March 15 marks 70 years since the Nazi occupation of Prague and the disappearance of the Czech Republic from the map of Europe, which became the prologue to the beginning 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 the Western democracies - England and France, and this fact is considered the greatest disgrace 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 to secede from the 14 million-strong Czechoslovakia a third of its territory, populated mainly by Germans. The West, in the form of an ultimatum, demanded that the Czechs come to terms with the loss. President Edvard Benes yielded to pressure from the Western allies and soon left office, 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 considered the greatest disgrace in the history of diplomacy. Western democracies (especially France, which had a mutual assistance treaty with Czechoslovakia) handed over their ally to the Nazis. Hungary and Poland also took part in the annexation 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. Its new boundaries 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 under threat.
Did Prague have any defensive capabilities? Regarding “military-technical” – they were. It is no coincidence that most of the generals, including the former commander of the Siberian Army Kolchak Radola Gaida, advocated a decisive rebuff to the invaders.
Czechoslovak fortifications in the Sudetes, according to military experts, made it possible not only to delay the German offensive, but also to “drive it into the ground.” Czechoslovakian aviation was equipped with some of the best fighters in the world - the French Devoitins, which, as experience in battles in Spain showed, were superior to the German Messerschmitts in flight performance. Gaining air supremacy would be a big problem for the Germans.
The Czechoslovak tank Pt-38 could claim to be the best in the world. German armored vehicles were then, in fact, still in their infancy. Against several hundred modern Pt-38 and Pt-35, the Germans could only field 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 proven 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 indicate that Hitler’s generals did not allow the Fuhrer to support the attempts to revolt by the Sudeten Germans 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, Czechoslovakia's position was vulnerable. After Austria joined Germany in 1938, the country was surrounded on three sides by German territory. The human resources at Hitler's 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. On the territory of the Czech Republic itself there lived three million Germans who were eager to join the Reich. Even after
The rejection of the border territories left hundreds of thousands of Germans there who dreamed of becoming Hitler’s “fifth column”. 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 USA 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 agreements of 1935, he could only do this 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 military cargo could be transited, 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 it 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.
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In the late 20s and 30s, Germany did not need to strain its strength, like we did, by creating new industries, building factories and blast furnaces, and opening hundreds of institutes. It occupied industrial countries and forced them to work for itself.
Just one fact: the weapons that Germany captured from the defeated countries were enough to form 200 divisions. No, this is not a mistake: 200 divisions. We had 170 divisions in the western districts. To provide them with weapons, the USSR needed several five-year plans. In France, after its defeat, the Germans immediately seized up to 5,000 tanks and armored personnel carriers, 3,000 aircraft, and 5,000 steam locomotives. In Belgium, they appropriated half of the rolling stock for the needs of their economy and war, etc.
But the main thing, of course, is not the confiscated weapons or trophies.
A special prize for Germany in March 1939 was Czechoslovakia, which had a combat-ready army and developed industry. Back in 1938, during the Munich Agreement, according to which Czechoslovakia undertook to transfer the Sudetenland to Germany, Hitler warned the British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain and the French head of government E. Deladier that, following the Sudetenland, all of Czechoslovakia would soon be occupied. But Deladier and Chamberlain did not lift a finger to protect the interests of this country. It must be admitted that the Czechoslovak leaders, having a modern army at that time, were able to provide powerful resistance to Germany, but slavishly surrendered their country to Hitler’s mercy. And Czechoslovakia represented a tasty morsel for preparing for a future war. The country's weight in the world arms market of those years was 40%. This small country produced monthly 130 thousand rifles, 200 guns, about 5,000 different machine guns... At the expense of Czechoslovakia alone, the German Air Force increased by 72%, receiving 1,582 aircraft. German tank units added 486 tanks produced in Czechoslovak factories to their 720. As a result, Hitler, at the expense of Czechoslovakia alone, was able to arm and equip 50 divisions. In addition, fascist Germany also received in addition the gold reserves (80 tons) of this country, as well as the people who meekly worked for the criminal Nazi regime throughout the years of the war. The factories of the famous Skoda company made a particularly large contribution to the production of guns, trucks, and tanks. Since the beginning of the war, German soldiers fought on Czech tanks in Poland, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, and then in the USSR...
Ribbentrop, Chamberlain and Hitler during negotiations in Munich, where the fate of Czechoslovakia was decided
From 1933 to 1939 alone, during the six years that Hitler was in power, the size of the German army increased 40 times. Despite the Versailles agreements, the leaders of Great Britain and France stubbornly ignored this... And the strengthening of Germany’s military-technical potential after the rapid victories of the Wehrmacht in 1939–1940. The economies of France, Holland, Belgium, Norway also contributed... Even neutral Sweden and Switzerland supplied the German military industry with iron ore for steel production and precision instruments... Spain supplied a significant amount of oil and petroleum products... The industry of almost all of Europe worked for the war machine of Hitler, who 30 June 1941 stated that he viewed the war with the USSR as a joint European war against Russia.
After the war, W. Churchill wrote, for example, about Czechoslovakia: “It is indisputable that due to the fall of Czechoslovakia we lost forces equal to approximately 35 divisions. In addition, the Skoda factories fell into the hands of the enemy - the second most important arsenal in Central Europe, which in the period from August 1938 to September 1939 produced almost the same amount of products as all the British factories produced during the same time.
This arsenal, far from the only one in Europe, worked for Hitler’s army until the end of 1944. And how it worked! Every fifth tank delivered to the Wehrmacht troops in the first half of 1941 was manufactured at Skoda factories.
Czech enterprises, according to German ones - and one must think, accurate! - According to data, military production was constantly increasing. In 1944, for example, every month they shipped 300 thousand rifles, 3 thousand machine guns, 625 thousand artillery shells, 100 self-propelled artillery pieces to Germany. In addition, tanks, tank guns, Me-109 aircraft, aircraft engines, etc.
In Poland, 264 large, 9 thousand medium and 76 thousand small enterprises worked for Germany.
Denmark covered the needs of the German civilian population for butter by 10 percent, meat by 20 percent, and fresh fish by 90 percent. And, of course, Danish industry fulfilled all German orders.
