’We would go to parties, there were four of us. None of us could dance. We were sitting there, after about ten pieces, the girls would come to us and pick the ones they liked. That’s how we met, later we’d send each other letters, her name was Betty. Then they took the letters away from me during a house search. They thought they’d find something there. Then I lost the address, today she would have been eighty-three, eighty-four.’
’Those were grand celebrations. Our flag was flying at the city hall. But they made a mistake with the blue triangle. When we told them, the women corrected it. There were barrels of wine, celebrations lasted until the morning, everything was relaxed. It was grand. I would say that the French haven’t forgotten, there are flowers, the graves are maintained, they’re taking care of them. (…) We went to a party with Robert (Deldicque), we were the centre of attention.’
’In our free time we would pull pranks on each other. (…) Bruckner he was called, Jewish, judging by the name. Whenever we were on duty we had to get dressed and wait. So he lay down and he had his mouth open. I don’t know how I got that idea but there was a small mouse so I put it into his mouth and he bit down. The lads got back at me later. (…) We had tents and beds, our position was near a cemetery. When I lay down, the picked me up with the entire bed and carried me off into the morgue. (…) When I saw them coming for me I was pretending to be fine but actually I almost peed myself from fear. We would pull pranks on each other to have some fun.’
Lieutenant Colonel Josef Švarc, retired, is a war veteran born in Lupenice, Rychnov nad Kněžnou area, in 1926. In 1943 he was sent to work in Germany with the Todt organization. During the following year he was transferred to Normandy to work on fortification. Following the Allies’ disembarkment in the summer of 1944 he used the occasion to escape. With the help of the American army he travelled through Marseille and Algeria to Great Britain where he joined the Czechoslovak armoured brigade. He served as a despatch rider and an artilleryman during the Siege of Dunkirk. He demobilized in 1946 and after the war he started working as a telegraph operator at the railroad, later he worked in a health insurance company. In the 1950s he was forced to work at a factory, the Tesla Lanškroun manufacturer of tools and parts. In the mid-1950s Josef received a suspended sentence for so-called anti-state activities. He has lived in Lanškroun ever since. He participates in war veteran events, presides the local branch of the Association of Czechoslovak Legionnaires, and as of 2015 he is also a member of the association’s board committee. Josef Švarc died on 17 July 2020.
