Army of Czechoslovakia at the end of September 1938

If you carefully calculate, it turns out that the Czechs at the end of the mobilization had 21 infantry and four "fast" (rychlych) divisions. Plus, the 1st Infantry Division, which was deployed for mobilization in the Prague UR. Total 26 divisions of field troops.
There were 12 more so-called. border areas (hranicnich oblasti), which did not have a regular structure, but were approximately equivalent in number to an infantry division. According to their intended purpose, they were parts of the field filling of fortified areas.
There were also two "groups" (skupini) in the strength of about a division and one "group" in the strength of a brigade. Total: 40 and a half calculated divisions - 1.25 million people.

In 1938, the Germans confiscated in Czechoslovakia: aircraft - 1582, anti-aircraft guns - 501, anti-tank guns - 780, field guns - 2175, mortars - 785, tanks and armored cars - 469, machine guns - 43876, rifles - 1090000, pistols - 114000, cartridges - more than a billion shells - more than 3 million, armored trains - 17.
By no means all Czech guns came to the Germans as trophies. After Munich, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense decided to reduce the army and began to sell weapons. It is known, for example, that they were looking for buyers for LT vz.34 tanks, but did not find them. But on artillery - they found it. Germany.
Quite shortly before the occupation, on February 11, 1939, the Czechs managed to sell to the Germans all their artillery of great and special power (17 305-mm mortars, 18 210-mm mortars and 6 240-mm guns) and part of the field artillery - 122 80-mm guns mod. .30, 40 (i.e., also, in general, all) 150-mm heavy howitzers mod. 15 and 70 150-mm howitzers mod. 14/19. With ammunition and tractors.

In the summer of 1939, the German authorities established the armed forces of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to support internal security and order. Only "Aryans" were allowed to serve, that is, neither Jews nor Gypsies.
Most of the commanders and soldiers had previously served in the Czechoslovak army. They even retained their former uniforms, emblems and awards (the German-style uniform was introduced only in 1944).

It is no secret that the patriotic upsurge in Czech society testified to its readiness to fight until the infamous Munich Agreement and the Vienna Arbitration of 1938 (according to which the Sudetenland was transferred to Germany, the southern regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus - to Hungary, and Cieszyn Silesia - Poland).
It is believed that the tragic autumn of 1938 actually suppressed the moral will of the Czechs to resist the aggressor, and they were seized with despondency and apathy, which contributed to the capitulation on March 14-15, 1939.
By the spring of 1939, the Czechoslovak army was significantly weakened by the military policy of President Emil Hakhy, a well-known Germanophile, and his government, which took a course on maximum concessions to Hitler in order to avoid war.
In order not to "provoke the Germans", the reservists were demobilized, the troops returned to their places of permanent deployment, staffed according to the states of peacetime and partially framed.
According to the garrison schedule, the 3rd battalion of the 8th Silesian Infantry Regiment (III. prapor 8. pesiho pluku "Slezskeho") was stationed in the Chayankov barracks in the city of Mistek, consisting of the 9th, 10th and 11th infantry and 12 -th machine-gun company, as well as the "armor half-company" of the 2nd regiment of combat vehicles (obrnena polorota 2. pluku utocne vozby), which consisted of a platoon of tankettes LT vz.33 and a platoon of armored vehicles OA vz.30.
The head of the garrison was the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Karel Shtepina. Taking into account the fact that Slovak soldiers deserted en masse in light of the imminent independence of Slovakia and fled to their homeland through the nearby Slovak border, no more than 300 military personnel remained in the Chayankov barracks on March 14.
Most of them were ethnic Czechs, there were also a few Czech Jews, Subcarpathian Ukrainians and Moravans. About half of the soldiers were final draft recruits who had not yet completed basic training.

On March 14, German troops crossed the borders of the Czech Republic (Slovakia on this day, under the auspices of the Third Reich, declared independence) and in marching formations began to advance deep into its territory.
Flying to Berlin for the fatal "consultations" with Hitler, President Emil Hacha ordered the troops to remain in their places of deployment and not to resist the aggressors.
Even earlier, capitulation orders began to be sent out by the discouraged Czechoslovak General Staff. Armored and mechanized advanced columns of the Wehrmacht moved in a race with these orders, mastering key points and objects.
In a number of places, individual Czech soldiers and gendarmes opened fire on the invaders, but the Nazis encountered organized resistance from an entire unit only in the Chayankov barracks.
With the beginning of the skirmish, the officer on duty, Lieutenant Martinek, announced a combat alarm in the garrison. Czech soldiers hurriedly sorted out weapons and ammunition. Captain Karel Pavlik raised his company and ordered to deploy the machine guns at its disposal (mainly the manual "Ceska Zbroevka" vz.26) at impromptu firing positions in the upper floors of the barracks.
Shooters with rifles, including soldiers from other companies who voluntarily joined Pavlik's company, settled down at the window openings. The captain entrusted the command of the defense sectors to the senior non-commissioned officers (cetari) of his company, Stefek and Gole.

The first attempt by German soldiers to break through to the gates of the Chayankov barracks was easily repelled by the Czechs with losses for the attackers. Having retreated, Wehrmacht units began to take up positions under the cover of surrounding buildings.
An intense firefight ensued with the use of small arms and machine guns. According to eyewitnesses, local residents, suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a real battle, hid in cellars or lay down on the floor in their houses.
Only the owner of a pub located around the corner did not succumb to panic, who, already during the battle, began to serve the invaders who ran in to "wet their throats" for Reichsmarks.
The commander of the 84th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Steuver, soon arrived at the place of unexpected resistance. Having informed the division commander, General Koch-Erpach (General der Kavallerie Rudolf Koch-Erpach) and received the order to "solve the problem on our own", the colonel began to prepare a new attack on the Chayankov barracks.
To support the advancing infantrymen, on his orders, 50-mm and 81-mm mortars of the infantry units participating in the battle, one 37-mm RAK-35/37 anti-tank gun from the regiment's anti-tank company, and an armored vehicle (probably one of the assigned reconnaissance regiment Sd.Kfz 221 or Sd.Kfz 222).
The headlights of German army vehicles were directed at the barracks, which was supposed to blind the eyes of Czech riflemen and machine gunners. The second attack was already quite thoroughly, albeit hastily, a prepared assault.

After a short fire preparation, the German infantry, supported by armored vehicles, again rushed to storm the Chayankov barracks. The soldiers of the guard, holding the advanced positions, two of whom were injured, were forced to leave the trenches and take refuge in the building.
Wehrmacht soldiers under fire reached the fence and lay down behind it. However, that was where their success ended. Mortar and machine-gun fire of the Germans and even 37-mm shells of their anti-tank guns could not cause significant damage to the powerful walls of the barracks, and serious losses to their defenders.
At the same time, the Czech machine guns fired heavily, and the arrows extinguished the car headlights one after another with well-aimed shots. A German car trying to break through the gate was forced to turn back after its commander (sergeant major) was killed in the tower, almost unprotected from above.
The battle by this time lasted more than 40 minutes. The ammunition of the Czechs was coming to an end, and Colonel Steuver was pulling all available forces to the barracks, so that the outcome of the struggle remained unclear ...
However, it was not another German assault that turned out to be decisive in the fate of the battle for the Chayankov barracks, but an order from the headquarters of the Czech 8th Infantry Regiment. Colonel Eliash ordered to immediately cease fire, enter into negotiations with the Germans and lay down their arms, in case of disobedience, threatening the "disobedient" with a military court.

