By mid-September, however, the German High Command worried about the danger of epidemics spreading from the city to their own lines and about the psychological strain on German infantrymen who might have to ‘shoot at women and children trying to escape’ from the city. To make sure this did not happen, Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb, the commander of Army Group North, ordered the artillery to mow down any civilians breaking out of the city while they were still too far away to upset German infantrymen on the front line.
