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Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |
People Were Dropping Like Flies[34]
JOHN SADOVY
Tim Foote and I were roving the town when a rebel came up and said,
"They are shooting on the other side of the city."
I said, "Let's go."
The rebel said, "No, it's dangerous."
He should know, I thought. But the place was two kilometers away, so I
said, "Why not go one kilometer and see?"
As we walked along, trucks jampacked with screaming women and boys with
guns and revolvers passed us. They hardly knew how to use the guns and
were breaking them open to see how they worked.
We came to a square with a park in the center of it.
We heard shooting, and then we saw a tank facing a large modern building
at the end of the square. It was held by the AVH (secret police), who were
firing from the windows.
My first instinct was to get behind the tank. It would give us some shelter
and I would be close enough to photograph the action. Halfway to the tank
we found ourselves in the open park. Bullets began zinging past our ears.
We fell flat on our faces. I tried to hide behind a young tree. I wished
my tree was bigger and I tried to make myself smaller.
It must have been in that rain of bullets that Tim got hit in the hand.
I was still hoping to get behind the tank, but then it moved off. There
we were, stuck, half a dozen rebels, myself and (I kept thinking) Tim beside
me. I didn't dare look. It was not very nice here.
I started to crawl back through the park until I got to a shed and some
bushes which provided cover. I couldn't see Tim anywhere. A rebel came
up and said to me in German, "They took your friend to a hospital."
I was not sure he was talking about Tim, but it shook me. Then I found
a girl who said yes, it was my friend, "but don't worry, he is taken
care of."
The fighting really began to flare up. People were dropping in the park
like flies.
White-coated first-aid people, mostly women, were coming and going in private
cars to collect the wounded. Then I noticed the first-aid women were being
shot too. Youngsters -15, 16 and 17 years old- took over from the women.
I saw a kid running bent double, with no protection at all, to drag a wounded
man to shelter. I saw one of these boys get hit. His partner dragged the
loaded stretcher back with one end on the ground.
A truck arrived with ammunition for the tank. There was a scramble to carry
the heavy shells -two or three people carrying one shell. They were like
people who haven't eaten for weeks scrambling for bread.
Suddenly we saw a scurry of people. Then a tank, another tank, a third,
a fourth -five in a row altogether- flying Hungarian flags.
Two of the tanks turned right when they had crossed in front of the AVH
building. Three continued on. Then there was a dead silence. A fantastic
suspense. Four or five minutes went by.
As the three tanks came on down the square a mass of people tore off. They
thought the tanks might have come to help the secret police. A rescue worker
pulled at me, saying, "Don't run now. It's too late." She dragged
me behind a car.
One of the tanks kept turning its turret slowly in full circle, very slowly,
and every so often I would be looking straight into the barrel of its gun.
They were rebel tanks. One of them fired at the building.
After a few minutes the rebels began to move closer to the building. You
would see three and four men lined up behind a tree. Look again and the
men were four bodies on the ground. A child couldn't hide behind those
trees.
Flat on the ground, I managed to get in front of the tank that was firing.
The heat of its gun going off was unpleasant. It was like opening the door
of a hot oven.
After a bit I heard the noise of people running in the street on the far
side of the AVH building, running toward the building. Now they were closing
in on it fast. We met another group led by a man carrying a huge flag.
"Come on, come on, it's ours," he was saying.
Other groups of rebels were coming in from the side, screaming and going
into the building. There was only occasional machine-gun fire from the
top floor, but people were still being careful. At the front of the building
there were 30 to 40 people dead. They were lying almost in line. As one
had been hit the man behind had taken his place -and died. It was like
a potato field, only they were people instead of potatoes.
Now the AVH men began to come out. The first to emerge from the building
was an officer, alone.
It was the fastest killing I ever saw. He came out laughing and the next
thing I knew he was [40/41]
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Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |