Dimitrij Somol

"About three days before the January 15th 1945 they invited us to the chief of staff of the battery for a meeting. It was in some big Polish farm house. The meeting took a place in one big room then and was led by some Soviet Lt.-Col. And then all of a sudden a bang! The windows clattered. Bang again. He took the phone and asked: ´Whose battalion is shooting at us? Destroy! It is spoiling our meeting here.´ And that minute I knew we will win the war. If they have had it all figured out, they knew where everything was, who was shooting from where etc. all kinds of precautions. Of course the fire started after this and last for over an hour. I had to sign down, that I will destroy these two targets. But as I was firing there, somebody else was firing here. If I moved over there somebody else was firing here. It was only nonsense what we had to sign. But they were so perfectly ready for all that that I must have admire them. And that morning I have believed that we will win the war."

"They brought several anti-tank and antipersonnel mines there. And that was really something. It was already near to Ondava River. Germans mined it completely there. The river ran there and there was a downhill. So the Germans were higher than we were so they could see us clearly and also our troops and regiments. We were supposed to watch a passage of the river long about 32 kilometers. Every hundred meters was one soldier. That was absolutely not enough, because it was only first and the third brigades. The second brigade was parachutist brigade. So there was nobody here on this place. The soldiers were dropped down at the back and moved to the mountains. That was bad. And now all these mines. The anti-tank mine is not dangerous for the foot soldier, because it needs a load pressure of 250 kilo to explode. So either a car or a tank can activate it. These mines were iron made, or glass ones or made of bakelite. But our boys had plenty of experiences with these, so they knew how to de-activate them. When he found one, or he dug it from the ground he found a fusing mechanism in the middle. And if he unscrewed it, they could play bowling with it. It looks like a big disk. And it looks the same on the antipersonnel mines. But they are much more dangerous, because they only need two and a half kilo to explode. When you step on it, then...They used to me made also out of wood. It looked like a wooden box. Or they were made out of bakelite or metal. But the far worst were the so-called S-mines. It was big as a large meat can, with some wires on the top. All it took to explode was to touch the wires. Then the mine would jump one meter up high and then exploded. It could kill everything as far as 30 meters away...These mines were the worst ones. The Germans saw us. Once we found out that the territory is mined we could assume that the Germans won’t use the tanks. So we were safe from the tanks. Only the whole place has been a mine field. Although they knew where they are..., they would have must de-activate them, and that would reveal them."

"My father originally came from Volhynia, but my mother was from Zitomir, which is a territory further on the East of Ukraine. After the war the border line has been parted and Volhynia and Rovno and Lvov towns became Polish unlike the Zitomir remained Russian. My father came to a local pub in the village he lived, because he was the oldest son. This pub was authorized to sell alcohol and vodka. Vodka is a number one product in Ukraine. Unfortunately my father didn’t want to run this kind of business. We lived together with his younger brother and grandma back then. So his brother worked in the pub at the end and my father went to Kiev. Kiev is a capital of Ukraine. It has about one million people. My father became a chairman of bakeries in Kiev. And from what I heard from Mr. Štěpánek, my dad used to employ the prisoners in the bakery. They were Czechs, who served the Austro-Hungarian army and fell in captivity. There were poor living conditions in the cage. The food was bad, there was no bread. There were lice, fleas and everything was dirty. They took the prisoners to work from time to time, but mostly it was misery. And my dad used to bring out the Czechs and made taught them bakers. All of these Czechs later became the Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia. He helped this way to Mr. Štěpánek too. And now he writes about my dad as about very honorable patriot etc. That’s why he mentioned him there." (The author is speaking about a book written by Zděnek Štěpánek called ´Behind the Theater around the World.´)

"On the west side by Jaslo town the fellow troops were weakened by the German army pretty badly. There was a real threat of surrounding of the American and British troops, so they have asked President Stalin to start the offensive fights here. They made a decision to start with to attack them. So the fights began all over the front, all the way from Baltic Sea to Carpathian Mountains. So we went to Poland and stopped near by Jaslo town. The Germans troops were prepared in defensive positions there. They built three ditches, first one, second one, third...But our commanding officer named Jaroslav Perný (he come also from Volhynia), he arranged everything. I was supposed to find the place for our regiment to settle. We were not able to move a bit during the day, so we could only do stuff at nights. During the night we have received the firing positions, where we were going to be and there were sticks with detailed map information on them. So I had to show and explain this to everyone. During the night we also must have dug the firing line, dugout for the operators and some shelter for the ammunition. That had to be also covered to be safe from the weather conditions...Depends on the temperature etc. The common process is short setup, then the regular setup and then the complete setup. The complete preparation means to calculate the wind power, air temperature, dust temperature and all kinds of these funny things. Everything is measured by using the tablet. We did all of this at night and then during the day if someone came any closer, the Soviet soldiers were ordered to shoot them. It was quite freezing outside and a little bit of snow. There was a forest with more snow inside, so our boys would carry the now in some canvases form the forest and covered the ditches with it, so nobody could see them. Then I have received an order to perform the aim. I received two targets. First target was on the first ditch and the second one on the second ditch. They told me exact hour and minute when I can fire. But I have noticed there, that there was a section about seven kilometers long and on just one kilometer was a hundred and fifty cannons, mine throwers, katyusha and other stuff. They were spread deeply and of course wide."

"I saw some tanks approaching. I knew something about tanks from the training they provided, so I recognize these tanks were the T-34 Tiger German tanks. And if there is a Tiger tank it means only one think - either attack or fight back. And there were three or four tanks. Our commander was lying down and slept, or his eyes were closed. I woke him up and told him: ´ Mr. Lieutenant, sir, Germans are attacking us.´ He answered: ´Hmm...´ And that was it. So I woke him up again in few minutes when I saw that the tanks came closer. At that time I also saw the infantry alongside with the tanks. ´The Germans are attacking us, sir.´ I said again. He went only: ´Hmm...´. Then after another two minutes I tried to wake him up again. He said: ´Somol, write down to the record that the Germans are attacking us and that you woke me up.´ Then the phone rang and he received an order to start the fire. I didn’t know, that he is not allowed to start the fire without an order from the staff."