Alexander Záslocký

"We arrived to some train station. I can’t remember the name right now. Anyway, there was a Czech village and also Russian one. The closest train stop from our town was fifty to sixty kilometers away. We have jumped off the train even when it was speeding up. We were like squirrels jumping off and on the train when we were twenty years old. We walked through the meadow toward the hamlet. The vilow bushes grew there by the road. As we got closer to one of them a Ukrainian jumped out from behind and aimed the machine gun on us. We recognized right away it was a Czech gun. ´Where are you going? ´ He asked us by Ukrainian language. Of course we knew Ukrainian language well, because we lived in Ukraine. Volhynia is in fact Ukraine. This man led us to this cottage. When we got there I have opened the door and saw the farmer’s wife sitting in front of the oven. I said: ´Hallo auntie, you need some salt? ´she replied: ´No son, I don’t. Go away. And as I looked on the other side of the room I saw seven Bandera´s force boys sitting there and shaving themselves. One of them said: ´Come on over´. So we did. ´Your documents´ he ordered. And I have done a fatal mistake. In the region where I lived the Bandera´s force used to burn down the polish villages. Many Czech citizens died too. Our family once helped one runaway teacher with his two daughters who escaped from their burned village. And one of his daughters sent me later a letter from Lvov town. And I kept it in my purse. Now I took out my purse so I could show the documents to this Bandera´s boy, but he grabbed the purse and searched through it. ´Oh, look he is in touch with Poles´ he shouted. ´Ivan, get the horse ready! ´. They covered our heads with some bags and threw us on the carriage and we moved away. They started to shoot on the way and we got really frightened. But we heard the dog’s whining and we realized they killed a dog. After about a half an hour ride they pushed us down off the carriage and put us inside of some cottage each one in separate room. I will remember this for the rest of my life. There was a piano and a beautiful uptown girl sitting behind it. Her hair tided up in a pony tail. There was nothing else. This guy who brought us there on the carriage asked her: ´Where is the commandant? ´ and she replied: ´He’ll come in fifteen minutes.´ She said that in polish so we knew she was a Pole. We just sat there. Later, in about an hour a smart looking guy entered the door. The Bandera´s boy who brought us in handed him all our papers and told him: ´He’s in touch with Poles.´ the Ukrainians and the Poles were enemies in deed. The Bandera´s force used to fight off the people into church and then burned it down with the people inside. They cut with sows. They smashed several polish villages. And the Poles on the other hand were chasing and jailing the Ukrainians. So this was their revenge. So now this smart looking guy sat down. Me and my friend Kolja were sitting as well. He looked at me and I don’t know why he said: ´See and I would have guessed that you’re the Ukrainian and he is the Czech. Because Kolja´s face was pale and sort of Czech round one he thought he was Czech. And I said: ´No no I’m Czech and he is an Ukrainian.´ and Kolja said then: ´No, I’m the Ukrainian´ then he got up and whispered something in this guy’s ear. His attitude changed right away. Then I found out that one of Kolja´s relatives was the Bandera´s force member."

"They took us to the train station where we got ready for the transfer. Because everything was a secret we had no idea where we’re going. I was standing between the rails and looking for some small stones, because it was a goods train. It was in winter, around the end of March. It was still freezing outside. Just when I walked away from my group I heard the air attack. It was already night when the Germans started to bombing us. Seventeen our friends died there that night and also many Russian soldiers. I didn’t know what to do, because when it hit I was just between the rails and the pieces of the broken rails were falling around me. So I jumped in the hole and was covered with water up to my chin. Bud I managed to survive. After the air attack was over I returned immediately to our group. It wasn’t too far, just about 200 meters. My first words when I got there were: Vladku! I called my brother. Vlado! He and his friend were lucky. I found them hiding in a huge hole which was there from the previous air attack. Then I saw other Russian soldiers coming out of their hiding places. I saw one who’s legs were both broken and twisted backwards. As I said before during this air attack seventeen of ours soldiers died."