After four hours of "interning", the Czech soldiers were allowed to return to their barracks, and the officers were placed under house arrest in their apartments. The wounded of both sides were treated by German and Czech military doctors, after which they were placed in a civilian hospital in the city of Mistek.
On the Czech side, in the battle for the Chayankov barracks, six soldiers were wounded, including two - seriously. The local population, fortunately, did not suffer, except for material damage. German losses amounted, according to various sources, from 12 to 24 killed and wounded.
The government of the perishing Czechoslovak Republic hastened to lay responsibility for the "regrettable incident" in the town of Mistek on the officers commanding the garrison, but not one of them was brought to either the Czech or German military courts for these events.
The most dramatic was the fate of the commander of the desperate defense, Captain Karel Pavlik, who can safely be called one of the brightest figures of the Czech anti-Nazi resistance.
When in 1942 the Hitlerite secret police seized and forced to cooperate one of the leaders of JINDRA, Professor Ladislav Vanek, he handed over Karel Pawlik to the occupiers.
Captured Karel Pavlik, the Nazis, after interrogations and brutal torture, were sent to the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp. There, on January 26, 1943, an ailing and emaciated Czech hero was shot dead by an SS guard for refusing to obey.

http://samlib.ru/m/mihail_kozhemjakin/karel_pavlik.shtml

background

In 1918, the First Czechoslovak Republic (hereinafter - Czechoslovakia) was created. According to the 1930 census, the total population of Czechoslovakia was 14.5 million, of which 9.7 million were Czechoslovaks and 3.2 million were Germans. It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of Czechoslovakian Germans lived compactly in the Sudetenland.

As a result of the natural loss (after the proclamation of the sovereignty of the Czech Republic) of their privileged position, which the Germans had in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the psychological conviction became widespread among them that they were under the yoke of the Slavic population of the Czech Republic. Adolf Hitler, who proclaimed irredentism (the policy of uniting the nation within a single state) as one of his main tasks, provided significant support to the Czech Germans.

The main and only political organization of the Czech Germans was the Sudeto-German Party, led by Konrad Henlein. At first, the party had a negative attitude towards the idea of ​​National Socialism, but gradually fell under the influence of the NSDAP and became the fifth column of the Third Reich in Czechoslovakia. In the May 1935 parliamentary elections, the Sudeten German Party received 68% of the Sudeten German vote.

In March 1938, the Anschluss of Austria to Germany took place, which encouraged the Sudeten Germans. In May, Henlein and his people activate pro-German propaganda, put forward a demand for a referendum on the accession of the Sudetenland to Germany, and on May 22, the day of the municipal elections, they prepare an uprising in order to turn these elections into a plebiscite. This provoked the first Sudeten Crisis. Partial mobilization took place in Czechoslovakia, troops were brought into the Sudetenland and occupied border fortifications. At the same time, the USSR and France declared support for the Czechoslovakia. Even Italy, an ally of Germany, protested against the forceful resolution of the crisis. An attempt to tear off the Sudetenland, relying on the separatist movement of the Sudeten Germans, failed.

Hitler offered Poland Cieszyn Silesia from Czechoslovakia. 80 thousand Poles and 120 thousand Czechs lived in Cieszyn Silesia. Poland took anti-Czech and anti-Soviet positions.

In early September 1938, armed clashes between the Sudeten Germans and the Czechs took place, which were frankly provocative. The whole of September was spent in negotiations and consultations of the leaders of the world powers, mainly bilateral ones. As a result, the political situation is as follows:

• The Soviet Union is ready to provide concrete military assistance to Czechoslovakia under two conditions: if Czechoslovakia asks Moscow for such assistance, and if it itself defends itself against the military intervention of the Third Reich.
• Poland's position was expressed in statements that in the event of a German attack on Czechoslovakia, it would not interfere and would not let the Red Army through its territory, in addition, it would immediately declare war on the Soviet Union if it tried to send troops through Polish territory.
• France and Britain declared: “If the Czechs unite with the Russians, the war may take on the character of a crusade against the Bolsheviks. Then it will be very difficult for the governments of France and Britain to stand aside.”

The USSR turned out to be the only power that was ready to provide real military assistance to Czechoslovakia. And this is despite the fact that the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic took an anti-Soviet position for a long period of time and only in 1934 did it achieve international legal recognition of the USSR (Great Britain and France did this in 1924, the USA in 1933).

Munich agreement

September 29, 1938 in Munich, at the initiative of Hitler, he meets with the heads of government of Great Britain, France and Italy. Contrary to Hitler's promise, the Czechoslovakia representatives were not admitted to the discussion; they waited in the next room. The USSR was not invited to the meeting. On September 30, at one in the morning, Chamberlain, Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler signed the Munich Agreement. After that, the Czechoslovakia delegation was allowed into the hall. Having familiarized themselves with the main points of the agreement, the representatives of the Czechoslovakia protested, but, ultimately, under pressure from the leadership of Britain and France, they signed an agreement on the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany. In the morning, President Benes, without the consent of the National Assembly, accepted this agreement for execution, and on October 5, he resigned.

The note. Later, Germany established a medal for irredentism "In memory of October 1, 1938", which was awarded to troops participating in the annexation of the Sudetenland. On the reverse side of the medal, the inscription "One people, one state, one leader" was placed in the center.

It is important to take into account that from a military point of view it was impossible to successfully defend the territory of the Czech Republic because of the extremely unfortunate geographical shape of the Czech Republic. After the Anschluss of Austria, the Czech lands were surrounded by Germany on three sides. Caricatures of that time depicted the Czech lands in the mouth of a predatory German beast. In the event of hostilities, the danger also came from Hungary, which claimed the territories densely populated by ethnic Hungarians, lost under the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. According to the 1930 census, 700,000 Hungarians lived in Czechoslovakia.

By this time, a serious conflict had already matured in Czechoslovakia between the Slovak nationalists and the Prague government. It was this conflict that was used by Hitler as a pretext for the final division of the state. On October 7, 1938, under pressure from Germany, the Czechoslovak government decides to grant autonomy to Slovakia, and on October 8, to Subcarpathian Rus.

On November 2, 1938, Hungary, by decision of the First Vienna Arbitration, received the southern regions of Slovakia and part of Subcarpathian Rus.

On March 14, 1939, the parliament of the autonomy of Slovakia decided on the withdrawal of Slovakia from the Czech Republic and the formation of the Slovak Republic, loyal to Germany.

Interesting fact. In February 1938 in Prague at the World Hockey Championship in the match for third place, the Czechoslovak team defeated the German team with a score of 3: 0.

Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. Protectorate

On the night of March 14-15, 1439, Emil Hacha (the new president of the Czech Republic) was summoned to Berlin, where Hitler offered him to agree to the German occupation of the Czech lands, then "the entry of German troops will take place in a tolerable manner." Otherwise, "Czech resistance will be broken by force of arms using all means." As a result, Hakha signed a communique, the text of which read: “... The President of the Czech Republic declared that ... he is ready to entrust the fate of the Czech people and the country itself into the hands of the Fuhrer and the German Reich. The Führer listened to this statement and expressed his intention to take the Czech people under the protection of the German Reich and guarantee them an autonomous development in accordance with national traditions.

