Battle at Skrunda School on January 22, 1919

A few days later, we received an order from Oberstab that we should attack the Skrunda school with the Rhodes at night, knock out the opponent from there and try to drive him out of the parish house on the Skrunda-Saldus highway. We only had to give one piece of jewelry, but Raden left Skrunda with all his might.

The colonel assigned Cēsis to the attack under the command of Senior Lieutenant Puriņš, and some of our boys, the Officers' Company, also reported to them. After midnight, we crossed the Venta ice in complete silence and went straight through the bushes and thickets to Skrunda pub. We turned the house so that the dogs would not make any noise, because there was nothing to be afraid to leave the opponent behind - we definitely knew that there could be no red before the pub or the cemetery. After an hour we arrived at the pub, we should have been here as well. Although it was already morning, it was still dark. As we entered the pub, the locals were so frightened that an older uncle had even slipped into the oven and stuffed the oven in front of the lid. The bunch set the guard and began to wait.

Since I was already quite familiar with Raden and his people, I decided to go for them a bit. They had to come on the way from the Bull Manor, so I couldn't get lost. I pulled my Mauser out of my holster, plugged it behind my belt, told the guards to make sure it didn't get me off my feet when I came back, and went ahead. I walked to the school crossroads, stopped, listened - everything was quiet.

About 200 meters from the road on a hill is a white two-story school building. It's interesting to know what's out there. Even if I go to school, I will still be able to hear when the people of Rhodes come on the highway.
I took Mauser in my arms and, hiding behind the trees in the alley, I slowly approached the school. There is such a big square in front of the house. If there are reds at school, there should have been a guard nearby. It has existed for a while, access to the house is quite present. The downstairs windows are locked, you can't hear anything. I approach the door and slowly press the knob - open, but dark inside, like the bottom of a rake. Doors to the right and left. He's holding his breath and it's starting to make me feel, or I'm actually hearing that he's snoring right, as if several people are asleep. I get uncomfortable, if they are red, they will take me like a chick. I'll quickly get out of the hallway and walk to the corner of the house. You can hear several horses in the yard ... No, there is nothing to do here. Hiding along the trees, I go back to the highway.

Raden and his people are already arriving there. Puriņš with a couple of officers has also arrived at the crossroads, and Rādens makes us walk along a side road along the graves, but he remains on the site for the time being. We arrange as quickly as possible in the dark, and with careful guard we begin to move. When I divorce, I still tell the Germans to go to school carefully, so the thing is doubtful there.

We have just come to the graveyard to get around the school right away, and in a way that we can't understand where ours are, where the red ones are. Bullets also fly over us, but you can sense that they are not aimed at us. we take positions along graves in some pits and watch what happens. Puriņš sends contacts to Raden. But here, too, a fairly thick fire is starting to pour over us.

Well, we know the opponent, now we are starting to heat up too. - After a few minutes at the edge of the forest near the school, less than a quarter of us are lit by two bright lights and two grenades flying through our chain and exploding in the back. It was so missing! We fire even hotter, but after a while we notice that the other group was moving away from the school towards Skrunda. The news soon arrives that Raden is leaving and that we are slipping away because the reds are superior. The devil knows how big it is, but it's clear we can't stay in our pits - the Bolsheviks are already hitting machine guns and their artillery shells are putting their grenades right next to us. The purine commands the chain to go in parts and leads it in the straightest way to the bank of the Venta.

The light begins to weave. The Red Infantry is not quite pushing us, but their artillery is now covering our next chain with direct aiming. Senior Lieutenant Kundziņš walks in front of me and a little to the left. Immediately the grenade falls on it directly at the heels, burrows into the ground, and explodes. The lady jumps up, literally throws a toss in the air and falls. Ready! I rushed to it, but here it immediately rises and steps on! No chippings touched it.

Until Venta herself, the reds accompanied us on fire and partly on the other side until they finally stopped. We came in Slowly tired, but all healthy. The colonel (Kalpaks) was worried and wanted to help us, because even in the darkness after the fire he felt that we were not doing well. The day had started with failure and soon worse news came: the reds had knocked out Raden from Skrunda and were already on this side of Venta. It was bad now, but even worse was that we received an order from Oberstab to go to Aizpuri's home behind Rudbārži.