Skalica's men were called up into the Austro-Hungarian army in the summer of 1914 and sent to Serbia, to Galicia and later to the Italian front; the town's war was the same as every other town's — absent men, requisitioned grain and horses, and lists of the dead. Something else was happening in those years. Slovak and Czech politicians who had known one another for decades spent the war working toward a common state, while Czech and Slovak soldiers who deserted or were captured joined legions fighting on the other side. By the autumn of 1918 Austria-Hungary was falling apart faster than anyone could organise a replacement — and in that gap, a border town suddenly mattered.Skalických mužov povolali v lete 1914 do rakúsko-uhorskej armády a poslali do Srbska, do Haliče a neskôr na taliansky front; mesto prežilo vojnu tak ako každé iné — bez chlapov, s rekvirovaným obilím a koňmi a so zoznamami padlých. V tých rokoch sa však dialo aj čosi iné. Slovenskí a českí politici, ktorí sa poznali desaťročia, presadzovali počas vojny spoločný štát a českí i slovenskí vojaci, ktorí zbehli alebo padli do zajatia, vstupovali do légií bojujúcich na druhej strane. Na jeseň 1918 sa Rakúsko-Uhorsko rozpadalo rýchlejšie, než stihol ktokoľvek pripraviť náhradu — a v tej medzere zrazu záležalo na pohraničnom meste.