March 15, 1939 Germany brought troops into the territory of Bohemia and Moravia and declared a protectorate over them (a form of interstate relations in which one state is under the protection of another). The Czech army offered no resistance to the invaders. The only exception is the 40-minute battle of the company of Captain Karel Pavlik in the city of Frydek-Mistek.

Germany received significant stocks of weapons from the former Czechoslovak army, which made it possible to equip 9 infantry divisions, as well as Czech military factories. Before the attack on the USSR, five out of 21 Wehrmacht tank divisions were equipped with Czechoslovak-made tanks.

In May 1939, Czechoslovakian gold, placed in British banks, was transferred to Prague at the request of the protectorate government and subsequently ended up in the hands of the German Reich.

The Protectorate was an autonomous Nazi territory that the German government considered part of the German Reich. The first protector was Constantine von Neurath. The formal post of president of the protectorate, which was occupied by Emil Hacha throughout its existence, and the post of chairman of the government, which changed several politicians, also remained. The personnel of departments similar to ministries were staffed by officials from Germany.

During the first months of the occupation, German rule was moderate. The actions of the Gestapo were directed mainly against Czech politicians and intellectuals. The population of the protectorate was mobilized as a labor force that worked for the victory of Germany. Special departments were created to manage industry. The production of consumer goods was reduced, a significant part of them was sent to supply the German armed forces. The supply of the Czech population was subjected to strict rationing.

On October 28, 1939, on the 21st anniversary of Czechoslovakia's independence, a demonstration against the occupation took place in Prague, which was brutally suppressed. The baker's assistant Václav Sedlacek was shot and wounded in the stomach by Jan Opletal (a medical student at Charles University, who died of peritonitis on 11 November).

On November 15, thousands of students took part in the funeral of Jan Opletal, their gatherings turned into a new wave of anti-Hitler demonstrations. Protector von Neurath used student unrest as an excuse to close all Czech universities and introduce other repressive measures. Over 1,200 students were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and nine students and activists were executed. November 17, 1939.

In 1941, in memory of the tragic events, November 17 was declared International Students' Day, and in 2000 in the Czech Republic - the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy.

"The Case of Sandwiches"

President Emil Gacha secretly collaborated with the Beneš government in exile. He appointed Alois Elias to the post of prime minister and, apparently, hoped that his former connections with Protector von Neurath would help to defend the interests of the Czech Republic in one way or another.

Alois Eliash planned to poison prominent journalists who collaborated with the Nazi regime, and officially invited them to his place. September 18, 1941 the prime minister treated journalists to sandwiches, which he, with the help of his urologist, poisoned by injecting botulinum toxin, mycobacterium tuberculosis and typhus-causing rickettsia into them. The only person who died after eating sandwiches was Karel Lazhnovsky, editor-in-chief of the Czech Word (České slovo) magazine. Other journalists only got sick.

Alois Eliash was in regular contact with the resistance movement. Soon this became known to the Nazis, he was arrested and executed. However, his involvement in the “sandwich case” was not yet known at that time.

In the autumn of 1941, Germany took a number of drastic steps in the protectorate. According to Hitler, von Neurath was not effective enough to fight the Czech resistance, so at the end of September 1941 he was replaced by Reinhard Heydrich. The Czech government was reorganized, all Czech cultural institutions were closed. The Gestapo began arrests and executions. The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and a ghetto was created in the town of Terezin.

Reinhard Heydrich (born 1904) - statesman and politician of Nazi Germany, head of the Imperial Security Main Office in 1939–1942, SS Obergruppenführer and police general.

Operation Anthropoid

The plan for the destruction of Heydrich took shape in October 1941. Reason: Edvard Beneš wanted to raise the prestige of his government-in-exile and activate the Czechoslovak Resistance. The assassination of one of the major Nazi politicians would have triggered punitive operations, which in turn would have embittered the Czechs and probably provoked more active resistance to the occupiers. It is generally accepted that after the repressions at the beginning of his reign, Heydrich softened the policy in the Czech Republic, which was also not in the interests of the government in exile.

The note. "Anthropoid" means "humanoid"

Two saboteurs were selected to participate in the operation: ethnic Czech and Slovak- Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík. Five more saboteurs were to provide direct assistance to them. On the night of December 28-29, 1941, the landing of the entire group and two cargo containers took place, which contained money, fake documents, weapons and ammunition. The saboteurs hid their equipment and reached Pilsen, where they stayed in predetermined apartments of the Resistance members. Subsequently, they established contacts with many other active members of the underground and began to prepare the operation.

Reinhard Heydrich lived in the suburbs of Prague and traveled to the city center every day in a Mercedes-Benz convertible without security, which made it possible to commit an assassination attempt along the way. Saboteurs have chosen a place for an ambush a section of road with a sharp turn, on which Heydrich's open car, was supposed to slow down and become a convenient target.

In the morning May 27, 1942 saboteurs Kubish and Gabchik, who arrived on bicycles, took advantageous positions. Heydrich's car, with its top down, pulled up at 10:32 a.m. and braked at the corner. Gabchik pulled out a STEN submachine gun and wanted to shoot at Heydrich at close range, but the weapon jammed. Then Kubiš, with a throw from below, threw a grenade, previously brought into combat condition, which had a contact fuse and detonated from hitting the body outside at the right rear wheel, towards the braked car. The explosion wounded both Heydrich and Kubisch (he was hit in the face by shrapnel). Passengers of the tram route No. 3 that stopped at the turn and people at the tram stop were also in the area of ​​the incident.

Heydrich and his driver Klein (SS Oberscharführer) left the car, grabbed their service pistols and tried to engage in a firefight with the saboteurs who were preparing to withdraw. Klein was unable to stop the bleeding Kubis from shooting his way through the crowd at the bus stop and riding away on a pre-arranged bike. By order of Heydrich, the driver began to pursue the fleeing Gabchik, who, breaking away from the chase, hid in a butcher's shop (Valčíkova, 22). The owner of the shop, running out into the street, informed Klein about the hiding agent, after which Gabchik, who had left the shelter, wounded Klein in the thigh with a pistol and disappeared. Seriously wounded by the explosion, Heydrich fell near the Mercedes. He received a fracture of the 11th rib on the left, a rupture of the diaphragm and a wound to the spleen, which was hit by a metal fragment and a piece of car seat upholstery. Heydrich was taken to the hospital in a truck, which was stopped by a Czech policeman who happened to be nearby.

The note. In our time, at the site of the assassination attempt on Heydrich, there is the Operation Anthropoid Memorial, the inscription on the bronze plate at the base reads “... the heroic Czechoslovak paratroopers Jan Kubis and Josef Gabczyk ... could never have completed their mission without the help of hundreds of Czech patriots, who paid for their bravery with their own lives." Also on one of the adjacent buildings there is a memorial plaque with the inscription "Patriots do not forget, unlike Czech politicians" (a hint of the period 1948-1989, when a negative attitude towards the activities of the Czechoslovak government in exile officially prevailed in Czechoslovakia, and its sabotage operations tried to do not mention). In honor of the saboteurs in the area of ​​the assassination attempt, two streets are named - Gabčíkova and Kubišova

Around noon on May 27, Heydrich was operated on, his spleen was removed. On the same day, Himmler's personal doctor arrived at the hospital. He prescribed large doses of morphine to the wounded man. On the morning of June 3, information appeared about the improvement in Heydrich's condition, but in the late afternoon he fell into a coma and died the next day. The final cause of death has not yet been determined.

