Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-05-05
RUSSIANS MADE "ANOTHER BELGIUM
IN SACkING EAST PRUSSIA CITIES

OF belGlum with It's ruined towns, DuI d
succession of devasted towns. al.
but devoid Of inhabitants. The extent
OF the damage varies only In degree
from Schirwindt. the city OF the dead,
to Memel the city OF fear.
The tour of east Prussia began at
Insterburg. which has felt the Rus
sian invasion virtually not at all. and
fringed about with battle fields where
I'm the fall the Russian invasion was
combatted desperately. The town mas
suffered, but negligibly in comparison
with those nearer the border.
Through II waste of partly ruined WI
lagos the way to Tilsit was once held
by the Russians under Grand Duke
Nicholas, the Russian commander in
chief.
Invasion of Meme had in u measure
cast it's shadow on even Tilsit. Hun-
dreds of wagons poured into the city.
The occupants had not the slightest
idea OF their ultimate destination they
Travelled blindly, actuated by a terrible
fear of the Russians and the one desire
to save themselves.
Though nominally u city, Mcneil is
really a large town. with the one main
street common to the towns everywhere.
This street bore the traces of the Rus
sian invasion.
The place OF the 900 landsturm that
formerly had guarded the place-and
the whole region surrounding it--there
We're thousands of regular troops. The
two hotels were full of Officers and
the streets swar1ned with both soldiers
and sailors for i'm the harbor lay
cruisers and torpedo boats that mad
been sent hastily to Memel to lombard
the Russians as they ~retreated.
n whole army corps. however,. would
not nave served to calm the town com
pIetely. Its Inhabitants a suddenly
been awakened to what the war really
meant. Its mayor lay In the hospital
desperately i'll from a b%ayonet wound.
Between 500 and 600 OF the population OF
the city and environs had been carried
ofr by the retreating forces. Shops We're
wrecked and pillaged.
Left Little Behind.
The scenes of destruction on the way
to Memel had seemed bad enough, but
they could not be placed i'm the same
category with conditions to the north
and east OF the city. The Russians had
moved In two columns. driving the
landsturm troops before them, and lit
tie was left behind.
The way led due north to Nimmersau,
almost on the Baltic and only u few
hundred yards from the German-Rus-
sian border, over which the Russians
had poured a few days before. The force
had included, according to all accounts,
500 Cossacks. followed by civilians who
wv WV
Halt a hundred Russians We're con-
Guiding the work of buryinE their Ill
dead fellows when the Associated Press
correspondent left Memel.
The route led back to Mlsit, still
choked with refugees. Ever and again
there would appear long ago. trains
of ammunition and supplies. bound for
some point along the long fighting line.
n onc in "A while batteries of artil-
lery blowing through the deep mud.
A noncommissioned artillery officer,
plodding along toward the hospital in
Tilsit. asked permission to ride and
told the tale OF the previous days bat
tie. His company. called in IN emer-
gency to act as infantry and help de-
fend a position near the border. had
been badly broken up by what he de-
scribed as a villainous machine gun fire.
These Russians certainly can shoot"
he declared. 1--WE put in IA good many
years as an artillery man and do not
mind artillery fire. Neither is infantry
fire disconcerting But deliver me from
the Machine guns. It's awful. Out of
Sc of us they killed six with bullets
from a flank fire and severely wound
ed a lot more. But we held that posi-
tinp