Five motor lorries of the British army Ordnance Corps conveying ammunition were cut off by the Germans, and the men in charge to escape capture made off across country after blowing up the ammunition. One, however, refused to leave, and remained hidden in a wood at the side of the road. The Germans, finding the ammunition destroyed, went off, and as soon as the coast was clear the soldier who had remained hidden came out. Seeing the wheels of the lorries were intact, he managed to get one of the motors going, and, hitching the other four behind, he succeeded in bringing his convoy into camp.
A Frenchman from Normandy writes as follows to his wife:
"I must tell you that I am a prisoner of war. Chance, the great master of all things, willed it that our battalion was to be annihilated and that a few survivors, all uninjured, among them I, fall into the hands of the Germans. We were brought to P---- under guard. Don't worry about my fate, sweetheart. The Germans are treating us with extraordinary kindness; they look upon us as unfortunate enemies. We get our dinner--bread, coffee, apples, etc.--and when we have no tobacco they give us cigarettes."
The official investigations conducted at Vienna with reference to the claim that the Russians at Tomaszow placed civilians in front of their troops during the engagement there disclose the following:
"A battalion of the reserves under the direction of a cavalry regiment was engaged in a rearguard action while seeking to occupy certain positions near Tomaszow. During the encounter the Russians drove the inhabitants of Tomaszow along the highways in front of them and directly in the path of the German fire. Among these were women and children. Similar action was taken by the Russians at Kipanen and Sendrowen, in East Prussia. Since strong masses of Russian troops in this manner approached our positions as close as 400 or 500 yards, we had to open fire. It was unavoidable that many of the innocent civilians thus had to be sacrificed."
An official Russian statement describes as ridiculous the German claims of having captured enormous numbers of prisoners, cannons, and machine guns. It says the armies have been fighting continuously, and it is impossible to estimate the losses.