Václav Boška

“We left Benešov at 7 p.m. It was freezing, terribly cold. We drove through the whole night and arrived in Jaroměř at 9 in the morning. We tried to write letters home on the way because it wasn’t possible to do so before leaving the barracks. And we felt that something was going on. When we stopped for a break, when people brought us tea, we gave the letters to them to send them. The blocks of flats shone with lights, people watched from their balconies. Towards the morning we passed through Hradec Králové. As drivers we had to drive with our heads stuck out, you couldn’t see a thing from inside. We were chilled to the bone. Then the convoy started getting disrupted by civilian cars with people on their way to work. They didn’t realise that if they braked, our tracks wouldn’t allow us to stop quick enough. So we had to zig-zag along the road, at times driving into the opposite lane. The tracks were often worn out already, they skidded over the icy road, they didn’t brake. It was very dangerous even for those civilians, who didn’t comprehend what was going on.”