The note. Documentary footage of Heydrich's funeral and a short plot of the importance of this event are shown in the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

After Heydrich's death, there was speculation that the protector could be saved by using sulfanilamide. Under the leadership of Karl Gebhardt, a series of experiments were carried out in concentration camps, during which wounds were inflicted on experimental prisoners with the implantation of glass, earth, sawdust, mud, followed by treatment with sulfanilamide and other drugs. The doctors who conducted the experiments became defendants in the Nuremberg trials of doctors.

After the assassination of Heydrich, a group of seven saboteurs (Jan Kubisch, Josef Gabchik, Josef Valchik, Adolf Opalka, Josef Bublik, Jan Hruby, Yaroslav Schwartz) took refuge in the crypt of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. On June 16, 1942, the traitor Karel Churda (a parachutist abandoned on March 28) voluntarily gave the Gestapo the names and places of residence of dozens of Resistance fighters and their families, who were promptly arrested. During interrogations with the use of torture, the Germans learned that a group of saboteurs was hiding in the cathedral.

Karel Czurda (born 1911) was caught in 1947 and executed. As a result of his betrayal, 254 people died. During the trial, when asked by the judge how he could betray his comrades, he answered: “I think you would have done the same for a million marks.” It was this monetary reward that was promised for information about the participants in the assassination attempt (for comparison, Heydrich's new convertible cost about 12 thousand Reichsmarks). The protectorate authorities paid Czurda half of the promised amount, issued new documents, he took German citizenship and married a German woman. Despite his progressive alcoholism, he worked for the Gestapo until the end of the war. He believed in Hitler's victory and planned to move "to the east" after the war. In May 1945, Czurda tried to escape to the American zone of occupation, but on May 5 he was arrested by Czech gendarmes near Pilsen.

Battle in the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius

On June 18, 1942, German SS troops and the Gestapo stormed the cathedral. The fight started at 4:10 am. The Germans entered the building and were inspecting the kliros when Kubiš, Opalka and Bublik opened fire. For two hours they exchanged fire with the Germans until they ran out of ammunition. Opalka and Bublik, using the last cartridges, shot themselves, not wanting to surrender, and Kubis died from his wounds.

Another group consisting of Gabchik, Valchik, Gruba and Schwartz took refuge in the crypt of the temple. According to some reports, they tried to break through the wall of the crypt in order to leave the cathedral through the sewers. Through a small window in the western part of the cathedral, the Germans threw hand grenades into the ventilation section and launched tear gas, but the saboteurs could not be smoked out. Firefighters hurried to help the Germans, who tried to flood the besieged with water, but they pushed the fire hose back out onto the street with the help of a wooden ladder and fired at the firefighters themselves. The situation became more complicated after the attackers blew up the old entrance to the crypt. At the same time, firefighters managed to pull the stairs out of the crypt and direct water through the fire hoses directly into the basement, but they failed to completely flood the crypt. The paratroopers fired back to the last, and when each of the fighters had a cartridge left, all four shot themselves so as not to be captured.

In our time, at the bullet-riddled window of the crypt of the cathedral, there is a National memorial to the memory of the heroes of terror Heydrich.

The note. In 2016, the feature film Anthropoid was released (based on real events). Starring actors Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy. Filming took place entirely in Prague to make it as close as possible to the perception of the Czechs. For filming the fight scene inside the cathedral, a replica was built in the studio. Filming locations included Prague Castle, Charles Bridge. The shooting of the assassination scene took place at the intersection of Hotkova and Badelnikova streets, where old Prague landscapes are still preserved.

Punitive actions for the assassination of Heydrich

The assassination attempt on Heydrich made the deepest impression on the leadership of the Reich. On the day of Heydrich's death, the Nazis launched a campaign of mass terror against the Czech population. In Prague, mass searches were carried out, during which other members of the Resistance, Jews, communists and other persecuted categories of citizens hiding in houses and apartments were identified. 1331 people were shot, including 201 women.

The Gestapo received information that two Czech pilots who fled to Britain, whose relatives lived in the village, could be involved in the murder Lidice. Despite the fact that this information was not confirmed, it was decided to destroy the village. On June 9, 1942, the day of Heydrich's funeral, the village of Lidice was destroyed as retribution. All men over 16 years old (172 people) were shot on the spot, 195 women were sent to a concentration camp, the children were distributed among German families, traces of most of them were lost.

Later, the Gestapo received information that in the village Sunbeds Hidden radio operator Jiri Potuchek, who, with the help of the only surviving radio transmitter, ensured, in particular, the communication of the saboteurs of the Anthropoid group with London. He was warned in time, managed to leave the shelter and save the radio transmitter. However, the fate of the village and all its inhabitants was sealed. The Nazis shot 18 women and 16 men, and 12 out of 14 children were gassed. Only two sisters survived, who were given to German families "for Germanization."

On September 4, 1942, the priests of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Vaclav Chikl and Vladimir Petrshik, the headman of the Cathedral, Jan Sonnevend, and Bishop Gorazd, who voluntarily joined them, were shot. On September 27, the Czech Orthodox Church was banned, its property was confiscated, and the clergy were arrested and imprisoned.

Resistance movement

In Britain, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile (the unofficial name of the National Committee for the Liberation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic) operated, headed by Edvard Beneš, which received diplomatic recognition as a government from the leading world powers (in particular, the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with it). The Czechoslovak government in exile was collecting information and cooperating with the military services of Britain, which prepared and dropped into the occupied territory of the Czechoslovakia several reconnaissance, sabotage and intelligence groups from among the Czechoslovak military and volunteers.

Four main resistance groups operated on the territory of the occupied Czechoslovakia, most of their members were former officers of the disbanded Czechoslovak army. At the beginning of the occupation, propaganda work and strikes were carried out, later sabotage and sabotage became widespread. Whenever possible, Czech workers tried to produce defective military products. The partisan movement did not spread.

The note. On July 20, 1941, during the battles for the city of Türi (Estonian SSR), it was noticed that many mines fired by German troops did not explode. When studying them, it was found that instead of explosives, the mines were filled with sand. In one of the mines there was a note “we help in any way we can,” written by Czechoslovak workers.

The note. In February 1942, the German occupation authorities registered 19 acts of sabotage and sabotage, in March 1942 - 32, in April 1942 - 34, in May 1942 - 51.

In September 1942, on the Labe River, underground workers sank barges with cargo for the German army, and in October 1942, a train was derailed on the Prague-Benešov railway, as a result, 27 platforms with tanks were broken.

In 1943 alone, about 350,000 Czech workers were deported to Germany. At the same time, on the orders of Hitler in October 1943, the German authorities refused any use of Czech officials in the civil service. Within the protectorate, all non-military industry was banned.

On February 14, 1945, 60 US Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft dropped 152 bombs on the most densely populated areas of Prague. More than a hundred unique historical buildings, dozens of important engineering and industrial facilities were destroyed, 701 people were killed and 1,184 people were injured.

Formation of an infantry battalion

In 1942, the First Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion was formed in the USSR from the former military personnel of the Czech Republic. Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Ludwik Svoboda became the commander. The number of the battalion was 974 people. In addition to Czechs and Slovaks, there were six Rusyns and Jews among the military personnel. The personnel were dressed in British uniforms (which had previously been supplied to Polish units) with insignia of the pre-war Czechoslovakia army.

The formation of the battalion was carried out with significant problems and delays. However, they also had a downside: all this time, the commander of the battalion Svoboda conducted intensive combat training, so the level of training of the battalion's personnel turned out to be very high.

