The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-04-06
THOUSANDS OF SERBS
PERISH IN FLIGHT
Former American Soldier Who
Witnessed Retreat Tells of
Unspeakable Horrors.


storm more than $4,000 men died.
They died so fast" he said, that
they fell every few yards all along the
road. The wagons and carts went right
over their bodies. Nobody thought Of
trying to turn out Of the way, but there
were so many they could not but drive
over them. The roads were full of
mudholes. At one place l saw no less
than II horses dying in one immense
puddle, unable to pull themselves out.
II saw hundreds and thousands Of
ragged men, with their feet swollen too
much to wear shoes or to walk on them,
crawling along for miles on their hands
and knees through the binding snow,
finally stopping and dying soon after
wards. They never made any appeals
for help. 1t wouldn't have been any
use Besides, they were too far gone,
to know what they were about that
they were dying. Their last effort to
keep going was merely a mechanical
operation. OF course the great NOR
tality all along our route was due to
the barren nature of the country we
were traversing, with no shelter for
but a comparatively few Of us. There
were even no forests where we might
have felled trees and built temporary
quarters. Our fires for the most part
were small, with barely enough wood
to heat water"
Prisoner Of Serbs.
Halter, who was on a visit to Buda-
pest when the war began, enlisted In
the Austrian army and was serving as
a bugler when, six months later, he
was taken prisoner by the Serbs and
then finally was marched with $4,000
other Austrian soldiers across the
mountains into Albania, and there
turned loose on the shores of the
Adriatic to fight for life against
cholera, fever and starvation"
I'VE were supposed to have started
on that retreat" said Halter, with
Serb army of over 100000 men and
about $4,000 Austrian prisoners. Not
many more than 10000 of the whole
lot got over the mountains. 1t was not
because the Austrians or the Bulgar-
ians pursued us, however, with much
activity. We died merely because Of
disease, hunger and exhaustion.
THE worst part Of the journey be-
ban at the Albanian frontier. The AL
banians have in times past been badly
treated by the Serbs, and they took
this chance to square old scores. They
shot. killed. robbed and murdered us
at every step Of the way. For instance,
at Linn, some Serb officers and a COM
pany Of stragglers on horseback were
met in the middle of the road by a few
horses and their money. 1t was plain
highway robbery, and they refused.
The peasants ran away. and within
couple of minutes more than 1000 shots
were fired out Of the bushy hillside,
killing most Of the Serbs.
1.-The food problem was terrific even
In Albania. A half-pound of bread was
sold at 10 dinars, about 81. AS / had
a little money at SturZa 1 bought five
pounds OF Okla beans. Had I not been
able to get these beans, I would today
be a dead man. / had just said to my
self: I can't go any further when l
persuaded a peasant woman 10 sell me
the beans. / ate beans twice a day,
making q sort of soup out Of them,
putting in a little salt. At that I was
far luckier than the fellows who had
to boil harness leather for five or six
hours in order to make the hot water
taste like soup. l saw men act like
savages, eating pieces of brown paper.
Women Well Treated.
There were perhaps not more than
1000 women among the retreating
horde with us and IT is a fact worth
recording that they were kindly treated
and given whatever comforts were
available by soldiers who were other
wise dead to every feeling. I have
seen such men, gaunt, staggering along,
half naked, with a few pieces of cloth
for shoes, unable to speak, with bare
ly strength left to stop near a dying
horse and cut a stringy steak from its
flank, straighten up for moment near
one Of the women's carts and smil-
ingly tender their last mouthful Of food
to some of the women.
THE treatment of the women on
this dreadful retreat was to me the
most wonderful. thermost moving. the
most heroic part Of the whole retreat.
These poor women in their flight from
their homes had in many cases been
unable to bring enough clothes to
cover them. Often they were without
stockings or underskirts, or hats or
shawls or cloaks. l have seen time
and again some freezing soldier take
off his overcoat and force 1t upon
some one Of these women. and seem
almost ashamed to look upon her
shivering body as he made the offer.
Then he would search along the road
for hours until he was able to strip
some dead man of his clothes to re-
place that which he had so freely
given"
Mad With Hunger.
What Halter regarded as his most
remarkable experience was. the sight
of a mad soldier dying from starva-
ton. Clothed only in a ragged under
shirt he was running barefoot down a
snow covered Albanian road straight
as an arrow. believing as he ran" he
said. He ran on and on down that
road. seeing nothing, yet wonderfully
avoiding stumbling over the bodies OF
other dead and dying soldiers and the
meat stripped carcasses of the army
horses which blocked the way. Suf-
fering intensely as l myself was, l
turned and watched this strange fig
ure. At last a half mile down the
road he pitched forward and as I
passed him later 1 saw he was stone
dead"
"Other than that incident there is
one other that will stick in my MEM
DRY as long as I live" said Halter.
This was the hanging of Serb
mother by the Austrian troops before
was made a prisoner. We were
marching across a rough country near
Lochnizter. when we stopped near a
wayside hut at its spring to get a
drink. Colonel He'll of our regiment
also went to get a drink. AS he rose
from the spring a shot came from
the hut. That shot was fired by a
woman. She stood at the door. an old
shotgun in on hand. a baby In the
other.
lone Of the captains ordered her
hung. There was nothing else to do
but execute her. AS a rope was placed
about her neck and she was led to the
nearest tree all she said was this. in
a hard cold voice: NV husband ia n