Jan Opočenský

"The Russians arrived during the offensive. It was just before dawn, they settled down on Forta Hill. But they didn't have any time to dig in. The Germans started tearing them apart with direct fire. The Soviets had hidden their horses in our barn, right next to the house. Six beautiful horses that I guess they had taken from the Czechs in Western Ukraine. But the Germans slaughtered all those horses. Luckily ours was a brick house and the bullets only penetrated one wall of the barn. Because behind the next wall, two families were hiding - us and the Albrechts."

"A nurse once came into our room, she had had three day shifts in a row, plus she was looking after her sick mother, so she couldn't go to the market. She told us she hadn't eaten for two days and asked if we could spare a piece of bread. I had a piece, but I didn't give it to her. I regret that to this day, that I didn't. One time I came into the doctor's room, they were just heating up some buckwheat porridge. It thought to myself when had I had that, and I realised that it was three days ago. They were only allowed to have the food that no one wanted anymore. If a soldier would want an extra helping and they would've already eaten the food, they would be in trouble. Soldiers always had precedence."

"I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled we were to be given the chance to liberate Czechoslovakia. We were full of zeal. You wouldn't see anything like that nowadays, that someone would be so proud to be Czech and to be given the chance to liberate their country. I'd go again even today. We all knew what could happen. War simply is war. We knew we could be disabled or even killed."

"I could run, but I was acknowledged an 85%-invalid status. He said he couldn't give me any more, that there wouldn't be any point, I wouldn't get any more money anyway. He really was something like Dad. The boys were surprised: 'How come you got 85 percent! I'm missing a leg and I've got 75!' To which the doctor replied: 'Look, you might be missing a leg and you can't walk, dance. You can be a cobbler, tailor or clerk, but he doesn't have any hands, all he can do is maybe kick someone up the arse.' "

"His name was Emil Svěcený and he always had a cigarette in his mouth wherever he went. He used to say: 'When I get to the front, I'll shoot those fascists!' I was his first assistant, I carried the ammo and the SMG. When we dropped to the ground with the Germans were attacking us, I said: 'Milly, fire, they're coming at us!' But he couldn't fire, he was dead."

"When the Soviets arrived, we were terribly surprised to see how pitiful their horses were. They were just strings and bones. Not like the Germans, whose horses were perfectly harnessed and collared. The Russian horses were so small that we admired how they actually managed to pull the cannon and wagons. The soldiers had these pointy hats and only their faces were visible, the rest of them was covered up."

"I had one heavy can of ham for four, but those were iron rations and not to be used unless by the commander's order. Except it got in my way terribly. So I ditched that first, and other things followed. Then it was I believed the boys who had fought at Kiev and were telling us: 'You'll ditch the food, you'll ditch everything, just to keep your pockets full of bullets. Those are your life. You'll always find food somehow. Or you'll live through a few days of hunger."