Battle of Sokolovo

In February 1943, the battalion was sent to the front in the Kharkov region and took up defensive positions along the left bank of the Mzha River (the front was 10 km wide). The village of Sokolovo, lying on the banks of the river, was also included in the defense system.

On March 8, the battalion's positions were attacked by about 60 German tanks and a motorized infantry battalion. The Czechoslovaks defended valiantly. On this day, the Germans lost 19 tanks, from 4 to 6 armored personnel carriers and up to 400 people killed and wounded. The battalion held the defense on the Mzhe River until March 13, when an order was received to leave their positions. 87 servicemen were awarded Soviet orders and medals. Losses amounted to 112 people killed, 106 wounded (according to other sources: 153 killed, 92 wounded, 122 missing).

The feat of Otakar Yarosh

Otakar Yarosh (Czech. Otakar Jaroš, born in 1912) - lieutenant, company commander. Ethnic Czech. On March 8, 1943, while defending the village of Sokolovo, Yarosh was wounded twice, but continued to command a company and fire at the advancing enemy. During the battle, Yarosh tore off a bunch of grenades from his belt and rushed to the German tank that had broken through. Posthumously, the Czech hero was awarded the title of captain, and on April 17, the first of the foreign citizens was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Nowadays, in Prague, one of the embankments is named after Captain Yarosh.

Formation of an infantry brigade

In May 1943, on the basis of an infantry battalion, the formation of the First Czechoslovak Infantry Brigade began. Replenishment occurred at the expense of Soviet citizens of Czechoslovak origin and Rusyns. Most of these Rusyns crossed the Soviet border (after the capture of Subcarpathian Rus by Hungarian troops in March 1939) and were initially convicted of "illegal crossing the border", but later amnestied.

By September 1943, there were about 3,500 soldiers and officers in the brigade. Of these, about 2,200 people were Rusyns by nationality, about 560 Czechs, 340 Slovaks, 200 Jews and 160 Russians. Later, another 5,000 to 7,000 Carpathian Ukrainians were included in the brigade.

The personnel of the brigade were dressed in Czechoslovak military uniforms, had Czechoslovak military ranks and served in accordance with the military regulations of the Czechoslovak army. On organizational issues, the battalion was subordinate to the Czechoslovak government in exile, on operational issues - to the higher command of those Soviet military units to which it was attached. In the future, this order was maintained until the end of the war.

The brigade participated in the third battle for Kharkov and the liberation of the Left-bank Ukraine. In November 1943, the brigade participated in the liberation of Kyiv, and later - in the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine.

Formation of an army corps

In April 1944, the formation of the First Czechoslovak Army Corps began on the basis of the brigade. Its number was 16 thousand, 11 thousand of which were Rusyns and Ukrainians by nationality. Later, the brigade was replenished with mobilized residents of Transcarpathia of all nationalities.

In the autumn of 1944, the army corps took part in the East Carpathian operation. On September 20, the city of Dukla was liberated, and on October 6, the fortified Dukel Pass, located on the old Czechoslovak border, was taken by storm. On this day, Czechoslovak and Soviet units entered the territory of the Czech Republic, marking the beginning of its liberation from the enemy. Until the end of the war, the corps was no longer withdrawn to the rear, offensive battles alternated with defensive actions. On April 30, 1945, units of the corps entered the territory of the Czech lands with battles. On May 10, 1945, the advanced detachment of the corps on Soviet tanks entered Prague. On the same day, parts of the corps held their last major battle.

May 17, 1945 in Prague took place parade the entire personnel of the First Czechoslovak Army Corps (18,087 corps fighters, and together with the rear and training units 31,725 ​​people). Since June 1945, the formation of the Czechoslovak People's Army began on the basis of the corps.

The losses of the corps (taking into account the losses of the battalion and brigade) amounted to 4011 people dead, missing and dead from wounds, 14 202 people - sanitary. The German troops experienced animal hatred for the captured fighters of the corps, subjecting them to brutal torture and torment. So, the Germans hung five captured wounded soldiers of the Czechoslovak battalion near Sokolovo alive upside down in the cold, before that their ears, noses, and tongues were cut off. Having found 8 seriously wounded soldiers of the battalion during the capture of Kharkov in one of the hospitals, the German soldiers killed them right on the hospital beds. In the battles in Slovakia in 1945, the painful executions of captured soldiers (up to being burned alive) were massive. For 26 months of fighting, Czechoslovak troops destroyed 24,600 Nazis.

The note. Four Czechoslovak squadrons fought in the RAF: 310th, 311th, 312th and 313th. The British special services prepared and dropped into the occupied territory of Czechoslovakia several reconnaissance, sabotage and intelligence groups.

Joseph Burshik

Joseph Burshik (1911–2002) - Czechoslovak officer, participant in World War II, who went through a full combat path as part of a battalion, then a brigade and a corps. He is best known for the fact that in 1968, in protest against the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into the Czech Republic, he handed over all his Soviet awards to the Soviet embassy in London. His awards: Hero of the Soviet Union (December 21, 1943), Order of Lenin (December 21, 1943), Order of Suvorov III degree (August 10, 1945), Order of the Red Star (April 17, 1943).

In 1949, Burshik was arrested on charges of anti-communist propaganda and sentenced to 10 years "for treason." Having ended up in a prison hospital due to a severe form of tuberculosis, he managed to escape in August 1950 and cross the border to Germany. In 1955 he emigrated to the UK, where he underwent treatment and underwent two operations. At the personal request of Queen Elizabeth II, Burshik was granted British citizenship, which he refused. Appreciating this noble deed, the queen endowed Burshik with all the rights of a citizen of the United Kingdom. At home, Burshik had a wife and two daughters, who were released to the West to their father in 1963. In 1969 he was officially deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all awards of the USSR. In 1992, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all Soviet awards were returned to him.

Bombing of Prague in February 1945

On February 14, 1945, the US Air Force flying to bomb Dresden veered off course and bombed Prague by mistake. As a result of the raid, 701 people were killed and another 1,184 were injured of varying degrees of severity. The vast majority were civilians. Another 11,000 citizens lost their homes. Not a single plant or other strategic facility was damaged. Bombs fell exclusively on civilian buildings in the districts of Radlice, Vysehrad, Zlichov, Nusle, Vinohrady, Vrsovice, Pankrac and Charles Square.

In just three minutes, 62 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers dropped 58 tons of bombs on the central part of the city. 183 buildings turned into ruins and about 200 were seriously damaged. Some of the buildings were of cultural and historical value, for example, the Emmaus Monastery, the house of Faust, the Vinohrady synagogue.

Prague Uprising (1945)

The article is in the process of being written...

After the war, Soviet troops were withdrawn from the territory of Czechoslovakia in November 1945.

In the photo: the same "Hetzer"

So, after the formation of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the entry of German troops into its territory, the entire arsenal of the Czechoslovak army transferred to the service of the III Reich. And the arsenal was notable ...

A very detailed factual material is provided by the historian A. Usovsky.
Let's start with the tank units: “... by the spring of 1939, the LT-35 was already a little outdated (although the Germans gladly took 219 of these vehicles for themselves) - but the ChKD plant had already developed a new, much better, TNНР tank for a year, and was just waiting for an order for its serial production. Since, after Munich, Prague was recommended by the "senior comrades" to moderate their ardor in armaments, the Czechoslovak General Staff, until its very end, did not order the agreed series of 150 vehicles back in 1938. And therefore, the management of the CKD company gladly and even, I would say, enthusiastically accepted the news of the death of the Czech Republic - in full confidence that their beautiful, fashionable and modern tank would suit the new owners of Bohemia. And they weren't wrong!

