Ing. Jan Vaňourek

“We had troubles with them because of the horses, for one. If they needed horses, they had no qualms taking a few. And some carts to boot. And because they drove the carts all the way from Ukraine or wherever, they got worn down. And if a wheel fell off somewhere, they took a different one from somewhere else. And women had troubles with them too. I remember how they tried to get at our mum. But back then we were lucky that a Russian officer came along and put things in order, and that put an end to it. But I know that the first month, every morning we’d harness the horses and drive to the forest behind Kosov, we’d take some of the important things that it would be a pity to lose. And we always waited there until the evening, until the front settled down, and then we returned home again.”

“That was one group, as far as I remember. But they treated a bit differently. I don’t know if it was due to some agreement with the Red Cross or something. They walked along normally in normal uniforms. Without any rank designations and so on, of course. In nice clothes, shoes. It was a small group of about twenty people. And they were even allowed to sleep over in our accommodations. Once every two hours they were ordered to muster in the courtyard. They were counted and then dispersed again. That was group there until the morning. They even had their own dentist because I remember him drilling one of their men’s tooth with a portable dentist’s drill. So they had quite different treatment.”

“At the time when I was drafted into the army, I was in Choceň, so I was drafted in Vysoké Mýto. I didn’t know where I was assigned to because back then the new soldiers were all transported in one train and disembarked gradually as it travelled through the country, stopping at the various unit garrisons. They took us further on from Prague to Pilsen. We still didn’t know where we were assigned to. We only knew our unit number. We arrived in Pilsen before midnight. They loaded us into lorries. And when we were about 15 kilometres away from Pilsen, we heard the roar of aeroplanes and found that we were headed to an airbase. So I became a private of the 5th Fighter Regiment, which was a great surprise to me. But it was an even greater one to my commander. I remember how, after the training we undertook at the old airbase in Pilsen-Bory, we returned to our units. And we stood there in front of the hangar and our commander – a first lieutenant – sat on the wings of a MIG, dangling his feet. And sitting like that he asked everyone what their job was. So one man said: ‘Electrician.’ – He nodded – ‘Lathe operator.’ – He nodded. And it went on like this until he got to me. And me, when I told him I was a livestock specialist, he paused and asked: ‘What was that?’ And I said: ‘A livestock specialist.’ – ‘Mate, but we don’t have any cows here.’”

“On the way from school we would walk over to Hoštejn and we would gather gunpowder and detonators there. We were trading this with boys from Krasíkov and Tatenice who did not have such a source in their place. We enjoyed great respect for that. Even recently, I discovered a forgotten dump site of cartridges from the war behind our barn. We were crazy about the gunpowder, and I can only wonder that nothing caught fire. Now I admire my dad that he was so patient with us and that we were not punished for all this.”

“The prisoners of war were passing through. It was horrible. They made them stay in our large barn, but I think they slept in other barns as well. It was in February, there was fifteen centimeters of wet snow, and they walked wrapped in blankets and without shoes, they had only wrapped some rags around their feet. It felt terribly. The way meal was delivered to them was that they placed some wooden washtub in front of the barn and all the women from Kosov brought some soups and they poured it all into the tub and mixed it and then they were giving it to the captives in some cups. There were about two hundred of them in the barn. They were not allowed to go out and there was no toilet. It was terrible inside the barn when they left. I thought that this was an experience that one can never forget.”

“I came to school and the principal announced to me that they would not be able to register me in the second grade because I was expelled. I was told I had to report for work at the state farm. I thus began working on the nearest state farm which was in Postřelmov. I spent about three weeks there. Then the administrator came to me and told me that I had to leave and move to the state farm in Bernartice. So I went to Bernatice. There were about eight girls working there. I was there until December 1st. Then they let the girls remain in Bernartice and I was sent to Vlčice. I was there until the spring of the following year.”