“At Rogow, one of our tanks (coincidentally, its name was again Cilc) tried to cross some railway tracks. It was blasted to pieces and the machine gunners didn’t manage to jump down and run away. I was on the tank behind it so I released a smoke screen that covered my tank and enabled me to escape and hide behind the surrounding buildings. Another two tanks that were behind me were hit by enemy fire. It actually weren’t the tanks themselves that got hit, it was their commanders who were looking out of them. They both got hit in the arm. Both - Záslocký and Andrašík – had to run to the rear and get treated.”
“We looked around a bit. Then I grabbed a handful of soil and licked it. I kissed the soil because I had said that if we manage to cross the border I would kiss the soil. I kept my promise and I was identified as a fellow countryman. That made me feel good.”
“Under Polish rule there was a lot of schools in the city. There was a Ukrainian school, a Czech school, a Jewish school… to cut it short, everyone had his own school. It’s interesting though that every school had its own uniform. I went to a Polish school and therefore I was wearing an edgy cap. There also was a boys’ school and a girls’ school. The girls had a green strap on their caps and the boys had a red strap. There simply were many peculiarities. As long as I went to school there were no animosities between the nationalities, because in my class all the ethnics were represented. Although it was a Polish school there were Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Polish and Czech students… this were all the nationalities living in Volhynia. It’s possible to say that this was in fact an international school. Of course, there were occasional frays but it was just the usual thing all young guys do.”
“When the Soviets came the so-called “national antagonisms” disappeared but other problems rose up. Large numbers of Poles were deported into the depths of the Soviet Union where they were supposed to colonize territories and work. The Ukrainians got a large share of the say now. The Polish police was replaced by Soviet militias which consisted to a considerable part of Ukrainians. The wealthier and nationally minded Ukrainians were deported as well because they were uncomfortable for the Soviet government, too. The wealthier Czechs encountered the same fate. The consequence of this was that the number of deported families from our city rose to considerable proportions. That was in 1942.”
“Those of us who worked for the railways also started to participate in the resistance. I collaborated with a guerilla unit. My activities are described in a Polish book whose name is What the railroad rang for. Because the Germans were short of workforce they employed young lads like us from the school of railroad engineering. In our city there was railroad crossing and four locomotive depots. That’s where I had to work repairing locomotives. While working I could observe what was going on at the railway station – what trains arrived and where they are going, what kind of cargo they are carrying etc. I then informed the partisans about my observations.”
“Our tank got hit during a night combat operation. I was the driver of the tank and above me stood company lieutenant Romaný. Romaný was killed by the hit. The gunner was wounded in the back and I got hit in the head by some tiny splinters. My head hurt terribly. Our tank got hit in the place where we kept the signal flares. That made us jump out of the tank as quickly as possible because you have no idea what it is like when a signal flare goes off in a tank where it cannot escape. The cabin of the tank was on fire and we didn’t know where to take cover. The tank then received further hits – a part of the tank’s shell was completely missing. The next hit was in the fuel tank – fortunately there was very little diesel fuel left. The tank was eventually immobilized. We got out of the tank and I tried to drag out the commander as I thought he’d only been wounded. But as I pulled him up his lower torso stayed at my feet – the hit had cut him in two. After I jumped out of the tank my head hurt terribly but I knew I had to get away. There was a building close to the tank so I ran there. A German soldier stepped out of the house and aimed his gun at me. I thought it was only a wooden stick so I thrust it down. He got slammed in the face with the rifle butt and I ran around the corner of the house. This probably saved my life. Behind the house there was another German but he didn’t have his rifle ready. We looked each other in the eyes and then we both ran away – each one in the opposite direction. I ran across the meadow all the way to the ditch where our soldiers were.”
“We found out rather by chance (we didn’t even have a radio set) that we’d be enlisted to the Czechoslovak army. It was our great wish and so before long I joined the army. The general staff was in Rovno at that time. They enrollment office was there as well so we had to get there. As the Soviets didn’t permit us to travel in a carriage, we had to go there in a railroad car full of coal. Since it was only 12 kilometers it wasn’t that bad but as railway workers we felt humiliated by it. I joined the army in April 1944.”
“At home we spoke exclusively Czech! But that’s not all. Czech had a lively tradition in Volhynia. We talked Czech with our friends. There were a lot of Czech associations and clubs. There was even a Czech branch of the Scout. I wasn’t a member of it. I was more drawn to football. But we went to Czech theaters where you could see performances in Czech by Czech actors. We also participated in Czech societies where Czech books and even fairytales were often read.”
“Home was very, very close already. We already had a small flag in the tank that we wanted to plant into Czechoslovak soil. But almost all tanks were eliminated. Maybe as few as one tank remained…”
Vladimír Palička was born 27.1.1923 in Zdolbunov, Volhynia. His grandparents came to Volhynia in the middle of the nineteenth century in search of better life. His father was in the Czechoslovak legions and after the war he worked in the railway depot. Before the war started Mr. Palička attended a Polish and a Czech elementary school. He then started to study an engineering school but couldn‘t finish it due to the arrival of the Germans. In 1942 - 1944 he worked as a locomotive serviceman. In 1942 he started to work for the resistance movement; he cooperated with a guerilla group that he supplied with information regarding the movement and the cargo of train convoys. His activities are described in the book What the railroad rang for (it appeared in Polish only). In 1944 he joined the Czechoslovak army and was assigned to the tank corps. He fought in battles at Dukla and in Silesia. He was driving an armored vehicle for a couple of days. Then he was assigned the task of training Silesian volunteers in Albertov. After the war Mr. Palička stayed in the army. He accomplished a school in the Soviet Union and he did distance learning at the Military Academy in Brno. He most often held pedagogical positions. For example, he taught at the military training center in Vyškov, at the Military Faculty of the Charles University and at the Higher School of tank officers in Doksy. He was also employed in the Tank Research Institute in Doksy. In the present he is actively involved in many associations that are related to the Second World War. He devotes most of his time to Czechoslovak Community of Legionaries. He died on 14th of December 2012 in Prague.
Group of noncommissioned officers from tank battalion: Kneller, from left: Carboch, Pražák, Pozner, Standing: Ostašov, Rampas, Palička, Porazík, Cilo (?), Tvrzník. Porazík and Palička with war cross
Group of noncommissioned officers from tank battalion: Kneller, from left: Carboch, Pražák, Pozner, Standing: Ostašov, Rampas, Palička, Porazík, Cilo (?), Tvrzník. Porazík and Palička with war cross
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