Evening star., 1939-12-31

A SlX-day alrplane night separated
Shanghai from Warsaw, but within a
week of my arrival in the Polish capital
the same scenes were repeated-with
German planes overhead and Poles run
ming and ducking on the ground
In the beginning the German planes
bombed only military objectives on the
outskirts or suburbs of Warsaw proper,
so that residents of the Polish capital
for few days-saw and heard bomb
ing with comparatively little danger.
Then the German planes swooped
closer and lower. Every dawn, midmorn-
ing, noon, midafternoon and dusk the
Nazi air raiders methodically bombed
In a narrowing circle while Warsaws
civilian population began q mass evac-
uation.
One afternoon while pecking away at
my typewriter in our flce-apartment
block from the Vistula River more than
so German planes buzzed overhead.
Bombs began to rain down. Some landed
along the nearby river bank (narrowly
missing a vital BRIDGE, shattering the
windows. billowing the floor and making
the typewriter dance OF course was
scared for minute, but what could you
do about it?
A window from the stairway provided
a grandstand seat for the spectacle over
the river and I sat on the stairs fas-
cinated by the plane diving with scream
ing wings, the thunderous explosions.
the sudden spurts of dust and debris
from where bombs scored hits, and
water-spouts from where they missed.
kept the telephone wire to the AS
sociated Press bureau in Budapest 40
minutes. describing the picture over the
river, the wheeling and diving planes,
pulling the phone to the end Of the
cord SO the other Office could hear the
whines and screeches. archie guns and
earth-shaking explosions When the skies
were empty again and all quiet once
more, told Robert Parker, at the other
end of the wire, the bombers had gone
and I'd go check on the damage. "Okay,"
said Parker. I'll call you again soon.
They may come back"
Flight to Naleczow.
They came back several times, but the
telephone never rang again. And the
next day, with the Polish government
and the embassies gone, communication
with the outside cut off, the population
fleeing and the German artillery pound
ing the only remaining exit, we decided
to pull out-destination the village Of
Naleczow, two hours away, where the
Polish government had established the
temporary capital.
I never caught up with the Polish
government or general staf1. On the
run and unable to get settled beyond
range Of the German planes, they moved
from place to place, welcome nowhere
because they were magnets for the
bombers.
To the far Russian border, then south
ward to the Rumanian border, and
finally one sad day, when they knew
all was lost, they crossed the Dniester
River and were interned
President Ignace Moscicki, old and ill,
became guest" in one of King Carols
hunting lodges. Marshal Smigly-Rydz,
virtual dictator of the country and COM
mander in chief of the army is interned
at Craiova Stunned by his own officers.
Foreign Minister Beck lies i'll and heart
broken at Braslov.
A Weeks Nightmare.
Thousands of their countrymen and
countrywomen also fled across Poland
:. trudging through the dust carrying
children on sardine-packed trains
until they were bombed or the tracks
blasted :. in shining new and ancient
secondhand motor cars until they ran
| out of gasoline (and hundreds of cars
| were abandoned along the way :. driv-
| ing their horses with loaded carts
| mercilessly ahead of me, behind
me, and on all sides.
| What was normally days drive be-
came a weeks nightmare Lublin,
Tomasczow, Lwow, wherever we went
German bombers were overhead. terror
izing cities, bombing railways, strafing
highways.
A nations population was in flight.
| Food was unobtainable. Cigarettes dis
appeared. No matches. Swift German
motorized columns cut in and out scat
tering the fleeing refugees in all direc-
tions. No one knew directions. Every
way one turned he met new obstacles,
more bombers overhead, saw more shat
tered cars, more dead sprawled like bum
dies of old clothes.
You couldn't find place to sleep
until you dropped. exhausted, alongside
the road oblivious to the planes, the
swiftly moving German troops, the un-
ending confusion Of HUMANS fleeing to
safety.
Then Russian tanks, coming from no
where, began rolling across Southern
Poland and the hungry, sleepless and
footsore thousands were given the
strength of fresh fear to struggle the
last few miles and across the Dniester
River to peace and safety.
They still wondered what it was all
about.
The sudden calm, the letdown in
nerves, the peace Of Indian summer skies
/ A>YA - aI,>aA 81 i>sSS&