I was so happy now. Every morning I awakened with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. For were we not going to free our dear, our native land, of the usurper? We again sang our native songs, which we had not been allowed to sing in the land of our birth; sang them so often that we came to be known as "The Singing Czecho-Slovaks." Whatever state we came from, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, or Slovakia, we were quite united now, and had only one word for each other and that word was "Brother."

And in the spirit in which we sang, we also fought. No longer did the Germans and Magyars call us cowards. They now called us "red and white devils," because of the colors on our hats. At the famous charge at Zborov, there was almost a religious exaltation as we marched to the field singing the glorious hymn of the Hussites: "All Ye Warriors of God." Here we captured sixty-two officers, and three thousand one hundred and fifty soldiers, fifteen guns and many machine guns, turning most of the latter against the enemy.

But our bravery did little good, the Russians were deserting the army so fast.

In 1917, I was slightly wounded. This prevented my taking part in the terrible battle at Tarnapol, in Galicia, where our men were entirely abandoned by the Russian troops. It was a wonderful charge they made, the men rushing in where danger was thickest and resisting to the last, and the officers blowing out their brains rather than surrender.

When the Germans invaded Bessarabia, before preparing to resist them, we bound ourselves by a most sacred oath:

"In the name of our national honor, in the name of all that is most dear to us as men and as Czecho-Slovaks, with full realization of this step, we swear to fight alongside of our allies to the last drop of our blood, against all of our enemies, until we have obtained complete liberation of our Czecho-Slovak nation, until the Czech and Slovak lands are reunited into a free and independent Czecho-Slovak state, until our nation is absolutely mistress of her destinies.

"We solemnly promise, whatever may be the danger and whatever may be the circumstances, without fear and hesitation, never to abandon the sacred goal of our fight.

"As faithful and honorable soldiers, heirs of our noble history, cherishing the heroic deeds of our immortal chiefs and martyrs, Jan Hus and Jan Zizka of Trocnov, we promise to remain worthy of them, never to flee from battle, to shirk no danger, to obey the orders of our officers, to venerate our flags and standards, never and under no circumstances beg for our lives from our enemy and never to surrender with weapons in our hands, to love our companions as brothers and to give them aid in danger, to have no fear of death, to sacrifice all, even our lives, for the freedom of our fatherland.

"So freely, without pressure of any sort, we pledge ourselves to act, and so shall we act. Such is the duty imposed upon us by honor and fidelity toward our people and our country."

After the Bolsheviks gained complete control of the government, the Czecho-Slovak army numbered sixty thousand. We waited hoping that things would change for the better, until the disgusting Peace of Brest-Litovsk, in February, 1918. Then we could not but see that our only chance of continuing the fight for freedom was to get to France. Through Professor Masaryk, free passage to Vladivostok was granted us by the Bolsheviks.

It was no little thing that we undertook to do. It would have been a big enough enterprise, even under the most favorable conditions. There was a journey of over five thousand miles across Eastern Russia and Asia, and then across the Pacific, across Canada or the United States, and finally across the Atlantic. In other words, we were willing to undertake a trip around the world in order to fight for freedom. In the Russian part, we had to procure our trains and provisions, and negotiate with practically independent Soviets in every district.

Since concentration at stations was prohibited, we started for the Pacific in small detachments. Everywhere we were urged to join the Red Guard with promises of high pay and good living. But although we had little to eat, we refused the bribe. We were in demand, for afterwards, Gen. Kornilov, and Kaledines, the Cossack hetman, each tried to gain our help. Again we refused, unwilling to interfere in Russian internal affairs.

When we reached Penza, we had a disagreeable surprise. Being the last to leave the front, we were well armed and had many cannon, machine guns and other equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars, that would otherwise have fallen into the hands of the Germans. These we were asked to surrender on orders from headquarters, retaining only a few rifles and a few hand grenades to each train. So anxious were we to leave Russia without a fight, that we obeyed the order.

Later we heard that about this same time in Irkutsk, a train division of our men was surrounded by three thousand of the Red Guard, mainly former German and Magyar prisoners, and under German officers, all well armed and with many machine guns. Our men had only one gun to every ten men, but when the German officer gave the command to shoot, the Czechs rushed barehanded at them, captured their guns, and in half an hour had control of the station.

Even then the Moscow authorities were begged by Masaryk, and by the French, British, and American consuls that our troops be allowed to proceed in peace. Instead, Trotsky ordered every Czecho-Slovak soldier caught with arms to be shot at sight.

At Vertunovka we had a long wait. We employed it in decorating the box cars in which we traveled, in ways to remind us of the old brave days of Jan Hus and Jan Zizka, when the Czechs of Bohemia held all of astonished Europe at bay for almost a quarter of a century. As we worked, we each resolved to prove ourselves worthy of these ancestors.

Some of the boys added inscriptions to the decorations, such as, "Long live Little Father Masaryk and the Allies," and put Czech and Slovak flags about so that our cars really looked very nice, each platoon striving to have theirs the best.

As we made our way, by fair means when we could, by force when necessary, we found Magyar and Germans in control everywhere. Our very own first conflict came when a Magyar in a train of prisoners hit one of our men with a piece of iron, injuring him very seriously. We thought him killed and rushed to the train and demanded the surrender of the murderer. This led to more trouble. We had few arms, but took up rocks and followed the train into the city, singing as we marched. The Soviet buildings were deserted when we reached them, and evidently in a hurry, for we found some rifles which we seized with thanksgiving.

After this delay we resolved to pay no more attention to delays ordered by the Bolsheviki, but to push on as quickly as possible to Vladivostok. Fighting now began in earnest. Everywhere success was with us. Our spirit would allow of no defeat. When we were menaced, we took the enemy by surprise; we had set out to get to France and we intended getting to France, no matter what difficulties we had to meet and conquer. We seized trains; we took city after city. While the Bolshevik propaganda failed to appeal to us, it was not it so much we fought as the objection of its supporters to, and lack of comprehension of our love of country. We knew that the Magyars and the Germans who were with the Russian Bolsheviks, fought us not so much because of our lack of sympathy with the doctrines they professed, as because of our nationality.

In the meantime, our forces constantly grew by means of new recruits. Our fame grew also as we advanced. Sometimes the mere rumor that the Czecho-Slovaks were coming, caused the enemy to flee. And all through Siberia, we were welcomed by the real inhabitants as deliverers. By the end of two weeks, three thousand miles of railroad were in our hands.

Then, when finally we reached Vladivostok, on the Pacific, we found that we were not to go to France after all, that the Allies thought we had a more important work to do where we were, especially in keeping the railroad, and hence the wealth of Siberian grain and mineral, from reaching the Central Powers. This was also fighting for liberty, and, without a murmur, we accepted our new duty.