into their camp armed with axes and bolos (Filipino knives), many of them disguised as women. Most of the soldiers were simply hacked to death, while Captain Connell managed to lead a few of his men out onto the street, but they didn’t survive for long. The soldiers fought back as best they could, using anything they could get their hands on, including knives from the kitchen and chair legs. One private even used a baseball bat to fight off his attackers.
A few of the soldiers who managed to escape feared for their lives and fled the island by boat to a nearby garrison. Out of the original 78 men of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 54 were killed or missing, 20 were severely wounded and only four managed to escape unhurt.
What became known as the ‘Balangiga Massacre’ was the subsequent brutal retaliation on the inhabitants of Samar Island by the occupying US forces. The morning after the attack, two US batallions landed on Balangiga, along with two of the survivors of the attack. When they arrived they found Balangiga had been abandoned, so they buried their dead and razed the village to the ground.
The leader of the batallions, General Jacob H. Smith ordered Major Littleton Waller, commanding officer of the Marines, to tell his men to clean up the island of Samar, saying, ‘I want no prisoners. I want you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better it will please me.’ He ordered that any Filipinos who did not surrender and were able to bear arms, should be shot, and this included anyone over the age of ten.
What ensued was a bloody massacre of the Filipino residents on Samar Island, leading to the death of thousands of Filipino. Smith’s strategy was simple, cruel, but effective. By blocking all trade with Samar, he planned to starve the revolutionaries into submission. He said that all Filipinos were to be treated as enemies unless they could prove otherwise, for example, by giving the soldiers information as to where the guerillas were hiding or if they agreed to work as spies. Other than that anyone who appeared to be a threat should be shot on sight. Large columns of US soldiers marched their way across the island, destroying homes, shooting people and killing their animals.
The only thing that stopped a full-scale annihilation of Samar was that many of Smith’s subordinates did not agree with his policy, which meant that many of the civilians escaped with their lives. When news of the abuses reached the USA at the end of March 1902, there was public outrage. Added to the atrocities committed by the US army, they stole three national treasures before they left Samar. One was a rare 1557 cannon and the other two were Balingiga church bells. Almost 100 years after the massacre, the current Philippine government is still trying to have these trophies of war returned to their shores.
The US Secretary of War ordered an investigation into the atrocities in the Philippines and brought court martial proceedings against General Smith and Major Waller. Waller was tried first, and the court martial began on 17 March, 1902. He was tried for the execution of 11 native guides, who had reportedly found edible roots during a long march, but had failed to share this knowledge with the starving US troops. Waller said that he was simply ‘obeying orders’ and was acquitted, a defence which the US army did not allow when trying enemies in Nuremberg decades later.
In May 1902, General Smith was tried, not for war crimes, but on the charge of ‘conduct to prejudice of good order and military discipline’ and that he had given orders to Waller to take no prisoners. The court martial found Smith guilty and sentenced him to be ‘reprimanded by a reviewing authority’.
In an effort to try and appease the subsequent public outcry, President Roosevelt ordered Smith’s retirement from the army. He received no further punishment for the atrocities that had taken place in the Philippines. It will always remain a matter of contention whether the killing of thousands of Filipinos was really justification for the murder of 54 US soldiers, and whether these killings amounted to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The Sinking of the Lusitania
When the German army marched into neutral Belgium on 4 August, 1914, they displayed a blatant disregard for international treaties and made it easier for Britain to become involved in World War I. Unlike World War II, World War I is not really associated with atrocities carried out by military forces against either civilians or enemy soldiers. However, this story proves that World War I was not fought with totally clean hands, as reports that came out of northern France and Belgium proved. During the months of August and September 1914, German troops are reported to have carried out wholesale murder of civilians without any obvious provocation. Stories of mass executions, rapes, mutilations and arson were widespread, and both the French and British governments set up special enquiries into the alleged German ‘atrocities’ in Belgium. The report outlined horrific sexual and sadistic crimes, although there was a strong reaction to its content claiming that much of the information had been grossly exaggerated. Whatever the truth behind these atrocities, it does illustrate the ambivalent moral boundaries that are crossed during the time of war. What was regarded by one side as an ‘atrocity’ was simply seen by the other as a ‘necessity’ to win the war.
The incident of the sinking of the liner Lusitania on 7 May, 1915, had a major influence on the involvement of the United States in World War I, and it still stands out in history as a singular act of German brutality.
The Lusitania was a British cargo and passenger ship that made its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in September 1907. She was a giant of a ship, built to speed through the water at an average of 25 knots. Powered by a 68,000 horse power engine, she had been dubbed the ‘Greyhound of the Seas’, and it wasn’t long before she won the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic.
The Lusitania had been built to Admiralty specifications, with the understanding that it would be turned over for government service at the onset of war. As the rumours of war started to spread in 1913, the Lusitania was secretly taken into the dry docks at Liverpool and was fitted out to be ready for service. This included the fitting of ammunition magazines and gun mounts, which were concealed under her polished teak deck, ready for when they were required.
The Lusitania had crossed the Atlantic many times over the years without any problems, but as World War I intensified and German submarines took a threatening role in the seas, her situation became far more precarious. Due to her speed, the Lusitania was considered to be unsinkable, believing that she would simply be able to flee if she came under attack. Because of this confidence in her construction and power, the Lusitania was allowed to set sail from New York on 1 May, 1915, with the sole purpose of delivering goods and passengers to England.