Le crime de Reims. Exposition . . . au profit des victimes du bombardement de Reims et du refuge franco-belge. A view of the burning ruins of Rheims Cathedral. The city of Rheims was shelled with explosives and incendiaries by the Germans during ten days in September of 1914 with the cathedral as the main target. Outraged, particularly by the attack on the cathedral, the government at Bordeaux sent an official protest. At the time of the shelling the cathedral was serving as a hospital with a red cross hanging from its tower. The Germans, however, believed it was also used as an observation tower by the French, hence the heavy and unrelenting bombing. The Germans had eyewitnesses who corroborated this story, but the French consistently denied it. The tracery, towers, and nave of the cathedral were heavily damaged, but the walls were still intact. Date 1916.