Jan Lewczuk
Class Va
Wisznice, 19 June 1946
My most important wartime experience
One Sunday morning the front came to our village. We heard gunfire and machine guns rattling, as the Germans were fleeing from Russia. German planes flew overhead. The Germans were torturing and killing Poles.
They ran so fast that they left their cannons and three projectiles near the road. When I went out on the road, I saw three Germans riding horses – it was a patrol, and right behind the patrol there was German infantry, then there were cars and cavalry. Then, there was a line of cannons – half an hour later, the Russian infantry arrived, and the partisans in the forest were fighting the Germans.
People were running away with horses and cattle into the surrounding woods. When the Soviets saw the horses, they took [them] away and exchanged them [for something]. The Soviet army went into the woods, set up their cannons and the battle began. [It lasted] from lunch until evening.