František Svoboda

"Field actions were almost the order of the day. These were already operations that grossly endangered any organized activity of the Germans. For example, a train came out of the station on the old line and by the time it reached Hamry, which is about three kilometres away, it was already off the track. All it took was for someone to loosen the bolts. When the train hit it, usually it was on a curve, the axle pushed the rail and it was derailed. That was all the time. These were really guerrilla actions."

"Suddenly I look out of the garden towards Žďár Castle and see a black plume of smoke. I thought: what is this? It looked like a sawmill on fire. And I thought of something stupid. I picked myself up and went to look. The lesson soon came. When I ran about five hundred meters, I came to a deep ravine, and I saw a lot of people. It didn't occur to me that they were hiding there. When I ran to the opposite bank, two planes were flying overhead. They were flying very low and they had rapid-fire guns. That was the Russians. They were tasked with shelling the German trenches that were retreating along Route 37 towards Zdirets. And the sawmill also got hit, because it's close to the road. It all dawned on me when two hills fell in front of me. At that moment I thought: Not that way! And I came back."