The Wehrmacht generals, having familiarized themselves with the three ready-made LT-38 tanks, as well as with the relevant documentation, came to the conclusion that this vehicle was quite suitable for the German army. The first 9 production vehicles under the designation 38(t) Ausf. And they left the walls of the BMM plant on May 22, 1939. In total, before the start of World War II, 98 tanks of this modification were built. So, an entire tank corps (including LT-35) of the Czech "panzers" took part in the attack on Poland! For some reason, it is customary to call these tanks "trophy" - for mercy! Trophies are property TAKEN IN BATTLE. If the LT-38 was produced by order of the Wehrmacht, then what kind of “trophies” can we talk about?”
So, already in the course of the Polish company, the Wehrmacht used a whole tank hull, equipped with the latest Czech tanks LT-38. Needless to say, these tanks were also used in June 1941, during the attack on our Motherland ...

Let's continue the list of what the Wehrmacht received from the Czech army in 1939:
“In total, the Germans took 254 mountain 75-mm guns, 241 80-mm field guns, 261 150-mm howitzers, 10 152-mm guns, 23 305-mm mortars and more than two thousand anti-tank guns of 37-mm and 47-mm caliber .
Of course, the Germans gladly replenished their arsenals with excellent Czech machine guns - fifty thousand light ZB-26s and twelve thousand easel ZB-53s, fortunately, these machine guns (like the Czechoslovak Mauser rifles) were created under the German 7.92-mm cartridge.
These excellent Czech machine guns (and tens of thousands of new ones made by Czech workers over the 6 years of the existence of the protectorate) throughout the Great Patriotic War shot at our fathers and grandfathers on all its fronts ...

“But it cannot be said that Germany completely disarmed the Protectorate - Prague was left the right to have its own native army ... of seven thousand bayonets.

... Having taken the Czech Republic under their wing, the Germans received colossal production capacities of heavy industry - thanks to which they doubled the production of military equipment and weapons. Plus, these new facilities were located in the depths of the European continent and, unlike the Ruhr, were in complete and absolute safety against enemy air raids (at least until 1943 ...
After Munich, the Germans began to look at the arsenals of the Czechoslovak army, not as a threat to Germany, but as a potential opportunity to instantly and repeatedly strengthen the Wehrmacht.
What actually happened six months later...

Until March 15, 1939, Czech industry, especially heavy industry, worked at barely a quarter of its potential - orders for its products were too small and episodic. But the entry into the Reich breathed new strength into all Czech factories - orders fell like a cornucopia!
After the Czech Republic became the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", the German administration came to all the factories of the Skoda concern, and in the summer they were included in the Hermann Göring concern. At the end of 1939, the assembly of 6LTP6 light trucks for the Romanian army began at the Skoda plant in Pilsen, and the Czechs began to supply the Wehrmacht with modified versions of Skoda commercial trucks of the “100/150;, “254/256; and “706D”, as well as diesel versions of heavy machines 6ST6 and 6VD...

With the arrival of the Germans, the plant of the Skoda concern in Mladá Boleslav also revived, until 1939 it produced cars and barely made ends meet ...
The program of the plant turned out to be a car designed for operation in the conditions of the Russian cold climate and off-road. It was an artillery tractor with all leading and rear steered steel wheels with a diameter of 1.5 m with high metal lugs. Until May 1944, 206 copies were collected. The Skoda factories also assembled 5,000 Hkl6 (Sd.Kfz.11) half-tracked transporters, produced DB10 tanks and tractors under the S10 index.
But cars and tractors were by no means the main products of numerous Czech factories. Much more important for the Reich were combat vehicles - tanks, self-propelled guns and armored personnel carriers - with which the Czech workers generously supplied the Wehrmacht fighting on countless fronts.
After joining the protectorate, Germany received equipment that would be enough to equip 35 divisions. In addition, the Skoda factories, the second most important arsenal in Central Europe, fell into the hands of the Germans, which, according to Winston Churchill, produced almost as much military products between August 1938 and September 1939 as all British enterprises produced for the same time.

According to the Center for the German War Economy, on March 31, 1944 alone, the Fuhrer received almost 13 billion 866 million brands of weapons and equipment from the shops of 857 factories of the previously annexed Czech Republic.
“ChKD factories (which became VMM after the Protectorate became part of the Reich) in 1939-1942 produced LT-38 tanks in the amount of 1480 units. When this tank was hopelessly outdated, the plant's specialists, IN INITIATIVE ORDER, took up its conversion into an anti-tank self-propelled guns. At first, the Germans looked at these Czech delights with disdain, but by the end of 1943, it became clear to the Wehrmacht command that the front needed a new, well-armored compact self-propelled unit - a tank destroyer, at the lowest possible price.
The self-propelled guns based on the 38 (t) tank, which received the name “Hetzer” in the Wehrmacht, became the ideal vehicle for these requirements.

This "Hetzer" (its name can be translated as "huntsman") needs to be told in more detail.
In March 1943, the Inspector General of the Tank Forces, Colonel General G. Guderian, ordered the start of work on the creation of a small, light and well-armored tank destroyer. In December of the same year, a prototype based on the PzKpfw 38(t) light tank was ready. After the completion of the tests, the result of which exceeded all expectations, the new machine was put into service under the name "Hetzer".
On January 28, 1944, A. Hitler personally identified the early start of production and an increase in its volume as the most important task for the army in 1944. A production schedule was set, providing for the production of 1000 vehicles per month by March 1945.

Since April 1944, the mass production of new anti-tank self-propelled guns began at the enterprises of the VMM company (former ChKD), and in September Skoda joined it. In the course of production, self-propelled guns were constantly improved and modernized. It was also planned to produce modifications with 75 mm Pak 39/1 and 105 mm StuG 42 guns.
In total, 2584 Hetzer tank destroyers were produced in 1944 and 1945.
"Hetzer" was the best light anti-tank self-propelled guns of the Second World War. The vehicle had a completely new low hull, characterized by a large inclination of the frontal, side and stern armor plates, the thickness of which varied from 10 to 60 mm. Due to the increase in weight compared to the standard tank PzKpfw 38 (t), the undercarriage was strengthened and expanded. In practice, only the transmission and chassis units were borrowed from the base tank. A more powerful 160-horsepower engine was used as a power plant.

A remote-controlled (!!!) MG 34 machine gun of 7.92 mm caliber appeared on the roof of the hull. The 75 mm cannon was covered by a "pig's snout" type mask.
The Hetzer received its baptism of fire in July 1944. The machine was actively used on all fronts until the last days of the war.
On April 10, 1945, there were 915 Hetzer self-propelled guns in the combat units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, of which 726 were on the Eastern Front and 101 on the Western.

This statistic perfectly shows WHICH front was the MAIN for Hitler, isn't it?!

But that's not all: on the basis of the Hetzer self-propelled guns, Czech enterprises manufactured 20 flamethrower tanks, 30 self-propelled guns with a 150-mm sIG 33 infantry gun and 170 BREM.
And in 1944 and 45, our tank guys burned in thousands in their “thirty-fours” from the fire of these damned “Hetzers”, created on their own initiative by wonderful Czech engineers and workers ...

