This story in the Berliner Journal showed that the reports about German cruelties were just rumours, and also humanized the enemy in a way that the local English papers generally failed to do. A German soldier saved the life of a British soldier in Nieuport after the Germans attacked a British regiment and left many dead. When the Germans withdrew, the British went to attack them. One British soldier wanted to follow, but a grenade detonated right beside him. When he awakened, he lay in a German trench, while a soldier was bandaging his head. The battle wasn’t over, but the German refused to leave him. When the German soldier finally stood up, he was wounded by a British soldier. The wounded British soldier became unconscious and when he came conscious again, he found the German soldier badly wounded. The German gave him his water because he was about to die and the British man needed it more. After first refusing, the British soldier took the water. The whole day they lay side by side, until the British fainted again. The German soldier died in the meantime but his kindess led the British to try to find his relatives to report his gallant behaviour.
(„Sterbender Deutscher rettete Britens Leben“, Berliner Journal, 23 December 1914)
