Atrocities against civilians in WW1

(Turkey being an exception of course)

There was the infamous Rape of Belgium. Although it became the subject of much allied propaganda, there is no doubt that Germany violated Belgian neutrality, and economically exploited the country. Hundreds of thousands of Belgians fled to France, Britain and The Netherlands, and th eGermans conscripted at least 100000 Belgians as forced labourers and sent them to Germany.

The most famous atrocities were at Louvain, where the Germans attacked the defenceless town, which was already under German control. 20% of the buildings were destroyed. The Germans spent 2 days killing (and in some case torturing) civilians and forcing of thousands out out of the town at gunpoint, while the soldiers pillaged the town and set the buildings on fire. After a few days, the soldiers retreated to the outskirts of the town and shelled the town

The events at Louvain were alleged to have been started by a group of German soldiers who (spooked by rumours of a French/Belgian counter-attack) fired on another group of their own troops.

R2 the attacks on Belgium were what brought M. Hercule Poirot to England

The most notorious even at Louvain was the intentional destruction of the University Library. 300000 books went up in flames including around a thousand irreplaceable medieval manuscripts.

The atrocities were a disastrous propaganda fiasco for the Germans, and the library became a rallying point for those who thought the Germans were barbaric. Tens of thousands of books were collected abroad during the war to rebuild the library and were sent to Belgium in 1919. Not that it did any good: the Germans burned the library down again in 1940.

There was no carpet bombing in WWI.

I didn’t know this about Belgium. I’ve been to the Ossuary built with the bones of the soldiers killed in the slaughter of Verdun, a battle that lasted nearly a year.

You probably don't hear about it because ww1 wasn't covered by objective embedded reporters like Vietnam and every war since. I know in the US they had something called the Sedition Act where it was a very serious crime to criticize the war or raise doubts. I'm sure that put a damper on reporting.

George Bellows did a number of paintings and posters of civilian casualties.