Evening star., 1940-08-06

signed the Bolsheviks tumbled back
to BreSt-Litovsk, and the Nazis
tumbled after them. What that
meant to the Communist commit
tees" is something I can only imag-
inc. Fortunately I was not there
when it happened.
I had taken food from the hos
pital-a big loaf of black bread and
two cans of meat. We ate only the
bread. We slept where exhaustion
overcame us. Once or twice a peas
ant put his barn at our disposal,
but more often they were afraid to
favor any one In uniform, and we
slept in the open.
Stumbled on Army.
In the Lukow Woods, 100 miles
or so from Warsaw, we stumbled
upon an army of perhaps 10000 to
10000 Polish soldiers. The Russians
were to the east and south of them,
the Germans to the west and north.
Warsaw, they had heard, was still
fighting, and they intended to smash
through the Germans ringing the
city and join the defenders of the
capital. I found out later that they
succeeded in fighting their way into
Warsaw.
They struggled like a ghost army
through the woods. They kept
few scouts on the roads as lookouts,
but the main body moved under
cover. Stanislau and I tried to join
them. but they would not take us.
They could not arm us. They had
no supplies at all. When one of
their motors ran out of gasoline
they left it where it stopped. Each
man carried his own ammunition.
Every little while German patrol
or scout detail would stumble on
this army. They chased each last
one relentlessly until he was killed.
They could not take a chance of
the German Army learning of their
existence. Wounded-all wounded,
even their own-were left where
they fell, among the dead. There
was no provision for wounded.
We were warned to keep away
from the Vistula. The Germans
were on the other side, shooting at
everything that moved. So we
travelled inland a few miles. BY
September 20 Stanislau and I had
found friendly peasant near the
village of Otwock who agreed to
put us up until we could move on
to Warsaw, about 40 miles away.
Helped Selves to Fruit.
The next morning we visited the
orchard of the local squire, who had
decamped, and helped ourselves to
fruit. While We were doing SO
German armored car unit drove up,
and some boys in uniform piled out
and joined us among the pear trees.
They were most obliging lads of
about my own age GO them, some
little younger. They gave us
cigarettes and warned us not to 90
any further in our uniforms. "You
will be stopped" one said, "and sent
to a concentration camp for agri-
cultural workers in East Prussia"
We thanked them for their advice
and parted on good terms-they to
hurry back to war, we to find peas
ant clothes.
On october 2 the time was de-
clared ripe, and we went to Otwock
to get pass from a Nazi function
ary already established there. The
pass cost zloty (about 20 cents at
pre-war exchange, and the Nazi
asked no questions. He seemed
anxious to sell as many of them as
he could. Then we began the walk
to Warsaw along road that seemed
slowly to fill With a pale, shattered,
trembling people making their way
back to homes over which the fight
ing had stopped.
Few Houses Untouched.
AS remember the journey now
the countryside between Brest-
Litovsk and Warsaw seemed totally
destroyed, but I guess this is an ex-
aggeration. There were houses
standing untouched, but not many.
I saw what must have been thou