"Once, some older Transcarpathinian Ukrainian soldier told me (there were a lot of Ukrainian soldiers in our troop, because this territory used to be former Czechoslovakian property, but after the war it became Russian territory): ´Listen, Zaslocky, would you like to go to Śniatyń town? ´ a polish town located about seven kilometers from us. And it was on Sunday, so we had the day off. He asked me if I’d like to go there. And I agreed so we went to ask our commander and he allowed us to go. We bought something there too. Those polish stores were still open. I bought a comb and those kinds of things. I used to have much more hair than I have now. We stayed about two or three hours and then headed back to our unit there in the forest. We didn’t go back through the woods though, but we used the field path instead. Alongside this path was the phone link. And all of a sudden some Ukrainian girl came to us. I was still only a corporal at that time, but he (Mr. Pekar - my company) was already sergeant. He started to talk to this girl; he always liked to talk to girls. And she said: ´What a beautiful gun you have.´ And he told her: ´Would you like to try it? And she replied: ´I’d love to.´ He took out his gun and handed it to her. She pulled the trigger and we heard the tinkling. One of the telephone wires fell down. It didn’t take even fifteen minutes and he Russians arrived in the Jeep and began to investigate us. They took Mr. Pekar and that girl and told me to leave. Mr. Pekar told me: ´Don’t report anything please, but if I’m not back in twenty four hours then go and report it.´ so I got back to our unit and didn’t say anything. But I was afraid. I told myself I better go and report it, because it is not fun if they arrested him. What if there would be a court hearing? These telephone wires were used as a front link. The Russians were using all telephone wires that were usable. But when I got up in the morning and went outside for the lining up, he was standing in the line already. He managed to escape through the bathroom window. This was just his nature. He got this friend of his. Some Mr. Nesucha. They both were the Transcarpathinian Ukrainians. They were together in all kinds of troubles before. Once, somewhere by Kiev, they left some water inside of the tank and because it was freezing at night and it damaged the tank. They were both signed for the penal troop on the USSR front. They have been told to bring a „yazick“. In Russian language it means to find some alive German that would be able to testify. So they stayed hidden in their ditch with a binocular for about three days and were watching some bush moving around changing its position. So they got out one night and went to check that out. They stabbed one German and brought another live one with them. For this heroic act they have been rewarded with the War Cross medal and sent back to the regular troop. So that was Mr. Pekar. What a brilliant soldiers."

"It has been decided that the fights will go on. They have taken our tank troop from the 1st brigade of General Grechko and assigned us to the 38th brigade of General Moskalenko. Our soldiers knew this brigade well from the previous Kiev battles, where they fought led by General Moskalenko. They moved us a little closer toward the front line again. We were about ten kilometers from the front in the woods of Zory, in German language they called it Zorhau. We were hiding in the woods for three days and were getting ready for the action. We or not even our commander didn’t know when it will start. We only knew, there will be some operation, but we had no idea when. They kept it secret from us. Because the Germans were spying on us and they have had their snoopers everywhere. Then in the morning of March 24th as we all got ready we heard the warning alarm. All crews hurried to their tanks, started the engines and we were on the road going through the wood in no time. It was a paved road by coincidence. Here we waited for the attack signal. I remember myself getting out of the tank and walking around it, because we were waiting there for quite some time. I waited. By the tank radio - each tank had its radio- was the shooter named Isidor Vanek, who unfortunately died later. He was also waiting for the order. And then all of a sudden we heard this awful noise. That was after 11am I think. It was the artillery setting up for the action. In the wood, just on the right side from us katyusha rockets were hiding under the shrubs. But we didn’t know about it, because we were not allowed to move away from the tank. When the katyusha fired off I was shocked and jumped into the tank. Then in few seconds we heard: Forward! "

„Because the Slovak National Uprising was proceeding already we were moving closer toward the Czechoslovak border line in tanks. We made some breaks of course. We approached to Dukla Pass. We have been placed in polish villages located near by Dukla Pass. Only foot soldiers could fight at Dukla Pas due to its heavy landscape. There were only hills all over. You could find very few of our tanks there. A lot of people got killed there. The Germans were on top of the hills and our troops were attacking them from the bottom positions. I would like to point out one thing though- The Slovaks were the ones who caused this bad situation. I’m not afraid to say it loud, although nobody talks about it much. But they caused it. Dukla town was located about forty kilometers away from the Slovakia-Poland border. The whole border line territory was under the Slovak army control all the way to Dukla Pass. The leader officer flew over to Russian front and told the Russians: ´Help us against Germans and we will help you to cross the Dukla Pass.´ Why we call it Pass? There were hills all over there and only one road leading from Dukla to Presov town. That’s why they called it Dukla Pass. Anyway, the Russian head officers yelled at this Slovak chief officer: ´What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be organizing the operation back at your headquarters.´ but guess what happened. The Slovak soldiers revealed everything to Germans. The German troops disarmed the Slovaks, brought in some of their divisions from the west, took the main positions which were done perfectly by Slovak army and therefore they now stood against us. The original plan was that if the Slovaks would turn against Germans, we would have been able to cross the border in only six days and reach Presov town. Only six days. But it took us three months instead."