France (41 million population), led by the collaborationist government of Laval, and French entrepreneurs willingly collaborated with the Germans and were their main supplier. By the beginning of the war with the USSR, 1.6 million people were employed in the French defense industry, which worked for the Wehrmacht. According to incomplete German data, until January 1944 they supplied Germany with about 4,000 aircraft, about 10 thousand aircraft engines, and 52 thousand trucks. The entire locomotive industry and 95 percent of the machine tool industry worked only for Germany.
Belgium and Holland supplied the Germans with coal, pig iron, iron, manganese, zinc, etc.
The most interesting thing is that all the occupied countries ruled by collaborators did not require payment in cash. They were promised to be paid after the victorious—for the Germans—end of the war. They all worked for Hitler for free.
In addition, these countries also helped Germany by taking on the costs of maintaining the German occupation forces. France, for example, since the summer of 1940 has allocated 20 million German marks daily, and since the autumn of 1942 - 25 million. These funds were enough not only to provide the German troops with everything they needed, but also to prepare and wage war against THE USSR. In total, European countries “donated” Germany more than 80 billion marks for these purposes (of which France - 35 billion).
What about the neutral countries - Sweden and Switzerland? And they worked for Germany. The Swedes supplied bearings, iron ore, steel, and rare earth elements. They actually fed the German military-industrial complex until the end of 1944. The rapid German offensive on Leningrad was connected, in particular, with the aim of “locking up” our navy and securing the supply of Swedish steel and ore. Significant supplies from Latin America went through Swedish “neutral” ports for Germany. Our military intelligence reported, for example, that from January to October 1942, more than 6 million tons of various cargo, mainly strategic raw materials, were imported into Germany through Swedish ports. Unlike the occupied countries, Sweden made good money from the war. How many? Such data have not yet been published. Swedes have something to be ashamed of. Just like the Swiss. The latter supplied precision instruments, and Swiss banks were used to pay for desperately needed purchases in Latin America.
It would be interesting to compare in detail what Germany received from the occupied, allied and neutral countries of Europe (and, as it turned out, mostly for free) with the amount of American assistance to the Soviet Union (we paid for it). It turns out that there is neither a general figure for European aid to Hitler nor for individual countries. Only fragmentary data. For the Germans, even judging by the Skoda alone, this help was extremely important. As for us, for example, the supply of American Studebakers after the Battle of Stalingrad, which made the Red Army mobile and maneuverable. But, I repeat, historians do not have complete data on assistance to Germany. And, judging by the available data, it was huge. The four-volume book “World Wars of the 20th Century” provides the following figures: after the capture of Europe from Germany, the industrial potential doubled, and the agricultural potential tripled.
Europe helped Hitler not only with its arsenals. A number of Catholic bishops were quick to call the invasion of the USSR a “European crusade.” 5 million soldiers burst into our territory in the summer of 1941. 900 thousand of them are not Germans, but their allies. In addition to Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, and Finland declared war on us. Spain and Denmark did not declare war, but sent their soldiers. The Bulgarians did not fight with us, but they advanced 12 divisions against the Yugoslav and Greek partisans and thereby gave the Germans the opportunity to transport part of their troops from the Balkans to the Eastern Front.
It was in the summer of 1941 that 900 thousand Europeans opposed us. In general, during the war this figure increased to 2 million people. Our captivity included Czechs (70 thousand), Poles (60 thousand), French (23 thousand) and then, in descending order, Belgians, Luxembourgers and... even neutral Swedes.
This is a special topic or a special conversation about why Europeans were so willing to help Hitler in the war against the USSR. Anti-communism undoubtedly played a significant role. But not the only one and, perhaps, not the main one. Perhaps we should return to this topic separately.
And finally, European countries helped Germany eliminate its constantly growing labor shortage due to the conscription of Germans into the army. According to incomplete data, 875.9 thousand workers were delivered from France to German factories, from Belgium and Holland - half a million each, from Norway - 300 thousand, from Denmark - 70 thousand. This made it possible for Germany to mobilize almost a quarter of its population, and they, as soldiers, were head and shoulders above their allies in all respects - Italians, Romanians or Slovaks.
All this taken together ensured Germany's significant superiority at the initial stage of the war, and then gave it the opportunity to hold out until May 1945.
What about the Resistance movement? A number of Russian authors believe that its role and significance in the occupied industrial countries of Western Europe are extremely exaggerated. To some extent this is understandable: it was important to emphasize in those years that we were not alone in the struggle. V. Kozhinov, for example, gives the following figures: in Yugoslavia, almost 300 thousand members of the Resistance died, in France, whose population was 2.5 times larger, - 20 thousand, and about 50 thousand Frenchmen died in the ranks of the German army. Doesn't comparing these losses mean anything? Was it by chance that the Germans kept 10 divisions in Yugoslavia? Of course, the heroism of the French members of the Resistance is undeniable and its memory is sacred. But try to put on one side of the scale all the damage that they inflicted on the Nazis, and on the other - all the real help that European countries helpfully provided to Germany. Which bowl will win?
No, the question must be posed more broadly, the historians answered. Take the first two weeks of the war in France and the USSR. Already on the fifth day of the war, a real war that began on May 10, 1940, and not what the Germans called “sedentary,” the Americans and the British called “strange,” when there was simply no fighting, the new French Prime Minister Reine called Churchill and said, "We have failed." Churchill immediately flew to Paris, hoping to lift the spirits of the Allied government. But he didn't succeed. Did the French troops try to get out of the encirclement, did they have their own Brest Fortress, their own Smolensk battle? Your heroic battles surrounded near Vyazma? Did the Parisians go out to dig anti-tank ditches? Did anyone call them to action? Did you propose a wrestling program? No, the leadership - both civilian and military - led France to become a collaborator and work for Germany throughout the war. The country has lost its honor. The majority of the French fled to the south and west; they did not want to fight, the main thing was to save their wallets. De Gaulle called to them from London, but only hundreds of people responded.
