Vítězslav Velc

“As the leader of OT-65 I was given the order to take command of three armoured transports of the reconnaissance platoon. The chemical OT-65 was not armed, but the recon OT-65s had machine guns in their turret. And also, unlike the chemists, the scouts were supposedly good shots. We were tasked with capturing a square in one Polish town, the name had Gora in it. The officers already had the maps and aerial shots ready. There were three streets leading into the square, which were to be taken up by one OT-65 each, with live bullets of course. When I asked if we were to shoot at the Poles, the officers replied: ‘Corporal, if they shoot at you, will you smile back at them, or what?’ To which I replied: ‘I don’t know, and why should they shoot at us?’ ‘The Poles are a warrior nation, they have shotguns in their homes. Do whatever you want to there, but if you let something get through that village, you’ll be the one in trouble.’ As a twenty-year-old, it gave me the chills to think that we should shot at people. I went to the recon boys to brief them about our mission. They stared at me just as surprised. Luckily, they revoked the order before we set off.”

“On the way back we were all really tired, and it happened that the convoy stopped. I called to the traffic op, how long they reckoned we’d stay here. They said it’d certainly take a while, that we can take a nap, no problem. When it’ll be our turn, they’ll bang on the armour to wake us up. I fell asleep, and suddenly I hear bashing and wake up. I look out and there’s no one standing in front of us any more, a clear road. The traffic op called out: ‘I’ve been bashing on your car for ages, and I can’t wake you up. They’ve left ages ago.’ So I shook the driver to wake him up too, and I told him: ‘Go, for goodness’ sake, go. They’re long gone.’ We were given a 30 km/h speed limit, but to catch them up, we ramped the speed up to 35 or 40 km/h. We hoped we’d catch them up after some time. But there was nothing, a clear road ahead of us. But looking through the periscope I could see a long convoy behind us. And then suddenly we were overtaken by a GAZ [four-wheeler]. A Rupert jumped out. He was taking a risk. The OT is fast, but it doesn’t brake well. We stopped. He jumped up to our OT and bashed the plating with a wrench of some kind. I thought: This doesn’t look good. I opened the hatch and pulled myself out. I asked: ‘What’s up?’ The officer shouted: ‘Corporal, what kind of idiot are you? You’re leading the whole Strašice convoy somewhere completely different.’ Different how? The traffic ops sent us here.’ ‘There’ll be no discussion. Do you have any idea how we’re going to turn the whole convoy round and go back again?’ ‘Hm, I have no idea how you’ll do it.’ The whole convoy turned round on a field. We ploughed it up nice and proper.”