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General anger: When his soldiers failed, Napoleon became angry, as here in Bayonne 1808 (wood engraving from 1898)
Photo: akg images
Smoke rose from Dirschau, bullets hit houses, most of the residents had crawled into the cellars.
In January 1807, artillerymen from the Napoleonic army shot the Prussian city in flames with their cannons and howitzers.
Balthasar Eccardt watched everything.
“When the people rushed in, they divided into all the streets.
All the houses were attacked with shouting, tumult and a haphazard rage, "wrote Eccardt later.
"There was a death here, there was a death, there was a woman holding her dying husband in her arms, now a bullet came and killed his father's son next to him."
The professional soldier Balthasar Eccardt pulled for the French against Prussia.
Still, he felt sorry for the Pomeranians.
He hadn't chosen his high commander, the Emperor of France.
Napoleon had gone to war against Prussia the previous year.
German allies had to advance with him - including troops from Baden, where Eccardt served as a military musician.
He watched as his comrades plundered shops and camps, as they tore the clothes off the dead.
He heard the screams of the victims.
Eccardt wrote in horror: "In an hour there was nothing more to be seen than misery."
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