It is believed that on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. In fact, this is not entirely true; several countries started a war against the USSR, among them:
Romania - about 200 thousand soldiers,
Slovakia - 90 thousand soldiers,
Finland - about 450 thousand soldiers and officers,
Hungary - about 500 thousand people,
Italy - 200 thousand people,
Croatia as part of the security division
And these are only those countries that officially declared war on the Soviet Union. According to various sources, from one and a half to two and a half million volunteers who fought in Wehrmacht and Waffen SS units took part in this “crusade” against the USSR.
These were representatives of such countries as: Holland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, France, Switzerland, Spain, Luxembourg. As during the Patriotic War of 1812, essentially all of Europe took up arms against Russia.
The famous American historian George G. Stein in his book “Waffen SS” describes the national composition of these units:
Dutch - 50 thousand people, Belgians - 20 thousand people, French - 20 thousand people, Danes and Norwegians - 6 thousand people each, 1200 people each from Sweden, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and other European countries.
One of the best divisions of the Reich, the Viking, consisted of European SS volunteers. The name symbolized that its ranks included representatives from the Aryan peoples of Nordic blood.
So on March 10, 1942, the Norwegian Legion was transferred to the Leningrad Front, it helped keep the city in the blockade ring until the spring of 1943. But due to heavy losses, most of the legionnaires refused to renew the contract, and were, by order of Himler, replaced by the Latvian SS Legion.
The blockade of Leningrad can generally be considered a pan-European enterprise. In addition to the Norwegians, the “Netherlands” legion and a Belgian battalion operated near Volkhov. Spanish volunteers from the Blue Division fought here, Finnish and Swedish troops besieged Leningrad from the north, and Italian sailors prepared for battle on Ladoga.
The German historian Müller-Hillebrandt, who was a major general of the Wehrmacht General Staff during the war, recalls that many Frenchmen who were refused entry into their armed forces by the Germans were greatly offended.
It all started with the fact that Heinrich Himmler had a conflict with the leadership of the Wehrmacht due to the fact that he tried to take the best for his SS units. The best in terms of physical fitness, health, and intellectual condition. He actually selected the guardsmen, and the Wehrmacht received, as his leadership believed, second class, so to speak.
After the army generals “complained” to Hitler, a limit was set for Himler to recruit Germans into guard units. But Himler quickly found a way out of the situation; he began to recruit representatives of the so-called Volksdeutsch, Germans living outside Germany, into his units. These could be Germans from Holland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and from anywhere.
“I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as leader, to be faithful and brave. I vow to obey you and the commander you appointed until death. And may God help me." This is a fragment of the oath of the European Waffen SS volunteers upon joining the service.
Unlike the oath that the Germans took, the text did not mention Hitler as Chancellor of the Reich; this is a kind of psychological trick that this is not service in the ranks of the German occupiers, but in pan-European SS units.
Among the Alpine riflemen there were also not only Germans, there were a total of twelve mountain rifle divisions, of which two were Austrian, one was Yugoslav German, one was Bosnian Muslim, another consisted of Albanians, and another included both Austrians and Norwegians. So we can assume that every second German mountain shooter was born outside the borders of the Third Reich in 1937.
Such a large number of volunteers from European countries captured by Hitler is explained by many reasons, this is the racial theory fashionable in Europe at that time and the striking successes of the National Socialist ideology, and simply the desire to profit.
According to Himler's plans, the racially inferior peoples of the USSR were to be thrown back beyond the Urals, and their numbers were reduced several times. Aryans of Nordic blood were supposed to settle in the occupied territories of the eastern lands.
The Second World War is unique among all wars; never before in history have there been such cases of mass transfer of citizens of conquered countries to serve the occupiers. Almost the majority of the population voluntarily joined Hitler’s banners.
Not only armed formations of the European Waffen SS and foreign units of the Wehrmacht took part in the war against the USSR; the entire industry of Europe also worked for the war machine of the Third Reich. In the first years of the war, almost every second shell was cast from Swedish ore.
In the summer of 1941, every fourth tank in the German army was Czech or French. Germany won its first victories largely thanks to Scandinavian iron and Swiss optics for sights.
Few people know that the most powerful Wehrmacht tank during the attack on the USSR was the French B2. Half of the super-heavy guns that shelled Leningrad and Sevastopol were produced in France and the Czech Republic.
In 1938, in Munich, representatives of England and France treacherously gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler. If not for this conspiracy, Germany, for economic reasons, might not have been able to start a full-scale war.
The Czech defense industry was at that time one of the largest in Europe. From its factories, the Reich received more than one and a half million rifles and pistols, about 4 thousand guns and mortars, over 6,600 tanks and self-propelled guns.
The supply of raw materials was of particular importance for Germany. American oil companies, through their branches in Latin American countries, donated tens of millions of dollars worth of gasoline to Hitler. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company supplied the Third Reich with fuel, lubricants and fuel worth $20 million.
Henry Ford, a big admirer of Hitler, had branches of his enterprises in Germany, which until the very end of the war supplied the Germans with very good trucks, about 40 thousand in total. For America, war has become good business.
It is worth noting that in the occupied territory of the USSR, the Germans were able to launch only two hundred out of 32 thousand enterprises. They produced three times less production than a country like Poland.
“If we see that Germany is winning, we must help Russia. And if Russia gains the upper hand, we must help Germany. And let them kill each other as much as possible in this way. All this is for the benefit of America.” This statement was made by future US President Harry Truman to the American newspaper The New York Times on June 24, 1941.
In 2000, Nestle, in connection with its use of slave labor, paid more than $14.5 million to the relevant fund to settle the claims of victims of its actions, Holocaust survivors, and Jewish organizations. The company admitted that in 1947 it acquired a company that used forced labor during the war years, and also stated: “there is no doubt or it can be assumed that some corporations from the Nestle group operating in countries controlled by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime, exploited forced laborers.” Nestle provided monetary assistance to the Nazi Party in Switzerland in 1939, winning a lucrative contract to supply chocolate to the entire German army during World War II.
