WAR-TORN TOWNS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 2, 3 January 1942, Page 8

WAR-TORN TOWNS

NOT COMPLETELY DESTROYED

An Associated Press message to the "New York Times" from Berlin on •November 1 said that on a 2500-mile .tour by bus and railway behind the German lines, in Russia, foreign correspondents had an opportunity •to see war-torn towns. : It was a mistake, the message said, to assume that all the towns from which the Russians withdrew had been destroyed completely. Almost Invariably the central business section was razed by fire, and factories and public utility plants were burned and ; blasted or their machinery removed, but in most places the residential sections, with the exception of those bordering highways, were left intact. Thus shelter at least remained. • Women and children rummaged through burned structures for ' wood to use as* fuel against the rigours of the Russian winter. In many towns all community life revolved around the public markets. Where the market buildings themselves had been destroyed, temporary stands or tables were -set up. The barter system prevailed. A pair, of odd boots was swapped for a galloy of milk or a sack of sunflower seed. Russian currency was spurned in the conquered area, and 'German coins •were accepted reluctantly.Tobacco would buy almost anything on the market square. In larger transactions, wheat frequently served as a medium of exchange. "Ukrainians had found many uses for ; v wheat straw. It was used for bedding, roofing, for padding of clothing, for fuel. Branches of the willow trees that flourished along Ukrainian streams ■were plaited into fences, building material, corn cribs, and wagon beds. Despite all these makeshifts, there .■was no evidence of stripping of parts, which peasants conceivably could use, from the thousands of wrecked tanks, trucks,..,motor-cars, and cannon in the area. This military debris remained along highways on the battlefields until German salvage crews got around to hauling the machines to the nearest concentration point. '