In October 1944, two raids were made on the Skoda factories by Allied aircraft, during which 417 tons of bombs were dropped, which sharply slowed down the increase in Hetzer production at this plant, although it did not stop it.
In December, the number of self-propelled guns produced fell again, including as a result of three new air raids on Skoda factories, during which 375 tons of bombs were dropped. However, in January 1945, it was possible to reach the peak output of the Hetzer, after which the production rate began to fall sharply. The reason for this was the ever-increasing problems with the supply of materials and parts that the entire industry of the Third Reich was experiencing, and the continued bombing of the Skoda factories, and from March 25, the BMM.
The production of the Hetzer, despite the bombing, undersupply of components and regular power outages, continued until the first days of May 1945.

To compensate for the decrease in the production of self-propelled guns at BMM as a result of the bombing, in the first half of April, the production of Hetzer from the BMM enterprises in Prague to the plant in Milovice. The main problem for the release of the Jagdpanzer 38 in April was the lack of 75-mm PaK 39/2 guns produced at factories in Germany, and therefore it was planned to install StuK 40 guns manufactured by Skoda in May on the Hetzer.

As you can see, the Czechs in Stakhanov's way worked for the III Reich until its very end. With invention, initiative and "light". Neither the Allied bombings, nor the lack of 75-mm PaK 39/2 cannons, produced in Germany, interfered with them. To replace them, enterprising Czech specialists immediately offered THEIR StuK 40, of their own production.

“But the Czech industry was not the only Hetzer!
In 1944, she MONTHLY shipped 30 thousand rifles, 3 thousand machine guns, 625 thousand artillery shells to Germany. The Škoda factories in Pilsen and the Mürz zuschlag-Bohemia in Česká Lipa produced Sd.Kfz 251/1 Ausf.С and Sd.Kfz/251-1 Ausf D armored personnel carriers; assembly of Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 and Bf 109G-14 fighters.
In general, it must be said that the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a reliable “cannon yard” and arsenal of the Third Reich, largely due to which the Germans were able to hold out in this war for so long.

Here is what A. Petrov wrote about Czech assistance to the Nazi Reich in the article "Cunning petition":
By June 1941, almost a third of the German units were equipped with Czech weapons. The hands of the Czechs assembled a quarter of all tanks, 26 percent of trucks and 40 percent of the small arms of the German army. According to the Center for the German War Economy, on March 31, 1944, weapons and equipment worth almost 13 billion 866 million Reichsmarks were received from the shops of 857 factories in the Czech Republic at the disposal of the Fuhrer.

Soviet historians, obeying ideological guidelines, painted a picture of the proletarian solidarity of Czech hard workers with their Soviet brothers in class. The unfortunate Czechs, they say, were driven to the machines almost at gunpoint. And so, suffering unbearably, the labor collectives of these 857 enterprises of the Czech Republic from year to year increased the output of their deadly products.

According to German sources, in 1944, the Czech Republic monthly (!) Delivered to Germany about 11 thousand pistols, 30 thousand rifles, more than 3 thousand machine guns, 15 million cartridges, about 100 self-propelled artillery pieces, 144 infantry guns, 180 anti-aircraft guns, more than 620 thousand artillery pieces. shells, almost a million shells for anti-aircraft guns, from 600 to 900 wagons of aerial bombs, 0.5 million signal ammunition, 1,000 tons of gunpowder and 600,000 explosives. As for the labor productivity of the Czechs, it was not inferior to the performance of the German workers.
It is interesting that the main workshops of the military factories in Prague stopped only on May 5, 1945.
In the electoral memory of the Czechs, the half-kilometer ambulance train - "the gift of the Czech people to the warring Reich" - somehow did not "deposit". Forgotten are parcels with warm knitted mittens - “from mothers” to the Stalingrad “cauldron”, and friendly Nazi greetings from conscious Czech workers, advanced workers sent to health camps for hard work for the victory of German weapons created by their skillful hands ... which kills Russians, Poles, Jews, Americans and British...
By the way, it is the Skoda Pilsen factories at the very end of the war that will become almost the only source of weapons for the Wehrmacht.

True, the Czechs do not like to remember this. In the military museum in Prague, the period of their life during the occupation is illuminated by only two or three small stands with shells, which are the result of "slave labor", which did not stop right up to May 5, 1945. Moreover, the "forced workers" punctually reported to Berlin already defeated by the Red Army about the early fulfillment of their obligations to the Nazis. Almost until the very day of the capitulation of the Third Reich, the "freedom-loving" Czechs could not figure out that riveting weapons for Germany was completely pointless and their work would not be paid.

There is something else worth mentioning as well.
The Russian white emigrant B. Tikhonovich recalled: “The Czechs enriched themselves unheard of on the Jews in 1939-1945. They took "for safekeeping" Jewish jewelry, paintings, property, and then wrote denunciations against former friends. In the course there was a saying: "They (that is, the Jews) from there will never return anyway." Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, still has not returned the paintings that belonged to her family and were stolen by two Czech sisters from Prague.
All this was “shamefully” hushed up in the post-war period by the Soviet leadership due to the fact that the Czechs are Slavic brothers and our allies in the socialist camp. Thanks to the Soviet Union, they, like other de facto comrades-in-arms of the Third Reich, escaped with only a slight fright for complicity with the Nazis and the murder of Soviet citizens.

I almost forgot ... I must also say about those Czechs who immediately decided to fight Hitler. A. Usovsky also wrote about this:
“... regarding the Czechoslovak troops who fought on the side of the Allies, then on September 17, 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Svoboda took his battalion to the Soviet Union, formed from those Czechs who decided to fight the Germans. And there were them - ONLY 300 PEOPLE ... "

In the next chapter we will talk about the actions of the Czech Resistance during the Second World War.

March 15 marks the 70th anniversary of the Nazi occupation of Prague and the disappearance of the Czech Republic from the map of Europe, which became the prologue to the start of World War II. For many, it is a mystery how the powerful Czechoslovak army did not resist the aggressors. But the answer lies in politics. Chekhov was "surrendered" to Hitler by Western democracies - England and France, and this fact is considered the greatest shame in the history of diplomacy. And then only the USSR came out in defense of the Czechs.

The occupation of Prague on March 15, 1939 marked the end of the chain of events in 1938-1939. It began on September 29-30, 1938, when fascist Italy, as well as Great Britain and France, agreed with Germany's demand for the rejection of a third of its territory, inhabited mainly by Germans, from Czechoslovakia, 14 million strong. The West, in an ultimatum form, demanded that the Czechs come to terms with the loss. President Edvard Benes yielded to pressure from the Western allies and soon left his post, emigrating to London. The only country that protested about this was the USSR.

This event went down in history as the Munich Agreement. Over time, it came to be regarded as the greatest shame in the history of diplomacy. Western democracies (especially France, which had a mutual assistance agreement with Czechoslovakia) handed over their ally to the Nazis. Hungary and Poland also took part in the rejection of a number of lands from Czechoslovakia. The country lost a third of its territory and population, 40 percent of its industrial potential and powerful military fortifications. Her new frontiers were virtually bare.

On February 28, 1939, Germany refused to guarantee the inviolability of the Czech borders. On March 14, at the behest of Hitler, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus (present-day Transcarpathia) declared independence. On the same day, the Wehrmacht began the occupation of the Czech Republic, and on March 15, German units entered Prague. Czechoslovak troops were ordered not to resist. On March 16, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was created on the territory of the Czech Republic, which was actually controlled from Berlin. Six years of Nazi occupation began, and the existence of the Czechs as a nation was threatened.