Allianz
Allianz is considered the twelfth largest financial services company in the world. It is not surprising that, having been founded in 1890 in Germany, it was the largest insurer there when the Nazis came to power. As such, she quickly found herself involved in dealings with the Nazi regime. Its director, Kurt Schmitt, was also Hitler's Minister of Economics, and the company provided insurance for Auschwitz facilities and personnel. Its CEO is responsible for the practice of paying insurance compensation for Jewish property destroyed by Kristallnacht to the Nazi state instead of the rightful beneficiaries. In addition, the company worked closely with the Nazi state in tracking the life insurance policies of German Jews sent to death camps, and during the war insured for the Nazis property taken from the same Jewish population.
Novartis
While Bayer is infamous for its beginnings as a division of the manufacturer of Zyklon B gas, used in Nazi gas chambers, it is not the only pharmaceutical company with skeletons in its closet. The Swiss chemical companies Ciba and Sandoz, as a result of a merger, formed Novartis, which became famous primarily for its drug Ritalin (a notorious psychostimulant widely used in the United States to treat childhood hyperactivity; approx. mixednews). In 1933, the Berlin branch of Ciba terminated all Jewish members of its board of directors and replaced them with more "acceptable" Aryan cadres; Meanwhile, Sandoz was engaged in similar activities regarding its chairman. During the war, companies produced dyes, medicines and chemicals for the Nazis. Novartis openly admitted its guilt and tried to make amends for it in a way typical of other accomplice companies - by donating $15 million to the Swiss compensation fund for victims of Nazism.
BMW admitted to using 30,000 forced unskilled workers during the war. These prisoners of war, forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners produced engines for the Luftwaffe and were thus forced to help the regime defend itself from those who were trying to save them. During wartime, BMW concentrated exclusively on the production of airplanes and motorcycles, with no claim to anything other than being a supplier of military vehicles to the Nazis.
Reemtsma
Reemtsma was founded in 1910 in Erfurt, Germany. In 1918, production was automated. In 1923 production was moved to Altona, now part of the city of Hamburg.
During Hitler's time, despite the official anti-tobacco policy of the NSDAP, the company flourished. In 1937, the company owned 60% of the country's cigarette market. In 1939, Philipp F. Reemtsma was appointed head of the Fachuntergruppe Zigarettenindustrie (the cigarette production department of the Wehrwirtschaftsführer - an association of companies that worked for the front).
In 1948, the company's activities were resumed, and in 1980 the Tchibo coffee company became the owner of the majority of shares, which sold its share in 2002 to Imperial Tobacco. It is noteworthy that now the Reemtsma company has representative offices in Kyiv and Volgograd, near where the Battle of Stalingrad took place.
The history of the Nivea brand dates back to 1890, when a businessman named Oskar Troplowitz bought the Beiersdorf company from its founder.
In the 1930s, the brand positioned itself as a product for active life and sports. The main products were protective creams and shaving products. During World War II, Ellie Hayes Knapp, who became First Lady under Theodore Hayes, was in charge of the advertising side of the brand. According to her, in her advertising campaigns she tried to avoid the militaristic component, focusing on depicting an active life in peaceful circumstances. However, the sporty, smiling girls from Nivea posters could inspire the Wehrmacht fighters no less, or even better, than Hitler’s mustachioed face from NSDAP posters.
It is noteworthy that during the war, several countries at war with Germany appropriated the rights to the trademark. The process of purchasing the rights by Beiersdorf was completed only in 1997.
The Maggi company was founded in 1872 in Switzerland by Julius Maggi. The entrepreneur was the first to appear on the market with ready-made soups. In 1897, Julius Maggi founded Maggi GmbH in the German city of Singen, where it is still based today. The Nazis' rise to power had almost no effect on business. In the 1930s, the company became a supplier of semi-finished products to German troops.
Considering that none of the organization’s management was seen in particularly active political life, the brand has preserved itself and continues to delight. This time also for residents of the ex-USSR.
But what about our neutrals?
“...In the very first days of the war, a German division was sent through the territory of Sweden to operate in Northern Finland. However, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Social Democrat P. A. Hansson, immediately promised the Swedish people that not a single German division would be allowed through Swedish territory and that the country would in no way enter into a war against the USSR. Sweden took upon itself to represent the interests of the USSR in Germany, and yet the transit of German military materials to Finland began through Sweden; German transport ships transported troops there, taking refuge in Swedish territorial waters, and until the winter of 1942/43 they were accompanied by a convoy of Swedish naval forces. The Nazis achieved the supply of Swedish goods on credit and their transportation mainly on Swedish ships ... "
“...It was Swedish iron ore that was the best raw material for Hitler. After all, this ore contained 60 percent pure iron, while the ore received by the German military machine from other places contained only 30 percent iron. It is clear that the production of military equipment from metal smelted from Swedish ore was much cheaper for the treasury of the Third Reich.
In 1939, the same year when Nazi Germany unleashed World War II, it was supplied with 10.6 million tons of Swedish ore. Wow! After April 9, that is, when Germany had already conquered Denmark and Norway, ore supplies increased significantly. In 1941, 45 thousand tons of Swedish ore were supplied daily by sea for the needs of the German military industry. Little by little, Sweden's trade with Nazi Germany increased and eventually accounted for 90 percent of all Swedish foreign trade. From 1940 to 1944, the Swedes sold more than 45 million tons of iron ore to the Nazis.
The Swedish port of Luleå was specially converted to supply iron ore to Germany through the Baltic waters. (And only Soviet submarines after June 22, 1941, at times caused great inconvenience to the Swedes, torpedoing Swedish transports in whose holds this ore was transported). Supplies of ore to Germany continued almost until the moment when the Third Reich had already begun, figuratively speaking, to give up the ghost. Suffice it to say that back in 1944, when the outcome of the Second World War was no longer in doubt, the Germans received 7.5 million tons of iron ore from Sweden. Until August 1944, Sweden received Nazi gold through Swiss banks.
In other words, wrote Norschensflamman, “Swedish iron ore ensured the Germans’ success in the war. And this was a bitter fact for all Swedish anti-fascists.”
