Outbreak of World War I
The first information of the war reached Kalisz when the nearby border with the German Empire was closed at Nowe Skalmierzyce and train movement across the border to Germany was stopped. Russian officials started evacuating the city alongside military personnel. On August 2, 1914, at dawn, the Russian military retreated from the city without fighting, after setting fire to military warehouses near the railway station. The railway station was set afire as well as the trains and transport wagons. A civic committee was established by the citizens of the town which started administrating the city. Additionally, the Civil Guard was established to keep order in the city, while railway workers tried to put down the fire at the railway station.
Read more about this topic: Destruction Of Kalisz
Famous quotes containing the words war i, world and/or war:
“War is a blessing compared with national degradation.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Even though the world as a whole progresses, youth must always start again from the beginning, and as individuals go through the epochs of the world’s culture.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)