Destruction of Kalisz - Outbreak of World War I

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 not a life: it is a situation,
    One which may neither be ignored nor accepted.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    Viewed as a drama, the war is somewhat disappointing.
    —D.W. (David Wark)