We Can Prove Ourselves Through Our Deeds
Szöveg: Péter Snoj | 2015. január 13. 9:00The Limanowa hussar memorial foray was one of last year’s most interesting undertakings. Eight active-duty soldiers and reservists of the Hungarian Defence Forces went horseback riding along a route which had been taken a century ago by their hussar forebears on their way to the front in Galicia. We interviewed Col. Barnabás Ádám, the commander of the foray about the hardships of the journey and the emotional added value.
There being no tradition or previous examples to follow, Col. Barnabás Ádám – the commander of the HDF vitéz Szurmay Sándor Budapest Garrision Brigade 32nd National Honvéd Parade Unit – took the lead in a newly organized team.
“I owe much to the memorial foray. Among other things, I had opportunity to take a glimpse into the way the old army may have been organized. I was new to the men, we were strangers to one another. But they submitted to my leadership always and everywhere, showing their respect and love to me", the colonel said, adding that it was during the journey that he came to understand those old military songs in which soldiers sing about their commanders and their looking after their welfare.
Col. Ádám told us that he was responsible for providing catering and billet for his men all along the memorial foray. As we now know, the soldiers’ unconditional trust in their commander was no accident, since they successfully completed the two-and-a-half week journey and they always had a place to sleep. “I was honored to be their commander", Barnabás Ádám said.
During the challenge, the riders made friends and went through a lot of experiences and touching moments. “As soon as we set off, the civil society stood by us and supported us all along", the colonel said. A proof of this is the “heroes’ wreath" that the hussars preserved from the start until reaching Limanowa in Poland. The wreath was decorated with ribbons and little flags at each municipality where they stopped. “By the end of the journey, it had become a real bunch of flowers, and we finally laid it in Limanowa as a token of tribute to the heroes."
“During the memorial foray, one of the best feelings was to set my mind at ease. When we fed every horse in the evening and I arranged for supper and a place for my men to sleep, and drew up a schedule for the next three days, I was able to set my mind at ease", the colonel said. He told us that an even greater and more touching experience had been to see the civilians invoking a kind of time travel for him and his men. As he said, one cannot anticipate such feelings in the planning phase, so they come as surprise.
“They respected our performance and »passed us round«. Some were crying on our arrival, and children ran after us. In Upper Hungary, the words of welcome were »Here come the hussars, our hussars!«", Col. Ádám said, adding that they were in good people’s hands all along, and that he was especially pleased to have been able to prove that present-day soldiers can deliver the same performance as the heroes we remember today.
Of course, where there is a peak, there must be a low too. The nadir of the memorial foray was in Pilis Hills. It was already pouring when they left Várpalota, and the rain didn’t stop on the Hungarian section of the route. After a while, it started sleeting, and the sleet froze on the trees. That was when they reached the route through Pilis Hills. Silence was broken only by the trotting of horses and the noise of falling branches and trunks coming from far and near. “We had no choice but to ride on, because you’re better off riding on than staying still and waiting for what happens", the colonel said recalling those hours, adding that they were lucky to have completed the whole journey without injury, but the weather was a great challenge all along. “The weather was the only thing that caused us big problems already in the planning phase and in practice too. Our clothes and boots got wet almost from day one, and had no time to dry off until the end of the journey", the commander of the memorial foray told us.
The colonel added that thanks to the training they had done before the foray, they were able to cope with all difficulties. The Limanowa hussar memorial foray has attained its goal. They took the heroes’ wreath – with countless municipalities’ ribbons on it – to the hussars’ memorial site. “We can prove ourselves to our forebears through our deeds. I can feel we’ve succeeded in it. I had a feeling all the way, as if we had been led by someone riding ahead of us and showing us the right direction. I believe that the hussar heroes were with us on our journey", Col. Barnabás Ádám said in assessing the foray.
Photos by the author and MTI
