Miloš Špitálský

“No one told us anything. We didn’t know the thing was called Krkonoše. All of a sudden, we received a combat alert with threat of war, which was exceptional, we never had that before or after. We were issued a new kit, including buttons indicating radioactivity, new mask filters, etc. They gave us live ammunition. That never happened. During other exercises the live ammo was transported separately in Tatra lorries, it was issued to us directly at the firing range. But in this case we carried everything with us inside the BVPs [infantry fighting vehicles]. When I sat in the turret, I was surrounded by live cannon shells. We also had anti-tank shells and machine-gun rounds. The BVP was crammed full, we could hardly budge. I saw one boy who couldn’t move at all, he literally froze stiff, he had to be pulled out by the others, straight into an ambulance. It was freezing cold the whole way long, so they’d take out the engine partition panel, so that the carrier space in the back, where the soldiers sat, got at least some heat, because there wasn’t any heating there.”