“I found a nice new Ford when I was in Tobruk for the second time. It had only 300 miles on the clock.” “Found?” “It had been left there by our troop. We repaired it with my friend Chalupa and we set out for a little trip. And as we drove, we had overtaken the car of general Klapálek. His driver’s name was Hájek and he was very slow and careful. So we overtook him. At that time, we stayed at the former military hospital in Tobruk. He came there, but we parked the car among cars of the English and scaled the fence and pretended to be working. He tried all the cars in our lot but they all had cold engines, so he left. Our commander was lieutenant Slíva and once he sent us to the headquarters. So we took the Ford and went there. We parked it far enough from the headquarters and we went there to receive the orders. But when we were coming back, there was Klapálek inspecting the car. He was always carrying a stick and he said: ‘How I would give you a proper beating!’ But got away with no punishment.”
“I was born in Slovakia in 1916 in a mixed family. My father was Czech, my mother was Slovak. My name is Hynek Zmítko. Sometime between the wars I had a choice to register for one or the other nationalities and I chose the Slovak nationality. So when the state was divided in 1939 and Slovakia became independent, I was serving in the army, so I stayed there and I was assigned to a camp, which was 14 kilometers away from where I lived. That was near Trnava in Dolné Orešany.”
“I was prosecuted but not from the beginning. They kept my record in their files but they didn’t start interrogating me until after ten years, when I helped one of my friends to escape abroad. To tell the truth, I was saved by communist party members from Pilsen. They all fought at Tobruk – doctor Preuss, Fedor Hrušovský and Poláček. But then they joined the communist party, Poláčk was the chief commander of the Pilsen State police, the other (Poláček) was the chief of the Pilsen police and Hrušovský was a high ranked official in the Communist Party. And those three saved me from jail.”
“I was disappointed with the new regime... and even more disappointed with the old regime. That is my opinion. During the old regime we were jailed and executed. Not me of course... But I’m also disappointed with the new regime, very disappointed. The government didn’t continue in the tradition that was here during the First Republic. That was a well administered state. If you forgot your keys in the keyhole, they were there when you came back. In Ořešany, when I came to visit a friend and the door was locked, I tried the window sill above the door and the keys were there. But look what has happened with people today. How many murderers and there in the republic. Is it even possible? No. People forgot what it was like during the first republic. And the justice was fair. And the children... They fight with each other, they get beaten and their parents go to school to complain instead of spanking them a bit.”
“When they were about to liberate us, there was an order that we had to redeploy and to proceed. We were hidden in a deep trench, me and Dujcik, the driver. The hole was deep enough that the whole carrier could hide inside. And Dujcik started to reverse and he hit a pile of sand behind us. At first, nothing happened, then for the second time, the third time and then... boom bang! And suddenly there was no bren carrier. I got it and I was bleeding from my ears. But I jumped into the second carrier and we had to attack the enemies.” “Was it a mine?” “Yes it was a mine. God only knows how it got there. I spent some three days with the crew of the other carrier and then they took me to the hospital in Tobruk. And there they cured me. I was fit within a few days.”
“We had an order to search for transmitters with radio vehicles, which were already prepared. So I thought I would give it a try and I sent to some people the destinations where we were supposed to go. Somebody turned me in. So I was arrested on August 9th 1939 and because I was a soldier, I was taken to Trnava to the battalion. They didn’t have an army prison at my camp. And there they interrogated me every day. On August 16th, they issued the arrest order came. It said: ‘In the name of the Slovak republic you are arrested for treason.’ The guy who arrested and interrogated me spat on the ground and said: ‘He’s a Czech Swine anyway.” Because he knew I was from a Slovak-Czech family. That evening I managed to escape with the help of my friends. I spent some time in the mountains. I also said goodbye to my parents. But I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t want to go to Hungary because I spent some time in eastern Slovakia as a soldier. So I choose to leave to Poland. I was lucky that I found the stone when I was crossing the border – Czechoslovakia from one side and Poland from the other. So I said goodbye.”
“They had taken us to a wadi. I told Mirek Sedláček, a friend of mine: ‘Mirek, it sometimes raines here.’ ‘Oh, come on! That was a thousand or two thousand years ago!’ And I say: ‘Don’t believe that. Listen, we will build our bunker a little higher.’ Polish artillery was on the other side. So we built a bunker, we took all the food cans and other things to build it and we covered it with canvas. Then the sky turned grey and the rain started. We were about ten meters high, but everything that was in the way was washed down to the sea. Italians had built their bunkers on the top, for the radio operators and the command and it was all flooded. The next day Germans and Italians were drying out everything and so were we on our side.”
Hynek Zmítko was born on January 10th 1916 in Dolní Orešany, near Trnava. His father was Czech from Myštěves near Nový Bydžov and his mother was Slovak. Mr. Zmítko was trained as a car mechanic, and began the compulsory military service on the 1st of November, 1937. He served for almost two years, also under the newly declared Slovak state. On August 9th 1939, he was arrested and interrogated for treason. On August 16th, he was charged and decided to escape. He managed to escape with the help of his friends. On August 21st, he crossed the border to Poland where he joined the soldiers accompanying general Svoboda at Male Bronowice. Svoboda wanted to get to Romania but the whole group was arrested by the Russians on September 17th. The unit was interrogated and imprisoned in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Yarmolyntsi and in Suzdal. Some of the members were arrested by the NKVD and taken to labor camps. In February 1941, Zmítko sailed on board the Svanetia across the Black Sea To Istanbul from where he got to Haifa in Israel, from where he traveled to Agama near Alexandria and then Syria, where he fought in Vichy, France. He operated the Boforce anti-aircraft cannons. He then left to Tobruk, where the Czechoslovak units were to exchange with the Australian forces. In November 1941, Tobruk was liberated by the English. Hynek then served as a scout and he drove a machine gun carrier vehicle. After the first battle at Tobruk, he left to Palestine where he joined the 501st anti-aircraft artillery, where again he served as an operator at the Boforce cannons. He also fought in the second battle of Tobruk, this time in the anti-aircraft artillery. In 1943, he left with other Czechoslovak soldiers through the whole of Africa to Liverpool. In England, he served at the 54th motorized battalion with which he fought at Dunkerque. He was demobilized on the 30th of September, 1945 and he worked at UNRRA until they were dissolved. After the Communist overthrow, he helped one of his friends to flee westward, for which he was interrogated by the state police. His fellow fighters from Tobruk, who entered the Communist party, stood up for him and he wasn’t prosecuted. He built a small car service, which was closed by the communists in 1950. He worked as a mechanic at a construction company until 1968 when he moved to the Prague transportation services, where he worked as a driver. He participated in the regular meetings of the Tobruk veterans. General Klapálek also joined the meetings every year. Zmítko retired in 1971. Died in 2004.
