European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

and I had some grazes on the leg.

The legs, always in long boots, were eaten by lice.

This was the time when you could take your boots off, taking time to scratch your feet stung by lice.

It resulted in festering wounds and infections. I had high fever, I couldn’t walk.

The commander took out the maps and tried to figure out how to get away.

He spread these maps and I saw how calm he was.

After all, the cannonade around meant we were going to fight.

And he was just lying there calm, on this blanket looking at the maps.

Apparently trying to get us all away from this trap the best way.

We had this cadet on horseback.

We asked him to ride to the left, to the right of the forest to find the best getaway out of the forest.

He tried a couple of times in various directions and each time he came back saying we were surrounded and there was no way out.

All of a sudden one man says: ‘Guys, let’s think, we need to do something. What?’

Well, but people try to save themselves to the very end. And there were thorn bushes.

There was no chance to get inside.

But somehow they managed to push the bushes down with their guns.

One would hold the thickets and another one would get there underneath these sharp bushes.

So we got inside these bushes and reckoned no one would find us there.

And inside we made this kind of clearing large enough for us.