The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-05-13
HOW COSSACKS TOOK
EAST PRUSS|AN TOWN
WAR CORRESPONDENT TELL S
INVADERS ERASED A
CITY.
fBy Associated PreSS.)


seven months and half the war had
been little more than rumor for the in
habitants of the little city of Memel,
tucked away in northernmost East
Prussia on the Baltic. Beyond the
mobilizing of 600 of the "landsturm
to take the place of the regular troops
things had gone on much the same as
usual.
Then. suddenly, on the 18th OF
March, there came the report that the
Cossacks were coming from the North
and the East. and Memel began to get
its first direct impression of the gigan-
tic conflict. In the days that follow
ed it was to get other and more ter
rible impressions.
While officials frantically appealed
for help from the military authorities,
the little band of Landsturm slowly fell
back from one defensive position to
another before the oncoming Russians,
made one final but ineffective stand
at the outlying village of Althof, and
on Thursday night, March IS, were
forced to let the Russians enter
Burning and pillaging as they went,
the Russian troops swept into Memel.
AS terrified villagers gazed from their
windows, the soldiers marched
through Memel's main street, smash
ing in the store windows, stopping
only long enough to help themselves
to tobacco, liquor and food
Mcneil however, had had "A hours
notice, and had utilized the time for
partial fight. Terrified villagers from
the outlying districts had come pant
ing into town with stories of dwellings
looted and burned, relatives and
friends seized and borne off to Russia
by Russian civilians following the
wake of the soldiers, and of atrocities
too terrible to mention.
Eight thousand of the towns popu-
lation. thanks to one final stand of the
Landsturm at the Karlsbrueche with
a machine gun, succeeded in getting
out of Memel, with few belongings,
and onto the long strip of sand dune
known as the "Kurische Nehrung'
that runs in a curving direction south
ward toward Koeningsberg.
Few of the fugitives had had time
to bring any food, and on the narrow
strip of sand there was nothing on
which they could subsist. The bitter
winter weather that had made the
flight so terrible, however, proved to
be their salvation, for it froZe the shell
tered water between the sand and the
mainland so that supplies could be
sledged across in sufficient quantity
to keep soul and body together.
Ignorant of the fate that might have
befallen those they had left behind
suffering terribly in the bitter wealth
err. the fugitives waited, hoping desper-
atelv that the reinforcements fol-
which they had appealed so earnestly
had arrived to drive the Russians out
There they remained week, or for
four days after the invaders had been
expelled with great losses.
For three days the Russian troops
camped about the town. Their swooI
on Memel seemed to have been in
spired by no technical reasons, fol
they did not sink the ships in the
| land-locked harbor, nor fortify them
| selves. Germany's threat that Russian
towns would be destroyed if they con
tinued to burn down German village!
! is believed to have restrained then
from destroying Memel.
Instead they cleaned out virtual!
every delicatessen store, every Prov
| sion market and every wine and Il
quor establishment in Mcneil. Ind
| vidual soldiers, prowling about, enter
the homes of inhabitants and adde'
to their fear by their depreciation
and their threats.
On Sunday the German reinforce
ments began to arrive, and the Rus
slams began to leave. A few hour
later trail of dead bodies from tn
center of the little city to Althof-o
its remnants-told the story of the de
parture. When the last Russian ha
done and the inhabitants ventured on
of their homes, III corpses were pici
ed up and piled together preparation
to burial in common grave.