Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-04-30
Htisrellaaeuus Reaaina.
DESTRUCTION OF MEMEL
Russians Do for German Town What
Germans Did for Belgium.

| For seven months and half the wal
had been little more than rumor fol
the inhabitants Of the little city OF
Memel, tucked away in northernmos'
East Prussia on the Baltic. Beyond
the mobilization of 600 Of the land
sturm," to take the place Of the regu'
lar troops, things had gone on much
the same as usual, says an Associated
Press correspondent.
Then, suddenly, on the 18th o.
March, there came the report tina,
the Cossacks were coming from the
north and the east, and Memel began
to get it's first direct impression OF
the gigantic conflict. In the days thai
followed It was to get another and
more terrible impressions.
While officials frantically appealed
for help from the military authori-
ties, the little band Of Landsturm
slowly fell back from one defensive
position to another before the on
coming Russians, made one final but
ineffective stand at the outlying viii
lage 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
smashing in the store windows, stop
ping only long enough to help them
selves to tobacco, liquor and food.
Memel however, had had "a hours
notice. and had utilized the time for
partial flight Terrified villagers from
the outlying districts had come pant
ing into town with stories Of dwell
ings looted and burned, relatives and
friends seized and borne off to Rus
sia 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 Kerlsbrueche, with
a machine gun, succeeded in getting
out Of Memel. with a few belongings,
and onto the long strip Of sand dune
known as the "Kurische Nehrung"
that runs in a curving direction south
ward toward Keinigsberg.
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 bit
ter winter weather that had made the
flight so terrible. however, proved to
be their salvation, for it froze the
sheltered water between the sand and
the mainland so that supplies could
be sledged across in sufficient quanti-
ty to keep soul and body together.
Ignorant Of the fate that might
have befallen those they had left be-
hind. suffering terribly in the bitter
weather, the fugitives waited, hoping
desperately that the re-inforcements
for which they had appealed so ear
nestly had arrived to drive the Rus
slams out. There they remained a
week, or for four days after the in
vaders had been expelled with great
losses.
For three days the Russian troops
camped about the town. Their swoop
on Memel seemed to have been in
spired by no tactical reasons, for they
did not sink the ships in the land
locked harbor, nor fortify themselves.
Germany's threat that Russian towns
would be destroyed if they continued
to burn down German villages is
believed to have restrained them
from destroying Memel.
Instead they cleaned out virtually
every delicatessen store. every provi-
sion market and every wine and IL
quor establishment in Memel. Indi-
vidual soldiers, prowling about, enter
ed the homes Of inhabitants and
added to their fear by their depreda-
tions and their threats.
On Sunday the German reinforce
ments began to arrive, and the Rus
slams began to leave. A few hours
later trail Of dead bodies from the
center Of the little city to Althof-or
it's remnants-told the story of the
departure. When the last Russian had
gone and the inhabitants ventured out
Of their homes. III corpses were pick
ed up and piled together preparatory
to burial in a common grave.
This gruesome work was still In
progress when an Associated Press
correspondent reached Memel.
One of the first to reach the scene
was Ober- President Won Batocki of
the province of East Prussia, and he
began at once TO sift out the truth
from the mass of rumor and hearsay
regarding the invasion. Shortly he
determined that between 500 and 600
persons in the Memel part Of the pro-
vince had been carried off to Russia,
that twelve civilians had been killed,
that one woman took poison when
she was attacked by a Russian SOL
dier and that another died from
such an attack, that the second may
or of the city had been dangerously
and perhaps fatally wounded by a
bayonet stab in the abdomen, and that
sixteen German soldiers had been
killed in dispelling the Russians.
The Associated Press correspondent
was able to retrace the route taken
by the Russians as they advanced on
Memel from the nearby border to the
north and to the east, and to see q
panorama Of desolation such as now
is common in East Prussia, and no
where else in Europe. Belgium is
shell -riddled. East Prussia is burned
down and devastated
The route led up along the Baltic
coast to the remains of the little viii
lage to Nimmersau-a typical town.
the principal building in which had
been the inn. 1t had been the objec-
tive Of the Russians as they swept
over the border from Polangen; they
had stayed long enough to all but
wipe it off the map
The few inhabitants of the village
hn hol nm oonraoa fC