Were there opportunities for defense in Prague? In relation to the "military-technical" - there were. It is no coincidence that most of the generals, including the former commander of the Siberian Army Kolchak Radola Gaida, advocated a resolute rebuff to the invaders.

The Czechoslovak fortifications in the Sudetenland, according to military experts, made it possible not only to delay the German offensive, but also to "drive it into the ground." Czechoslovak aviation was equipped with some of the best fighters in the world - the French "devuatins", which, as the experience of fighting in Spain showed, surpassed the German "Messerschmitts" in terms of flight performance. Winning air supremacy for the Germans would be a big problem.

Czechoslovak tank Pt-38 could claim the title of the best in the world. German armored vehicles then, in fact, were still in their infancy. Against several hundred modern Pt-38s and Pt-35s, the Germans could only put up machine-gun "tanks" T-1 and weak T-2, whose 20-mm cannon was unable to penetrate the armor of their Czechoslovak opponents. And the 60 T-3 units in service with the Germans, capable of competing with them, were too few to turn the tide.

In any case, the high combat effectiveness of Czech tanks is proved by the fact that almost a quarter of the German tank forces that participated in the attack on the USSR were equipped with Czech vehicles. By the way, the famous "Tigers" and "Panthers" were made in the Czech Republic.

Foreign historians believe that the Czechs had one of the strongest armies in the world. Documents from the German archives testify that the Nazi generals did not allow the Fuhrer to support the attempts of the Sudeten German uprising on the eve of the Munich Agreement, and the Czechs suppressed them in a few hours. To prevent a suicidal war, the German military had to shoot Hitler immediately after returning from Munich.

At the same time, the position of Czechoslovakia was vulnerable. After the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, the country was surrounded on three sides by German territory. The human resources that Hitler had at his disposal were seven times greater than those of the Czech Republic. Hungary and Poland were not a reliable rear. Slovakia and Transcarpathia headed for secession. Three million Germans lived on the territory of the Czech Republic, eager to join the Reich. Even after

Hundreds of thousands of Germans who dreamed of becoming Hitler's "fifth column" remained there. There was not a single city in the Czech Republic where ethnic Germans did not live.

But, in addition to the military component, there was a political one. The reaction of England, France and the United States to the occupation was sluggish. Only the Soviet Union protested. He was ready to provide military assistance to the Czechs, however, according to the mutual assistance treaties of 1935, he could do this only if France came to the aid of Czechoslovakia. And Paris betrayed its ally. In addition, the USSR and Czechoslovakia did not have a common border, and relations with Poland, through which the transit of military cargo could be carried out, were strained. And President Benes did not ask for help from the USSR.

The Czech Republic, and Czechoslovakia as a whole, had a chance, but it was given up by politicians - both their own and Western ones. If she had not disappeared from the map of Europe, Hitler's hands would have been tied. And so the road to the beginning of World War II opened. “I brought you peace,” said British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain after the Munich Agreement. But in reality, his actions, as well as the overall policy of appeasing the aggressor, contributed to the outbreak of war. Regardless of whether or not the Czechs should have resisted the aggressors.

On the most important international events.

Who fought in numbers, and who fought with skill. The monstrous truth about the losses of the USSR in World War II Sokolov Boris Vadimovich

Czechoslovak losses

Czechoslovak losses

The losses of those who were called up to the Wehrmacht and the SS troops from the territory of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and from the Sudetenland are included in the losses of the German armed forces. Considering that there were about 3.5 million Sudeten Germans, the losses among them in the Wehrmacht could reach up to 150 thousand people, taking into account that they lived in industrial areas, where the proportion of conscripts was lower. How many Czechs died in the Wehrmacht is unknown. It is only known that 69,977 Czechs and Slovaks fell into Soviet captivity, of which 4,023 people died in captivity.

According to the Czech historian K. Patsner, 4,570 Czechs and Slovaks died fighting in the Red Army, and 3,220 died in the troops of the Western Allies. In addition, approximately 5,000 Czechs died in the Wehrmacht, and 7,000 Slovaks died in the ranks of Germany's allied Slovak army (including those who died in captivity). The victims among the Czech partisans amounted to 450 people, and among the Slovak ones - 1720. Among the participants in the uprising in Prague and other Czech cities in 1945, from 5 to 8 thousand people died, including in Prague, according to various estimates, from 2 to 5 thousand . human. About 7.5 thousand Roma also died on the territory of Czechoslovakia. Of the civilian population, 10 thousand Czechs and 5.3 thousand Slovaks were killed during punitive operations and executed in prisons. In addition, 7,000 Czechs and Slovaks died in concentration camps About 277,000 Jews were exterminated in Czechoslovakia as part of the Holocaust. We tend to accept the upper estimate of the number of victims of the 1945 uprisings, assuming that civilian casualties are also included here. We estimate the total number of deaths of Czechs, Slovaks, Jews and Gypsies at 335,000, of which only about 20,000 were killed by servicemen. Those who died during the uprisings of 1945, we include among the losses of the civilian population.

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Losses of Italy According to official Italian figures, before the armistice concluded on September 8, 1943, the Italian armed forces, excluding the losses of local soldiers of the colonial army, lost 66,686 killed and died of wounds, 111,579 missing and died in captivity and 26,081

From the author's book

Losses of Malta Losses of the civilian population of Malta from German-Italian air raids are estimated at 1.5 thousand people. 14 thousand bombs were dropped on the island, about 30 thousand buildings were destroyed and damaged. The relatively small number of victims is due to the fact that the population

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Albanian casualties Albanian casualties, both military and civilian, were estimated after the war by the United Nations Relief and Reconstruction Organization at 30,000. In Albania, about 200 Jews were killed by the Nazis. All of them were citizens of Yugoslavia. According to official

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Losses of Yugoslavia The losses of Yugoslavia in the Second World War during the time of Tito were officially estimated at 1,706 thousand dead and died of starvation and disease. However, the American Bureau of the Census in 1954 estimated Yugoslavia's military losses at 1,067,000 dead. At the same time, American

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Losses of Bulgaria The losses of the Bulgarian troops during the occupational service in Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941-1944, mainly as a result of clashes with local partisans, amounted to about 3 thousand people. According to Bulgarian communists, more than 15,000

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Greek losses According to the official Greek data of the National Council for Reparations, the losses of the Greek armed forces amounted to 13,327 dead, 62,663 wounded and 1,290 missing during the Italo-Greek war of 1940-1941, 1,100 dead in the Greek units,

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Losses of Finland In the Soviet-Finnish, or Winter, war in November 1939 - March 1940, the Finnish army lost 18,139 killed, 1,437 died from wounds and diseases, 4,101 missing and 43,557 wounded, surviving, out of 337 thousand people. drafted into the army. Of the 4101 missing 847

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Presentation of evidence by the assistant to the chief prosecutor from the USSR L. N. Smirnov under the prosecution section “Crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Greece” [Transcript

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Losses ... In any feast, to the noise and din of the departed, remember; although they are invisible to us, they see us. (I. G.) ... When I was awarded the highest officer rank, my son Seryozha and my friend and brother of my wife, lieutenant colonel of the medical service Ruzhitsky Zhanlis Fedorovich, were most happy about this.