Evening star., 1939-09-28
Eyewitness Describes
bombing Of Trains
On Way 10 Warsaw
American Arrives in
Polish Capital to Find
Piones SheIIine City
BY JULIEN BRYAN.

dents returning from studies and
vacations in France, I arrived in
Warsaw on September on one of
. the last trains to enter the city.
The trip from Bucharest to War
saw ordinarily takes IL hours on
through train. 1t took me four days
on several different trains, the trip
constantly interrupted by bombings
while the passengers piled in and out
Of the coaches to scurry for avail
able shelters.
We had our first bombing about 20
miles from the Rumanian border en-
route to Lwow half an hour after
leaving the frontier. The bombs did
not score direct hit on the train,
but there were seven beautiful bomb
holes within 100 feet of the tracks.
AS We proceeded our train became
more and more crowded with pas
sengers from other trains which had
been completely wrecked or disabled
by bombs. There were or 10 peo-
pie to compartment and so or
more persons jammed in the aiSles
with their baggage, trying to catch
a wink of sleep or merely glad to be
able to achieve sitting room for the
night.
Shared Odd Bits of Food.
There was no dining car. We
shared odd bits of chocolate, fruit
and cheese, and at each station
pretty Polish Red Cross girls brought
us tea in glasses and bread and
fruit all in the gay spirit of "on
with the war and fight for our dear
country" We paid for nothing dur
ing those four days except news
papers. There were no tickets COL
lected during the entire trip and a
complete informality existed among
the passengers.
When we heard OF the sinking Of
the Athena with many Americans
aboard, the Poles hopefully regarded
this as another Lusitania incident,
an incident that might lead the
United States to join the war.
On the morning of September 6,
8 miles from Lublin, we suffered our
heaviest bombing. At first during
the bombings the passengers took to
bitches, but later decided it was wiser
to seek the protection of the train.
Bombs were hitting both sides OF
the train, piling up debris which
crashed against the windows, but
rarely was there direct hit on the
track itself. Practically every time
planes flew over, our train stopped.
Apparently the engineer figured that
II his train should hit a damaged
track more persons would be killed
from the piling up of cars and wreck
age than from bombs.
Spirit Not Affected.
Strangely. these first bombings ex-
perienced in this new war did not
seem to affect the spirit of the
Polish passengers one whit. They
apparently had no idea that their
whole country was undergoing SINH
lar bombings. There never was any
panic during those four days, not the
slightest anticipation that within
the short span of two weeks Poland
itself would be dead.
At Lublin we stopped within 200
yards Of railway bridge which was
then under bombardment. We
climbed around holes 25 feet in di-
ameter. The entire trainload OF
passengers-men, women and chill
dren-left the train and walked 3
miles into Lublin. Juggling what bag
gage they could carry. We did not
know that Lublin was then the cap
ital of Poland.
The city was under continuous
bombardment, especially in the
vicinity of the railroad, where the
tracks were ripped up and cars de-
stroyed. During the five hours we
spent In Lublin we heard dozens of
spy stories. One that was corrobo-
rated was that the previous night a
German plane had dropped two men
and two women in parachutes. They
carried guns when they were caught |
while burning their parachutes in a
wood.
AS we resumed our journey we
passed dozens of trains from War; |
saw. many of them freights, their
cars piled with refugees COM
prlsing slightly wounded soldiers,
workers and middle-class people,
mostly from Gdynia and Poznan.
Our best travelling was done at night
when there was no bombings.
Arrive at Warsaw.
We at last arrived at Warsaw's
east station at o'clock in the morn
ing. After waiting an hour, we
found that the main station had
been bombed and the tracks torn
up, so we had to leave the train
ihere were no lights and thousands
OF people were using the under
ground corridors of the station as
bomb shelter.
Four soldiers with fixed bayonets
arrested me, but when I showed
tnem my American passport, and
with the aid of officers with whom
had made friends on the train I
explained In German that I was an
American, they released me. Incl
dentally, that was the last time
was FOOLISH enough to use German,
at night, when meeting soldiers.
Ihere were no taXis or droshkies,
put after three hours I succeeded in
brlblng droshky driver with a five
dollar bill to take me and two Polish
friends to the Hotel Europejski. I
undressed by candlelight and man
aged to get a little sleep. But at 6
IN the morning was awakened by
the hunder of bombs, and running
to the window saw three German
planes overhead, while in the dis
lance 1 could hear explosion after ex-
plosion.
AT 8 O'Clock pounded on the door
OF the American Embassy, after
walking l y miles from my hotel.
Except for sandbags piled in front
OF the Hotel Bristol and Cooks
Wagonlits Office, Warsaw seemed
quite normal. But there were hun
dreds OF soldiers and military trucks
everywhere and everybody vas