Of course foreigners were primitive, simple and old fashioned if one looked at them as such. Their houses and way of living was very different from what we were used to back home, but I quickly experienced that they were friendly, helpful and usually worthy of some trust. It was obvious that they loved their nation, and it was clear that we were not their friends when we had been given the job of fighting their fathers, husbands and sons. But if the magnitude and scale of it all was ignored and only looked at the relationships from person to person, then they were alright. It should not be expected that regular people only think rationally in the event of a war like this, and I did not. Perhaps in a civil war, where everyone does anything possible to exterminate their opponents, but not in a war like this. We were firstly showed solidarity with our fellow people, just as they did with us.
Throughout a conflict one has to realise who the enemy actually is, when we were shooting, we were not shooting at people, but enemies. The foreigners were as excused from starting the war as the regular soldiers were. Obviously our relationship with the locals was uneven since we did not ask for permission to use their houses, but rather took it for granted that we could use their houses when we had to, and eat their food when we were hungry. When that is taken into account it is of course necessary to say that they were forced to help us, but usually we had enough food and did not have to take from any civilians, it is of course also worth mentioning that it was not permitted for us to plunder and take what we wanted.
Everything considered it was going very well when we behaved like regular people, who thanked the locals for their hospitality. Unfortunately I did experience abuses of the civilian population, but more of that later - Evil is present in peace as well as in war.
The relationship with the locals were, put simply, very good. As long as we behaved, they behaved. It was clear that we were doing something right when the locals almost daily ran to us to trade with us. One of the first places where we had to set up a camp, a local woman approached me. She said she would wash some of my underwear in exchange for getting to keep some soap. I did not know if I would ever see it again, but next morning the woman delivered a small stack of clean, washed underwear. It was perhaps only a little insignificant event but I appreciated the honesty.
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Our train ride to the front ended at a little train station a bit before a major city, only 600 km away from the foreigners capital. We packed up our equipment from the train and marched to a small neighbouring village placed next to a large river. We set up our camp in a lightly forested area where the weather was so good that it convinced everyone to sleep under the open sky, none of us bothered to set up our tents. The first couple of days had plenty of time to enjoy the fine weather, we went for marches along the banks of the river but had plenty of time to rest and go explore the local small settlements. After a small period of time doing this, we were informed that we had to proceed forward yet again, we would daily march up to 50 kilometers before we reached our destination, where the 150 young soldiers with whom I had traveled, had to be split up into 3 different companies in the new batallion.
Roughly 50 people were added to each company in order to reinforce them to full strength, after they had sustained casualties during the first campaigns in the march to the capital.
Exactly where I was at this time I could not with certainty say. What our specific task was, I was not informed of. We were regular soldiers and had no use for any knowledge other than to proceed forward, and to remove the threat from foreign soldiers, and any partisans. The big tactical and strategic considerations where made far higher up. I could only through conversation with some of the more experienced soldiers come to the realisation of what was going on in the war as a whole.
The generals had split our offensive into three fronts which had to advance. Front 16 had to attack a populated urban region, to cut off major cities. Front 17 had to capture several cities, in order to allow an attack on the enemy capital, while Front 18 were to occupy major industrial areas. My company was part of Front 17, and since we had arrived a bit late, the first major city had already fallen. When we finally joined the company, we were past the city, but still 400 kilometers from the capital. Our new company commander was a little scrawny man with large glasses, and his speech he made upon our arrival disappointed me very much. He started off with reminding us of our duties as soldiers at the front, but ended with a threat: If we ever in any way wavered in front of the enemy he would maintain discipline with his service pistol, he said.
It was an utter insult to be met with such a large amount of distrust to start off with, I thought to myself.