Vladimír Strmeň

“When I came home to Richtárová, there was a partisan staff in our house. And the staff's commander told me: 'What is a trumpet good for? Here you have a rifle; you are needed in a battle! We have come here from behind the Ural and you shall just sit at home? You are coming with us!' This way I became a mediator for a week. I was a contact-man between Richtárová, Turecká, Jelenec, and Špania Dolina. Once about after a week they sent me as a mediator to Špania Dolina with a dispatch. There was the first lieutenant Sitár, whom I served with in Zvolen. He told me: 'Listen, you could fight with us. Why would you only run around the mountains as a mediator!' And they kept me there. Another soldier was sent with a message to our staff in Richtárová and I got training as a light machine gunman and mines training. After this training I was placed to a unit and we fought near Veľké Bielice and mainly in Turiec region.”

“The Germans were attacking us by Hakel armored vehicles. They attacked us day and night. Always at night, if something banged or rattled, they immediately fired flares and attacked our positions. The number of dead and wounded increased at our front, so only God knows how bad it was. In the morning we didn't know whether we would survive until the evening and in the evening we were unsure of waiting to see the morning. Only at night we could obtain munition, water and food. It was impossible during the day, since we were still being surrounded. I was wounded in the afternoon of October 14, when the Germans started the attack. They began with mortal shell fire towards our trenches. In front of our trench a shell blew up and killed two of our gunmen and four were severely wounded. I was saved by Krnáč brothers, who dragged me under fire through the line to the field dressing. The cabin still stands there, where our field hospital was. We were lucky, because right then there was an ambulance, which took us to Banská Bystrica and head of the dept. Dr. Petelen took out all of the fragments from my body. The operating rooms were run in four shifts; the halls were full of screaming wounded men. Behind the window of operating room there was a pile of hands and legs in blood puddle that they had to amputate to soldiers brought from the trenches.”