However, Swedish iron ore came to the Germans not only in the form of raw materials.
The world-famous SKF concern, which produced the best ball bearings on the planet, supplied these, not so, at first glance, tricky technical mechanisms to Germany. Fully ten percent of the ball bearings received by Germany came from Sweden, according to Norschensflamman. Anyone, even someone completely inexperienced in military affairs, understands what ball bearings mean for the production of military equipment. But without them, not a single tank will move, not a single submarine will go to sea! Note that Sweden, as Norschensflamman noted, produced bearings of “special quality and technical characteristics” that Germany could not obtain anywhere else. Importing bearings from Sweden became especially important for Germany when the VKF bearing plant in Schweinfurt was destroyed in 1943. In 1945, economist and economic advisor Per Jakobsson provided information that helped disrupt the supply of Swedish bearings to Japan.
Let's think: how many lives were cut short because formally neutral Sweden provided Nazi Germany with strategic and military products, without which the flywheel of the Nazi military mechanism would, of course, continue to spin up, but certainly not at such a high speed as it was?
In the autumn of 1941, that same cruel autumn, when the existence of the entire Soviet state was at stake (and therefore, as a consequence, the fate of the peoples inhabiting it), King Gustav V Adolf of Sweden sent a letter to Hitler in which he wished “dear Reich Chancellor further success in the fight against Bolshevism..."
Sweden received even more military orders after the outbreak of World War II. And mostly these were orders for Nazi Germany. Neutral Sweden became one of the main economic pillars of the national Reich. Suffice it to say that in 1943 alone, of the 10.8 million tons of iron ore mined, 10.3 million tons of iron ore were sent to Germany from Sweden. Until now, few people know that one of the main tasks of the ships of the Soviet Navy that fought in Baltic, there was not only a fight against fascist ships, but also the destruction of ships of neutral Sweden carrying cargo for the Nazis.
Well, how did the Nazis and the Swedes pay for the goods they received from them? Only by what they looted in the territories they occupied and most of all in the Soviet occupied territories. The Germans had almost no other resources for settlements with Sweden. So, when they once again tell you about “Swedish happiness,” remember who paid for it for the Swedes and at whose expense.
The war in Europe was more about political influence and control of territories, the war on the eastern front was a war of destruction and survival, these are completely two different wars, they just took place at the same time.
Civilized Europe always diligently erases from the history of the Second World War these shameful facts of its collaboration with the bloodiest and most inhumane regime of the twentieth century, and this is the truth about the war that needs to be known and remembered.
English publicist of the 19th century T. J. Dunning:
Capital... avoids noise and abuse and is distinguished by a fearful nature. This is true, but it is not the whole truth. Capital fears no profit or too little profit, just as nature fears emptiness. But once there is sufficient profit available, capital becomes bold. Provide 10 percent, and capital agrees to any use, at 20 percent it becomes animated, at 50 percent it is positively ready to break its head, at 100 percent it violates all human laws, at 300 percent there is no crime that it would not risk, at least on pain of the gallows. If noise and abuse bring profit, capital will contribute to both. Evidence: Smuggling and Slave Trade
sources
http://www.warmech.ru/war_mech/tyl-evr.html
http://www.theunknownwar.ru/korporaczii_kotoryie_obyazanyi_naczistam_svoim_uspexom.html
And I’ll also remind you, The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -Background
In 1918, the First Czechoslovak Republic (hereinafter - Czechoslovak Republic) 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 vast majority of Czechoslovakian Germans lived compactly in the Sudetenland.
As a result of the natural loss (after the proclamation of the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia) of their privileged position that the Germans had in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the psychological conviction that they were under the yoke of the Slavic population of Czechoslovakia became widespread among them. Adolf Hitler, who proclaimed irredentism (the policy of uniting the nation within a single state) as one of his main goals, provided significant support to the Czech Germans.
The main and only political organization of the Czech Germans was the Sudeten-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 parliamentary elections of May 1935, the Sudeten German Party received 68% of the Sudeten German votes.
In March 1938, Austria was annexed into Germany, which inspired the Sudeten Germans. In May, Henlein and his people intensify pro-German propaganda, put forward a demand for a referendum on the annexation of the Sudeten lands to Germany, and on May 22, the day of municipal elections, prepare a rebellion in order to turn these elections into a plebiscite. This triggered the first Sudetenland crisis. Partial mobilization took place in Czechoslovakia, troops were sent into the Sudetenland and occupied border fortifications. At the same time, the USSR and France announced their support for Czechoslovakia. Even Italy, an ally of Germany, protested against the use of force to resolve the crisis. An attempt to seize the Sudetenland, relying on the separatist movement of the Sudeten Germans, failed.
Hitler offered Poland Cieszyn Silesia from the Czechoslovakia. 80 thousand Poles and 120 thousand Czechs lived in Cieszyn Silesia. Poland took anti-Czech and anti-Soviet positions.
At the beginning of September 1938, armed clashes between the Sudeten Germans and the Czechs took place, which were openly provocative in nature. The whole of September was spent in negotiations and consultations between the leaders of world powers, mainly bilateral. As a result, the political situation developed as follows:
- The Soviet Union is ready to provide concrete military assistance to Czechoslovakia under two conditions: if Czechoslovakia asks Moscow for such help and if it itself defends itself from 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 allow the Red Army to pass 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 said: “If the Czechs unite with the Russians, the war could take on the character of a crusade against the Bolsheviks. Then it will be very difficult for the French and British governments to remain on the sidelines.”
The USSR turned out to be the only power that was ready to provide real military assistance to Czechoslovakia. And this despite the fact that Czechoslovakia took an anti-Soviet position for a long period of time and only in 1934 made international legal recognition of the USSR (Great Britain and France did this in 1924, the USA in 1933).
Munich Agreement
On September 29, 1938, in Munich, on Hitler’s initiative, he met with the heads of government of Great Britain, France and Italy. Contrary to Hitler's promise, Czechoslovakia representatives were not allowed to participate in 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 this, the Czechoslovakia delegation was allowed into the hall. Having familiarized themselves with the main points of the agreement, representatives of 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 accepted this agreement for execution without the consent of the National Assembly, and resigned on October 5.
