Evening star., 1939-10-22

60 to France for revenge. There
are plots aplenty for q movie see
mario writer; stirring tales Of hero
ism and narrowing escapes.
The Cavalry Omcer's Story.
We were introduced to Capt. Jaro-
slaw Prakiewski, . cavalry omcer
from Warsaw.
II vas In Stanislow when the
order came, Every man for him
self!" he told us. Il had . car in
which I started for the Hungarian
border. Soon after I started I saw
a fast Russian tank which began to
chase me. 1t could 60 faster than
I could because my machine was
badly damaged, but it never caught
up to me; it just kept at a regular
distance behind. Finally ran out
Of gasoline. jumped out of my
car with my pistol in my hand ready
to hight. The tank stopped. A Rus
sian 'ofncer got out and waved q
white flag. He approached me and
asked in Polish what was the mat
ter. When I told him he returned
to his tank and fetched 10 gallons
Of gas In can and then ordered
me to hurry to Hungary. I did and
he followed me most Of the way"
The captain turned to the table
to help himself to some food. Just
then a count, one of the young Hun
garians in charge of the Office,
passed us holding q new gray cordu-
roy jacket.
Look, these are the only clothes
We have left" he said. They are
expensive too, but only the simple
people will use them. The better
class insist on finer clothes. I don't
know what We shall do; we're run
ming out Of money"
Spies Were Our Undoing.
Capt. Prakiewski rejoined us. He
is a young man in his middle 2Os,
radio technician and reserve
of1cer who was called up in the
first mobilization.
You have no idea how confused
we were," he continued his story.
THE day before Hitler marched
against us we were modified. Men
were called from all over Poland to
go to the various fronts. When
Hitler started we were most of us,
still on the trains. The German
agents cut our telephone lines,
bombers blew up the railroads, the
general staf1 couldn't keep in touch
with the fronts, and the German
agents tapped the lines and sent
false commands We didn't know
what to do, we didn't know who
were our friends.
Il was sent to Krakow. We had
no chance there and soon we were
ordered to Lwow. The train was
on was bombed necessarily and the
rails were always in need of repair.
The going was very slow. One time
a bomb hit a car in the middle of
the train and killed about so people.
We went over the wreckage after
ward. Do you know what we found?
A little radio transmitter had been
concealed under the car. We made
an investigation and found that one
Of our officers was q German agent
who had been sending out signals
over the transmitter. 1 shot him in
Lwow."
Officers Deserted Us.
Another young fellow. who would
not give his name, told his story
eagerly.
I'VE wanted to fight, we wanted
to 60 up to the front. We begged our
officers to let U.s." he moaned.
But they were only young like we
and they said their orders were to
retreat. The older officers had dis
appeared. Some Of them went back
to get orders or something and then
never returned. That left only the
young ones with little experience.
Il know it was almost usless for
us after the Bolsheviki came. But
they should have let us fight, they
shouldn't have run away. They
should let us fight now, fight to get
our homes back, free from the Ger
mans. They promised to. They said
If we would retreat to Hungary we
could take our guns with us and go
to France. But when we got to
Hungary the Hungarians took our
rifles away from us-only the officers
could keep their pistols. I cried
when they took my beautiful gun
from me-"