Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/7

 some of them the words “freedom“ and “Bohemia“ often recurred. We sang the songs not only on the road, but when passing through the villages, and the Czech population understood us, if the Germans did not.

We were kept three days at the first village to drill and wait for orders. On the fourth day the orders came, and we were marched off at once. In the evening we came to a railway station, where we were put aboard a train and started off during the night. We were always accompanied by a German regiment. A German regiment preceded us and a German regiment followed us. We anxiously questioned whither we were going. The word came that it was to the River San. This was bad news. So, at least, we imagined. If we wanted to throw down our arms, a river front might be the very worst place. We should have to swim across. Many of us might not be able to swim. The Austrians would see it and turn their guns on us as we tried to cross. The Russians might not understand us and fire on us too. We hoped it would be somewhere in the Carpathians, or at least on a hill. If we held positions on a hill it would be much easier to contrive to signal to the Russians somewhere below where our signals would not be seen by the Austrian command at the back. All these thoughts passed through the minds of some of us.

It was with these thoughts that we fell asleep. Gradually the first tumultuous impressions of the war as we were beginning to see it passed. We sat listlessly in our trains, which kept moving hither and thither for days, as if looking for the River San. We never got to the river till some time in September. When we got there we had hurriedly to be shifted back because the Russians had been victorious on the very River San, and were crossing it at numerous points. So much the better, thought we. Perhaps, after all, we shall not have to fight. The Russians will beat the Austrians before these have a chance of throwing us into the battle.

We were suddenly awaknedawakened [sic] from these reflections when one morning we landed at a village called Gremboff, in Galicia. The battle was raging about twenty kilometres away, and we heard the guns for the first time. They startled us out of our sleep with a violent shock, and we looked at each other. It might have been about Sept. 10, 1914. I have no recollection of the exact date. But every hour the sound of the guns became more intense and seemed to move nearer, like an approaching storm. We then realised what it was to be after all, only reserve troops. Our regiment was a regiment of reserves, and the others had to stand the brunt of the battle first. But what if the others were beaten and we should suddenly get orders?