The note. Later, Germany established a medal for irredentism “In memory of October 1, 1938”, which was awarded to troops who participated in the annexation of the Sudetenland. On the reverse side of the medal in the center was the inscription “One people, one state, one leader.”
It is important to take into account that from a military point of view it was impossible to successfully defend the territory of Czechoslovakia due to the extremely unfortunate geographical shape of Czechoslovakia. After the Anschluss of Austria, the Czech lands were surrounded by Germany on three sides. Cartoons of that time depicted the Czech lands in the jaws of a predatory German beast. In the event of hostilities, the danger also came from Hungary, which laid claim to territories with a compact population of ethnic Hungarians, lost under the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. According to the 1930 census, 700 thousand Hungarians lived in Czechoslovakia.
By this time, a serious conflict had already matured in Czechoslovakia between Slovak nationalists and the Prague government. It was this conflict that Hitler used as a reason for the final division of the state. On October 7, 1938, under pressure from Germany, the Czechoslovakian government decided to grant autonomy to Slovakia, and on October 8 - to Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
On November 2, 1938, Hungary, by decision of the First Vienna Arbitration, received the southern regions of Slovakia and part of Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
On March 14, 1939, the parliament of the autonomy of Slovakia decided on the withdrawal of Slovakia from the Czechoslovakia 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 Czechoslovakian national team defeated the German national team with a score of 3:0.
Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. Protectorate
On the night of March 14-15, 1439, Emil Haha (the new president of Czechoslovakia) was summoned to Berlin, where Hitler invited him to agree to the German occupation of 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, Haha signed a communiqué, the text of which read: “... The President of the Czech Republic stated 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 Fuhrer listened to this statement and expressed his intention to bring the Czech people under the protection of the German Reich and guarantee their autonomous development in accordance with national traditions.
March 15, 1939 Germany sent troops into the territory of Bohemia and Moravia and declared a protectorate over them (a form of interstate relations in which one state is protected by another). The Czech army did not offer any 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 came into possession of significant reserves of weapons from the former Czechoslovak army, which made it possible to arm 9 infantry divisions, as well as Czech military factories. Before the attack on the USSR, out of 21 Wehrmacht tank divisions, five were equipped with Czechoslovak-made tanks.
In May 1939, Czechoslovakia gold deposited in British banks was, at the request of the protectorate government, transferred to Prague 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. Constantin von Neurath was appointed the first protector. The formal post of president of the protectorate, which was held by Emil Gaha throughout its existence, and the post of chairman of the government, which was replaced by several politicians, were also retained. The personnel of departments similar to ministries was staffed by officials from Germany.
During the first months of the occupation, German rule was moderate. The Gestapo's actions were directed primarily against Czech politicians and intellectuals. The population of the protectorate was mobilized as a labor force that worked for German victory. 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 the declaration of independence of Czechoslovakia, a demonstration against the occupation took place in Prague, which was brutally suppressed. Baker's assistant Vaclav Sedlacek was shot and wounded in the stomach by Jan Opletal (a medical student at Charles University), who died of peritonitis on November 11).
On November 15, thousands of students took part in the funeral of Jan Opletal, their gatherings grew into a new wave of anti-Hitler demonstrations. Protector von Neurath used student unrest as a reason to close all Czech universities and introduce other repressive measures. More than 1,200 students were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and nine students and activists were executed November 17, 1939.
In 1941, as a sign of 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 Sandwich Affair"
President Emil Haha secretly collaborated with the Benes government in exile. He appointed Alois Elias to the post of prime minister and, apparently, hoped that his previous connections with Protector von Neurath would help to one degree or another defend the interests of the Czech Republic.
Alois Elias 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 the journalists to sandwiches, which he, with the help of his urologist, poisoned by injecting them with botulinum toxin, tuberculous mycobacteria and the typhus-causing rickettsia. The only person who died after eating the sandwiches was the editor-in-chief of the magazine České slovo, Karel Laznovsky. Other journalists just got sick.
Alois Elias regularly maintained contacts 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 fall of 1941, Germany took a number of radical steps in the protectorate. According to Hitler, von Neurath did not fight the Czech resistance effectively enough, so at the end of September 1941 he was replaced by Reinhard Heydrich. The Czech government was reorganized and 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 Main Office of Reich Security in 1939–1942, SS-Obergruppenführer and police general.
Operation Anthropoid
The plan to destroy Heydrich took shape in October 1941. Reason: Edward 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 provoked punitive operations, which, in turn, would have embittered the Czechs and likely provoked more active resistance to the occupiers. It is generally accepted that after the repressions at the beginning of his reign, Heydrich softened policies in the Czech Republic, which was also not in the interests of the government in exile.
The note. "Anthropoid" means "human-like"
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 entire group and two cargo containers, which contained money, forged documents, weapons and ammunition, were landed. The saboteurs hid their equipment and reached Pilsen, where they stayed in predetermined apartments of Resistance members. Subsequently, they established contacts with many other active underground figures and began to prepare the operation.
Reinhard Heydrich lived in the suburbs of Prague and drove 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. The saboteurs chose the place for the 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 The saboteurs Kubis and Gabchik, who arrived on bicycles, took advantageous positions. Heydrich's car with the top down arrived at 10:32 and stopped at the turn. Gabchik grabbed a STEN submachine gun and wanted to shoot Heydrich point-blank, but the weapon jammed. Then Kubis, with a throw from below, threw a grenade that had been previously put into combat mode towards the car that had slowed down, which had a contact fuse and detonated when it hit the outside of the body near the right rear wheel. Both Heydrich and Kubis were wounded by the explosion (his face was hit by shrapnel). The incident area also included passengers on tram No. 3, which had stopped at a turn, and people at the tram stop.
