Page:Diary of a Prisoner in World War I by Josef Šrámek.pdf/15

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a real bullet rain. A bullet missed my head but hit my coat. I counted 23 holes in it. We stay in Serb trenches.

November 7

We entered Krupanja and patrolled the entrance to the town. We cooked hens. The artillery is going toward Valyevo, which still endures. With great enthusiasm we think we have now won the war; there are even some prophets saying we will be home by Christmas. After all that's what Wilhelm the Almighty[1] said!

November 13

Going to Zavlaka, doing a parade in front of the corps leader at night. Me and cadet Brejnik go to patrol in the hills. We are covered with snow by the morning. It's freezing. We find half of a pig and cabbage—we are cooking. We stay in the kutchas and eat dried plums.

November 16

Back to the camp. There are many prisoners in there—we are taking 1300 of them to Lozhnica. It was terribly muddy on the way back so I stayed in a kutcha overnight. I went to Zavlaka the next morning and found the village covered by water. The hard rain, and maybe the Serbs too, caused the flood. Our train and the bakeries are underwater. The battalion is gone, and I am in the water, which reaches up to my waist, for an hour-long

  1. Wilhelm II, German emperor, ally of the Hungaro-Austrian empire

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