ABSTRACT
It was the middle of May 1945. The war was behind us. The units of the 72nd Pavlovsk Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Rifle Division were encamped in the area of the town of Horˇice, in northern Czechoslovakia. Our 9th Leningrad, Order of Kutuzov Artillery Regiment was “quartered” in a small grove near the road connecting the towns of Horˇice and Miletin, almost halfway between them, but somewhat closer to Miletin. Cars and trucks were parked in a long row at the edge of the grove – staff cars, cargo trucks, and artillery tractors. They were parked with their backs toward the forest, ready to drive out. Guns were attached to the tractors, with their barrels hidden in the branches of the grove. Immediately inside the grove, tents assembled out of improvised materials were scattered between the trees. We had prepared “double occupancy rooms” out of two ground sheets and had covered their triangular pediments with trophy German camouflage covers. In some places, we prepared entire “cottages” for a squad or a gun crew, which we constructed out of the tarpaulin [canvas] covers taken off a truck. Sentries with submachine guns, almost invisible in the forest, were all around us. The field kitchens were deployed at the end of the row of cars and smoke was continuously rising from them.