Heydrich and his driver Klein (SS Oberscharführer) left the car, grabbed their service pistols and tried to engage in a shootout with the saboteurs who were preparing to retreat. Klein was unable to prevent the bleeding Kubiš from shooting his way through the crowd at the bus stop and riding away on a pre-arranged bicycle. By order of Heydrich, the driver began to pursue the fleeing Gabchik, who, breaking away from the chase, hid in a butcher 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 shot and disappeared. Heydrich, seriously wounded by the explosion, fell near the Mercedes. He suffered a fracture of the 11th rib on the left, a ruptured 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. Nowadays, 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 Gabčík... could never have completed their mission without the help of hundreds of Czech patriots, who paid for their bravery with their lives." Also on one of the adjacent buildings there is a memorial plaque with the inscription “Patriots do not forget, unlike Czech politicians” (an allusion to the period 1948–1989, when a negative attitude towards the activities of the Czechoslovak government in exile officially prevailed in the Czechoslovak Republic, and its sabotage operations tried do not mention). Two streets were named in honor of the saboteurs in the area of the assassination attempt - Gabčíkova and Kubišova
Around noon on May 27, Heydrich was operated on and 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 Heydrich’s condition improving, but by the evening he fell into a coma and died the next day. The final cause of death has not yet been established.
The note. Documentary footage of Heydrich's funeral and a short story about the importance of this event are shown in the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring."
After Heydrich's death, it was suggested that the protector could be saved by using sulfonamide. 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 implantation of glass, earth, sawdust, dirt, followed by treatment with sulfonamide and other drugs. The doctors who carried out the experiments became defendants in the Nuremberg Doctors' Trials.
After the assassination of Heydrich, a group of seven saboteurs (Jan Kubis, Josef Gabczyk, Josef Walczyk, Adolf Opalka, Josef Bublik, Jan Hruby, Jaroslav Schwartz) took refuge in the crypt of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius. On June 16, 1942, the traitor Karel Czurda (a paratrooper abandoned on March 28) voluntarily revealed to the Gestapo the names and places of residence of dozens of resistance fighters and their family members, who were promptly arrested. During interrogations using torture, the Germans learned that a group of saboteurs was hiding in the cathedral.
Karel Churda (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 do the same for a million marks.” This is exactly the kind of 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 authorities of the protectorate paid Churda half the promised amount, issued new documents, he accepted 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.
Fight in the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius
On June 18, 1942, German SS and Gestapo troops stormed the cathedral. The battle began at 4:10 am. The Germans entered the building and were inspecting the choir 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 their last bullets, shot themselves, not wanting to surrender, and Kubish died from his wounds. 
Another group, consisting of Gabchik, Valchik, Hruba 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 fired tear gas, but they were unable to smoke out the saboteurs. Firefighters rushed to the aid of the Germans and tried to flood the besieged with water, but they used a wooden ladder to push the fire hose back onto the street 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 ladder out of the crypt and direct water through fire hoses directly into the basement, but they were unable to completely flood the crypt. The paratroopers shot back to the last, and when each of the fighters had one cartridge left, all four shot themselves to avoid being captured.
Nowadays, the National Memorial to the Heroes of Heydrich’s Terror has been erected near the bullet-riddled window of the cathedral’s crypt.
The note. In 2016, the feature film “Anthropoid” (based on real events) was released. The main roles were played by actors Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy. The filming took place entirely in Prague to make it as close as possible to Czechs. To film the fight scene inside the cathedral, an exact replica of it was built in the studio. Filming locations included Prague Castle and Charles Bridge. The shooting of the assassination scene took place at the intersection of Chotkova and Badelnikova streets, where old Prague landscapes were still preserved.
Punitive actions for the assassination of Heydrich
The assassination attempt on Heydrich made a deep impression on the Reich leadership. On the day of Heydrich's death, the Nazis began a campaign of mass terror against the Czech population. Mass searches were carried out in Prague, during which other members of the Resistance, Jews, communists and other persecuted categories of citizens were identified hiding in houses and apartments. 1,331 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, a decision was made to destroy the village. On June 9, 1942, the day of Heydrich's funeral, the village of Lidice was destroyed as retaliation. All men over 16 years of age (172 people) were shot on the spot, 195 women were sent to a concentration camp, children were distributed among German families, traces of most of them were lost.
Later, the Gestapo received information that in the village Sunbeds radio operator Jiri Potucek was hiding, who, with the help of the only surviving radio transmitter, ensured, in particular, communication between the saboteurs of the Anthropoid group and 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 predetermined. The Nazis shot 18 women and 16 men, and 12 of the 14 children were gassed. Only two sisters survived, who were sent to German families “to be Germanized.”
On September 4, 1942, the priests of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius Vaclav Cikl and Vladimir Petrzyk, the head of the Cathedral Jan Sonnewend 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, there was a Czechoslovak government in exile (the unofficial name of the National Committee for the Liberation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic) headed by Edvard Benes, 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 collected information and collaborated with the British military services, which trained and sent several reconnaissance, sabotage and intelligence groups from among the Czechoslovak military and volunteers to the occupied territory of Czechoslovakia.
There were four main resistance groups operating in the territory of the occupied Czechoslovakia, the majority 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. One of the mines contained a note “we will help as much as 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 fighters sank barges with cargo for the German army, and in October 1942, a train was derailed on the Prague-Benešov railway, resulting in the destruction of 27 platforms with tanks.
In 1943 alone, approximately 350,000 Czech workers were deported to Germany. At the same time, by order of Hitler in October 1943, the German authorities refused any use of Czech officials in the public service. Within the protectorate, all non-military industry was prohibited.
On February 14, 1945, 60 US Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft dropped 152 bombs on the most populous 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 were injured.
Formation of an infantry battalion
In 1942, the First Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion was formed in the USSR from former Czechoslovakian soldiers. The commander was Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Ludwik Svoboda. The battalion's strength was 974 people. In addition to the Czechs and Slovaks, the military included six Rusyns and Jews. The personnel were dressed in British uniforms (which had previously been supplied to Polish units) with insignia of the army of the pre-war Czechoslovakia.
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 Svoboda battalion was conducting intensive combat training, so the level of training of the battalion 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 defense along the left bank of the Mzha River (the width of the front was 10 km). The defense system also included the village of Sokolovo, located on the river bank.
