hese mobile columns are a great feature of
ambulance work here. Our front changed many miles in a week sometimes,
so that units that can move anywhere at an hour's notice are very
useful. The big base hospitals cannot quite fulfil the same need on such
a rapidly changing front.

VIII

THE BOMBARDMENT OF LODZ

It took us a long time to get to Lodz, though it is not much more than
200 kilometres away. Russian roads are villainously bad anyhow, and the
Germans, though their retreat had been hasty, had had time to destroy
the roads and bridges as they went. Another thing that delayed us were
the enormous reinforcements of troops going up from Warsaw to the front.
It was very interesting to watch the different groups as we passed,
first a Cossack regiment going up, then an immense convoy followed with
about 200 wagons of forage. Just ahead of that we passed the
remounts--sturdy, shaggy Siberian ponies. They are the most delightful
creatures in the world, as tame as a dog, and not much bigger, and many
of them of a most unusual and beautiful shade of golden cream. They have
been brought from Siberia by the thousand, and most of the little
things had never seen a motor-car before, and pranced and kicked and
jumped, and went through all kinds of circus tricks as we passed.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE POLISH FRONT]

As we grew nearer to Lodz it was sad to see a good many dead horses
lying by the roadside, mostly killed by shell-fire. The shells had made
great holes in the road too, and the last part of our journey was like a
ride on a switchback railway. It began to get dark as we came to
Breeziny, where a large number of Russian batteries were stationed. It
looked very jolly there, these large camps of men and horses having
their supper by the light of a camp-fire, with only the distant rumble
of the guns to remind them that they were at war. Two hours later we
jolted into the streets of Lodz.

Lodz is a large cotton manufacturing town--sometimes called the
Manchester of Poland--but now of course all the factories were closed,
and many destroyed by shell. I should not think it was a very festive
place at the best of times; it looked squalid and grimy, and the large
bulk of its population was made up of the most abject Jews I have ever
seen.

We had to make a long detour and get into the town by an unfrequented
country road, as Lodz was being heavily bombarded by the German guns. We
were put down at a large build