Private First Class (ret.) Rudolf Veltruský

“In the Záběhlice castle in Prague I decided to surrender my life to God. So I have completely changed my way of life compared to how I had lived before. Lord Jesus says: ´Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you.´ I took this seriously and no one could make me angry anymore. Before, I suffered from heart problems whenever I became upset. But now I knew: ´Don’t be mad at anyone, for your heart is still beating. Don’t get angry, for your Bible tells you so.´ So I always tried to stay calm. When someone offended me, I automatically extended by right hand to him and greeted him as a friend.”

“I spent about a year and two weeks in Svoboda´a army. There were many Carpathian-Ruthenians, all very good stalwart soldiers. Mostly, they had been sentenced for having crossed the border to the Soviet Union and wanting to help the Soviets fight the Germans. General Svoboda specifically asked for them and incorporated them into the Czechoslovak army. When they finally got the opportunity to fight, and what is more, in the ranks of the Czechoslovak army, they felt extremely grateful. I got to the front in Barvínek, that was a place under Dukla. In Slovakia we were not too successful, since all the fighting had been done in a mountainous terrain. Eventually, we arrived to Jaslo and thought we would try to break through the front there. The Germans had anticipated it, there were rumours they had built concrete trenches there. The Russians therefore amassed so much artillery in this place that it led to great problems with supply of ammunition and even of food. To put it simply, the conditions were really bad. The attack began on January 15th 1945 in the morning. It was freezing slightly and suddenly there was a roar of cannons, but you could not distinguish the individual rounds. It all blended into terribly loud roar. The Germans made almost no attempts at defence, for if they had climbed out of their shelters, the artillery fire would have wiped them out instantly. Afterwards they retreated all the way to Krakow.”

Then we were occupied by the Soviet Union and in 1941 by the Germans. We were Czech patriots, we even had a Czech teacher in our school and he taught us Czech. When our region was re-conquered by the Soviet Union again in 1944, our delegation set out for Lucko. There we had a meeting with certain captain Dědeček and we agreed we would join the Czechoslovak army. Then there was a recruitment session and we all voluntarily joined the army; about a week after we all went to Lucko. I eventually ended up in the artillery, because at the time when our unit was leaving, I was lying in hospital with influenza. At that time our unit was moving to Galicia, there was an army field training there. When I was released from the hospital, they were just recruiting for the artillery, so I signed up. I got out of the hospital later; I hardly made it to the thirteenth transport of our unit, which was the very last one.

“Then I served in the artillery as a telephone operator in the heavy howitzers unit. Our great advantage was that unless the front moved, we would always remain in one place for a long time, whereas the smaller howitzers had to be carried frequently from one place to another, because after a firing their position would get disclosed and the Germans would immediately start shooting back. I served in this unit as a telephone operator, which does not mean I would have any training for it. Due to unfavourable circumstances, mainly my stay in the hospital, I received almost no training. So I was learning to shoot only after I had got to the front. I would take a rifle, go to the forest and try to aim at trees. This was my ´training.´ I was an exception, the others have gone through a training. But because I lacked it, I often served as an intermediary for the Soviet officers. Part of my duty was also getting food for them. I would often go to the Orthodox priest, and he, because he feared the Soviets, would often rather give me something for them. I was getting food for my comrades as well. Especially during our campaign in Poland. My Ukrainian comrades could not speak much Polish, but I could speak well. And when I came to some house to ask for food, the locals would say: ´What a pleasure to hear the Polish language, it sounds soft as honey.´ I also often exchanged food for cigarettes, because I was a non-smoker.”