3rd Armored Train Battle on January 20, 1920 near Bekši Station

3. War diary of the armored train: "January 20, 1920. The commander of the armored train received an order: to support the attack on Rezekne, to which a landing party of 50 people from the Landeswehr strike group was sent. The landing party was ordered to land in the village of Balbeši, about 6 km from Rezekne. Near the village of Deņi, the armored train was heavily fired upon by machine guns. After a short battle, the enemy was driven off with losses. Near the village of Bekši, the armored train encountered an enemy armored train, which opened fierce fire. Thanks to the curvature of the road and the excavation, the 3rd armored train managed to move to a direct shot distance - approx. 0.5 km - from which energetic fire was opened on the enemy armored train. Already after the first shots, reliable hits were visible and soon, after In the hit tender, the enemy's armored train left in a hurry in the direction of Rezekne. After chasing the armored train, our train arrived at the village of Bekši, which was located right next to the railway.

From the village, which had been captured by a larger enemy force, the enemy opened very heavy rifle and machine gun fire on the armored train, and from the audible command shouts it was clear that the enemy was organizing forces for a direct attack on our armored train. The situation remained critical, because the train was standing next to the village, many houses and gardens came to the very edge of the railway. The main circumstance that put the train in a critical position was that the train's guns could not be turned sideways to fire on the village, but the machine guns, taking into account their high installation on the platforms, which was further increased by the fact that the train stood high on the railway embankment, did not have such a flat trajectory to successfully fire on the enemy lying nearby, behind the front houses of the village. It was therefore possible, by energetically attacking, to approach the armored train and damage the locomotive with hand grenades. It would not have been able to cause much or any noticeable damage to the other armored platforms, as they were enclosed by strong armor.

Taking all of the above into account, the commander of the armored train decided to repel the enemy attack, ordering to shell the village with a 37 mm cannon, which was placed on an open platform. The commander of the train (Captain Arnolds Paulockis), together with Sergeant Major Bushmeister, Corporal Kraukles and Lieutenant Zupan, being completely exposed under the enemy's machine gun and rifle fire, opened merciless fire from a 37 mm cannon and one machine gun brought out on the platform. At that moment, the enemy, screaming wildly, rushed into the attack, firing rifles and throwing hand grenades, which exploded right there in the ditch. The attack broke, before reaching the train, the Red Army soldiers fled in panic, abandoning their fallen. The six Red Army soldiers caught in the crossfire turned out to be Tatars. The rest, stumbling on their horses and sledges, fled in great haste towards the nearby forest. Since there was not much time left, the armored train continued its journey towards Rēzekne, without searching the village, where some of the Red Army men had probably hidden."