THE ENTRY INTO WARSAW.

Otago Witness, Issue 3205, 18 August 1915, Page 19

THE ENTRY INTO WARSAW.

LONDON, August 11. The Daily Telegraph’s Rotterdam correspondent states that the first German descriptions of the entry into Warsaw betray the truth that they have grasped an empty husk. Every* thing of military value was destroyed, leaving an impression of gaping empti* ness. A superior German officer describes the extraordinary character of the fighting when the Russian rearguard, with ) indomitable courage, harassed from Praga the advancing enemy. Motoring to Warsaw he passed through scorched fields, burned farms, wrecked carts, and fresh graves, fie was compelled to stop and remove trees which the Russians had placed across the roadways approaching the suburbs. On arriving at the city he found a fortress of earthen walls, with antiquated defence works. Endless streams of refugees were coming out along the roads, or standing at side roads, watching the Germans march* ing in.. Every window and balcony was occupied by residents eager to see the entry. The cafes were crowded and the shops open. “ Though the city was cairn, a few hundred yards away, on the riverside, Germans were lying behind street bar* riers and hiding at corners of houses to fire across the river, where the Rus* sians were entrenched. The machine guns’ rattle on both sides was occasionally louder than the greeting from the heavy guns. Black smoke rives be* yond the river, where the Russians continue their work of destruction.” Another officer writes: “ The population did not sleep on Thurnrt iv night. There had been loud explosions from forts being blown up; and military buildings and workshops were fired. At II o’clock in the evening the con* trol of the city was given to the civil police. The troops commenced to cross the bridges in masses at five o’clock in the- morning, and the bridges were blown up at six. An automobile, with two German officers, arrived, followed by six cavalrymen, their lances deco* rated with flowers, singing ‘ Die Wacht am Rhein.’ The higher officers arrived in motor cars at mid=day. Russian shell and shrapnel were falling into the town. The third day after . the German occupation gave an im= pression of a German town on a festi* val day, except that the flags were absent.”