Doc. Dr. Ing., CSc. Ladislav Slonek

“Two hundred chosen soldiers were sent on foot through Syria to Palestine. Jarek was among them. Klapálek trained them, they fought in Syria and then they disembarked in Tobruk. Jarek spent the whole time in Tobruk as a driver of a tank destroyer and in the end, it exploded with him. A friend with whom he drove once came to visit him. He talked about their tactics. ‘We had tactics that Jarek invented. He did not hide. When we saw the Germans, we went right towards them, and I was shooting at them until we destroyed them. A mine exploded under us once.‘ So, they were quite direct. General Montgomery came to see them and shook hands with Czechs. He said about the Sahara that it was cold at night and there were flies and it was hot there in summer. He was later treated in Cape Town and was transferred to England where he worked in a workshop. When there was an invasion, he went to the sea and got a medal for it. On 15 May, he called, and my dad went to get him. He gave us petrol and Dad was happy with the way it was going, there was only some low-quality one available here. He did not want to stay a soldier, they offered him a job on the general staff, but he did not want it. He used to visit us in Sněžné. He got married, and because they did not give him any work, he rode with coal until he retired."