The assault at Malý Roudnik — the price of a junction
The assault at Malý Roudnik — a maneuver that must not be paid for with blind arrogance
The situation in our operational sector is accelerating fast. The Polish 18th Mountain Brigade is falling back from the Sokolina-Głucha ridge toward the Czech border through the Zagorské Sedlo saddle. At headquarters in Kholmichany some are already drawing arrows of swift victory toward Malý Roudnik and further to Ostrava, but I have seen too many battles to give in to that intoxication. Yes, the morale of the Poles has cracked after a night of continuous shelling of the reverse slope; they are falling back under pressure and losing cohesion. But I caution against writing them off prematurely. A wounded mountain unit, driven into a forest switchback and knowing the Czech 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade is right behind it, bites back very hard. They still have 120 mm mortars, anti-tank missile pairs, and an intimate knowledge of every gully around Wilcza Poręba. Treating them as harmless would be a fatal mistake.
Moreover, the situation on the line itself is growing more complex. The approaches to the reception line at Malý Roudnik and the stream crossing are being reinforced by the fresh Czech 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade — well-equipped forces tasked with receiving the retreating Poles and forming a solid screen. If the remnants of the Polish 18th manage to regroup behind that line, we will not be facing a fractured enemy but a coordinated defense anchored on prepared positions at the culvert and on the dominant hill Wilcza-1.
Our command is preparing a mass assault on the Krzywoń-Górna junction and onward to Malý Roudnik. From an operational standpoint the direction makes sense — Krzywoń-Górna connects the two rail branches that the Czechs are using to feed reinforcements into Malý Roudnik, and capturing the junction breaks the logistical spine of the entire southern wing. However, the risks are immense, and no one in the rear should have any illusions:
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The trap of switchbacks and karst: The approaches to Krzywoń-Górna run along a narrow ridge road cut through karst clefts and the tunnels of old shale workings. Here our armor loses its maneuver, and every switchback becomes a ready-made ambush site.
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Overextended logistics lines: As we push deeper into the saddle, our fuel tankers and ammunition trucks are forced to move along a single serpentine ribbon behind the assault columns. As I wrote before — without fuel and shells, the most elegantly planned attack turns into a meat grinder.
And there is one more reality eating at my conscience — something that turns my stomach as a veteran who remembers what true comradeship meant. Look closely at who is going in the first wave through the minefields at the Krzywoń-Górna underpass, who is storming the stone spurs beneath Sokolina, and who is filling the manifests at the field hospital in Kholmichany. It is not the sons of the elite comfortably settled in the Capital. The comfortable classes in the center drink their morning coffee in heated cafes, safely shielded by exemptions, connections, and bureaucratic paperwork, completely detached from the stench of cordite over the hollow.
The brunt of this bloody push is borne almost entirely by the disadvantaged — the lads from mountain auls in the North Caucasus, from timber-cutter villages by Baikal, from forgotten factory towns and reindeer camps, who had no choice in life and nowhere else to turn. They are the ones paying the horrifying toll on this ridge. When these boys fall on the switchback above Wilcza Poręba, an entire generation of working hands vanishes from communities that were already barely surviving.
The assault at Malý Roudnik must not become a reckless meat grinder that treats the poorest among us as cheap, expendable fuel. A just cause demands prudence, precise artillery support, and genuine equality of sacrifice. If our state wants to claim moral standing, it cannot protect the sons of the Capital while bleeding the mountain periphery dry. We need commanders who value every single life on the line — especially those from the margins who have given everything for this flag.
