the more trivial ones, for I believe that minor incidents and facts reported
live, without comments or remarks, will offer the most vivid image
[. . .] of the experiences [. . .] to the reader.
Kutno was bombarded as early as on the very first day of September in the
morning. Those were perhaps the first bombs of that war, which, quoting
Wells,⁹⁶⁴ “set the world on fire.” They took a heavy toll. 120 of the recruits waiting
for a train near the station were killed, while 200 were wounded. The train
did not leave, as it had no passengers to take.
The same thing happened on 2 September, the only difference being that
there were 80 casualties, but again a few hundred wounded.
From then on, the German aircraft visited us every day, always at the
same hours (6 a.m., midday, and 5 p.m.), three times a day, and with such
punctuality that it is not an exaggeration to say that you could regulate your
watch by those visits. The Germans attacked only the military objectives (the
railway station, the barracks, the airfield), which were located in the suburbs.
The town itself was left untouched. The Germans did not stick to that rule
for long, though. Initially sporadic, the bombings of the centre became more
and more [2] common and they took such a heavy toll that the inhabitants
began to flee from the town.
Now a few words about my personal experiences. Like many other people,
I fled from Kutno on 8 September and I headed for Gostynin, as I suspected
that that town would be at less of a risk of bombardment as it had no
military objectives. Travelling was rather unsafe then. The aircrafts circled
non-stop, diving again and again over the road and firing machine guns at
the mass of refugees. This was why we had to hide in the roadside ditches
again and again, which did not speed our progress at all. I reached my destination
safe and sound though. Having learned that the frontline continued
to approach, I decided to flee beyond Warsaw, via Gąbin. I was stuck in
that village. There were no means of transport. Besides, we were already surrounded by the Germans in that eye of the cyclone, so I came back [. . .] with
a few [. . .] witnesses [. . .] German colony of Holendry⁹⁶⁵ we were stopped by
964 H.G. (Herbert George) Wells (1866–1946), English novelist and science fiction precursor.
965 A reference to Holendry Dobrowskie or Holendry Strzeleckie. Both localities are in Gostynin County.
