Evening star., 1939-09-12
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their capture-from the virtually
understandable western sections, and
then using them for well-organ-
lied stand on some line west of
Warsaw.
Every Town a Battle Site.
Fighting took place in almost
every town and village from the
German border to the line which
now is just west of the capital To-
day these towns are largely in ruins
either destroyed by bombs from
the air, burned down. or both.
The destruction in the area
through which I passed. and it was
typical of all of Western Poland,
resembled Northern France after
the World War The few walls still
standing showed the gouges of ma
chine gun bullets. Hundreds of
farmhouses were burned so thor
oughly that scarcely any debris re-
manned and only the chimneys stood
gaunt in the saddened landscape.
I entered Poland at Ketno in
Silesia and there, 6 miles from the
border, found the first trenches.
They had been dug in graveyard
Beyond this first line of defense vir-
tually no trenches had been dug, for
the Poles had retreated too fast to
dig in.
Farther on encountered my first
weird sight. The town of LieruszoW
which had had 5000 inhabitants,
about half of them Jews. In the
Sunday evening twilight it looked
like the ruins of Pompeii. The en-
tire town was merely a series of
charred walls
After the Polish Army had left
Lieruszow, snipers killed 81 German
soldiers, and the penalty they paid
was a terrible sight. The Germans
said machine guns had been placed
in various buildings which COM
manded the road leading into town,
including the Jewish temple.
Endless Line of Refugees.
Then I met the first OF a seemingly
endless line of tattered refugees.
Such line is to be found today on
almost any road in Poland.
I counted 180 V-shaped hay
wagons of the type used throughout
Central Europe within one 20-mile
stretch on the road to Sieradz. They
were loaded with bedding and rep
resented about the only earthly be-
longings of their owners. One had a
baby goat lying on bed tick.
estimated there were 500 refugees
in the wagons in those 20 miles and
that, in all, I had seen 1,5OO persons
being hauled along by slowly
starving horses and had passed 500
more on foot, some of them driving
cattle and goats. There were at
least 500 head of cattle.
These refugees had fled before the
oncoming German Army but had
been overtaken and had been told
by the Germans to 60 back home.
I talked with a grandmother who,
with her daughter and Law
had walked so miles between Friday
dilO .oulludS Ill6iAto. A1lCi OdlC ACCI
were bleeding. The daughter carried
her baby. The grandmother carried
a sheet, stuffed with clothes. over
her back.
They had driven their three COWS
off with them. but the COWS had
died of exhaustion along the way,
they said
l passed farmhouse after farm
house where refugees had reached
home only to find nothing left but
brick chimney. They were camp
ing out beside the ruins.
AS I rode along the road to Lodz,
odors occasionally indicated bodies
had not yet been buried and made
the driver step on the gas.
The town of Lask was heavily
damaged, but practically no fight
ing had taken place in the 20 miles
between there and Lodz.
| Lodz, city of 100000, was an un-
believable sight for a point so near
the front lines. 1t was fully illumi-