Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/17



Something is going on. I think we will run away. We are here as the "rückzugbedeckung." We lie in the snow, hungry every day. It is really strange that I have been escaping an injury or death so far.

It is all in vain! We've been firing for the 4$th$ day now. The Serbs are all around. For 4 days now, we've had no food, no officers, and we've kept the last hill. Today I was in a real rain of bullets 3 times. The unit is destroyed; each of us has run a different direction. Grenades crackle in the snow around me. I am dead tired. At night I sit at the fire with the Hungarians.

Suddenly the Serbs were here: "Bacaj puški!" [Drop your guns.] I was taken prisoner. The Serbs robbed us immediately. I didn't want to give them my bag. A Serb hit me with the butt end of his gun, and I fell down. Then the Serb artillery came in, and I was saved.