The Belgians proclaimed just as stoutly that, mistaking an on marching regiment for enemies, the Germans fired on their own people; and then, in rage at having committed such an error and to cover it up, they turned on the townspeople and mixed massacre with pillaging and burning for the better part of a night and a day.
I could, I think, sense something of the viewpoint of each.

To the Belgian, a German in his home or in his town was no more than an armed housebreaker.

What did he care for the code of war?
He was not responsible for the war.

He had no share in framing the code.

He took his gun, and when the chance came he fired---and fired to kill.
Perhaps, at first, he did not know that by that same act he forfeited his life and sacrificed his home and jeopardized the lives and homes of all his neighbors.