We Made It To Odessa…Now What?

After we had arrived in Odessa we had new problems to deal with. "Transport! Everyone fall in!" Now it was time for roll call to be taken. Oh god, that was something. One answered, the next one didn't…because he was not here. At the end they counted everybody and found that thirty men were missing but we also had twenty too many!

After extensive back and forth we were finally settled into the Brussilow, an old paddle steamer. But oh yea, what a mess. Everything was smashed to pieces. The bearings were either taken out or broken. The lighting system was ripped apart. At one time the cabins had to be very beautiful as was the case with the whole ship. To our inquiries about the condition of the ship we only heard the answer, "The Bolshewiks!" Well, they made a total job of it. This ship seemed to be beyond repair.

We arranged our things only temporarily because we knew that we won't be here long. Then we went to get something to eat. Hear and wonder! Onion roast and rice! After that, white real coffee and cake. Heaven and hell! Is something like this possible for the troops, and that for supper yet? I wondered how the dinner will look. That's all right with us. "Well" I said to Farkas, a Hungarian, "here I won't get sick so soon.

On the following day we were issued uniforms and equipment. Nobody asked if we had received anything in Pola. Whoever had anything left from the trip, he just had more, that's it. Apparently there was no shortage here. I accepted a complete outfit. And in addition I received a pistol with ammunition. This smelled like war. As far as I was concerned, I did not need any of these things. But they impressed on us that we should never go out alone. Only three or four together and never without a pistol. Yes, we were still Austrian mariners. It was said there was danger and you never knew what could happen. We were also cautioned to avoid certain tea houses and restaurants if we didn't want to risk being killed by the Bolshewiks.

How peculiar! Everything was expressed in the form of advice here. Until now, we only knew strict orders along with the threat of from five years in prison up to execution by firing squad. But here we had good food, new uniforms and treatment like we were something special and not just men trained according to Austrian war requirements.

But soon we found out what was behind this puzzle. The Ukraine was an independent state which was occupied by Central European forces. This was not a war zone. With an English, French and Italian consulate here, they could not allow the hard times to take hold. They had to play the middle ground and that was all very fine with us.

Then we were ready to make the rounds. Our amazement grew when we noticed that the soldiers in the eateries and coffee houses held their rifles between their legs. It must really be dangerous here and not one of us had brought a pistol along! But here there was no inspection like it used to be that every man was looked over from head to toe, front and back to make sure he passed the strict regulations. Odessa was a beautiful city and we couldn't get enough of looking around. But when we got tired of walking, we decided to visit a tavern to rest up a little and strengthen ourselves.

Well, it seems to me we might have found one of those dangerous forbidden places. On every table sits a big samovar in which the tea water boils. All around, small cups that are used for the tea. You take the sugar into your mouth and then sip the tea from the cups filled from the samovar. As we enter all faces turn toward us and one of the guests asks "Austrian? German?" We answer to Austrian and a smile of goodwill shows on their faces. Apparently the Germans are not liked very much here. Old grey-bearded worker and some younger ones but all dressed the same…in white up to the neck in snugly tied shirt-blouses held around the hip with a belt.

They debated lively among themselves and since Ukrainian is related to the Croatian language, we understood a few fragments and find out that they debate is about us. We start speaking Croatian among ourselves as well as we can and those over there are listening up. Now the ice is broken. Soon, we are in an interesting discussion with each other and are finding out that we can understand each other relatively well. We could no longer understand what the big danger was.

The two of us were assigned to the steamer Kerkira and had only to watch out that not too many things were stolen. We could not prevent it completely though. We made two trips to the city of Braila in Romania. On November 2, 1918, while we were in Odessa, we recieved our pay onboard the Austrian yacht Taurus. On that occasion we received important news. We found out that the government of Austria had been overthrown and we were all absolved of our oath.