On March 8, the battalion's positions were attacked by approximately 60 German tanks and a motorized infantry battalion. The Czechoslovakians defended themselves bravely. 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 military personnel were awarded Soviet orders and medals. Losses amounted to 112 killed, 106 wounded (according to other sources: killed - 153, wounded - 92, missing - 122).
The feat of Otakar Yarosh
Otakar Jaroš (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 the company and fire at the advancing enemy. During the battle, Yarosh tore a bunch of grenades from his belt and rushed to the German tank that had broken through. The Czech hero was posthumously awarded the rank of captain, and on April 17, the first foreign citizen was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Nowadays, one of the embankments in Prague is named after Captain Jaros.
Formation of an infantry brigade
In May 1943, the formation of the First Czechoslovak Infantry Brigade began on the basis of an infantry battalion. Replenishment took place at the expense of Soviet citizens of Czechoslovak origin and Ruthenians. Most of these Rusyns crossed the Soviet border (after the capture of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia by Hungarian troops in March 1939) and were initially convicted of “illegal border crossing”, but later granted amnesty.
By September 1943, the brigade numbered about 3,500 soldiers and officers. Of these, about 2,200 people were Rusyns by nationality, about 560 Czechs, 340 Slovaks, 200 Jews and 160 Russians. Later, another 5 to 7 thousand Carpathian Ukrainians were included in the brigade.
The brigade personnel were dressed in Czechoslovak military uniforms, had Czechoslovak military ranks and served according to 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. Subsequently, this order was maintained until the end of the war.
The brigade took part in the third battle for Kharkov and the liberation of Left Bank Ukraine. In November 1943, the brigade took part in the liberation of Kyiv, and later in the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine.
Formation of the 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 fall of 1944, the army corps took part in the East Carpathian operation. On September 20, the city of Duklja was liberated, and on October 6, the fortified Duklja Pass, located on the old Czechoslovak border, was stormed. On this day, Czechoslovak and Soviet units entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, 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 fighting. The forward detachment of the corps on Soviet tanks entered Prague on May 10, 1945. On the same day, units of the corps fought their last major battle.
On May 17, 1945, the parade the entire personnel of the First Czechoslovak Army Corps (18,087 corps soldiers, and together with rear and training units 31,725 people). In June 1945, the formation of the Czechoslovak People's Army began on the basis of the corps.
Corps losses (taking into account the losses of the battalion and brigade) amounted to 4,011 people killed, missing and died from wounds, 14,202 people were hospital workers. The German troops experienced animal hatred towards the captured corps soldiers, subjecting them to brutal torture and torment. Thus, the Germans hanged five captured wounded soldiers of the Czechoslovak battalion near Sokolovo alive upside down in the cold, before which their ears, noses, and tongues were cut off. Having discovered 8 seriously wounded battalion soldiers in one of the hospitals during the capture of Kharkov, German soldiers killed them right in their hospital beds. In the battles in Slovakia in 1945, painful executions of captured soldiers (including burning alive) were widespread. Over 26 months of fighting, Czechoslovak troops destroyed 24,600 Nazis.
The note. Four Czechoslovak squadrons fought as part of the British Air Force: 310th, 311th, 312th and 313th. British intelligence services trained and sent several reconnaissance, sabotage and intelligence groups to the occupied territory of Czechoslovakia.
Joseph Burshik
Josef Bursik (1911–2002) - Czechoslovakian officer, participant in World War II, who went through the full combat path as part of a battalion, then a brigade and a corps. He is known primarily for the fact that in 1968, as a sign of protest against the entry of troops of the Warsaw Warsaw 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 a course of treatment and underwent two operations. At the personal request of Queen Elizabeth II, Burshik was granted British citizenship, which he refused. Appreciating this noble act, the Queen endowed Burshik with all the rights of a citizen of the United Kingdom. Burshik still had a wife and two daughters at home, who were sent to the West to join their father in 1963. In 1969, he was officially stripped of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all USSR awards. 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, US Air Force flying to bomb Dresden went off course and mistakenly bombed Prague. 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. About 11 thousand more Prague residents lost their homes. Not a single plant or other strategic facility was damaged. Bombs fell exclusively on civilian buildings in the areas of Radlice, Vysehrad, Zlichov, Nusle, Vinohrady, Vršovice, 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 were reduced to 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, and the Vinograd Synagogue.
Prague Uprising (1945)
The material is in the process of being written...
After the war, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Czechoslovakia in November 1945.
This article examines aspects of the participation of the state of Czechoslovakia in World War II, from the beginning of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 until the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945.
Czechoslovakia arose from the fragments of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, while by the Treaty of Versailles it was freed from reparations distributed mainly between Germany and Austria. This allowed the Czechoslovaks to get ahead of Germany in industrial development.
The industry of Czechoslovakia, including the military one, was one of the most developed in Europe (for example, the Skoda factories in less than a year - from the moment of occupation by Germany until the start of the war with Poland - produced almost as much military products as in at the same time the entire military industry of Great Britain). The Czechoslovak army was excellently armed and relied on powerful fortifications in the Sudetenland. However, it was the Sudetes that were inhabited predominantly by Germans, who, in the declaration of the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia, in the words of Ernst Nolte, “were rooted in the opinion that they had suffered injustice from the Czechs, and not from the general historical processes” and tried to defend “their privileged position”, being essentially “remnants of medieval East German colonization.”
On May 21, the Polish ambassador in Paris Łukasiewicz assured the US Ambassador to France Bullitt that Poland would immediately declare war on the USSR if he attempted to send troops through its territory to aid Czechoslovakia.
On May 27, in a conversation with the Polish Ambassador, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet stated that “Goering’s plan for the division of Czechoslovakia between Germany and Hungary with the transfer of Cieszyn Silesia to Poland is not a secret.”
On September 21, Poland and Hungary presented territorial claims to Czechoslovakia in the form of ultimatums, concentrating their troops along the border. Soviet troops on the western borders of the USSR were put on alert to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia.
At the Nuremberg trials, Keitel was asked the question: “Would Germany have attacked Czechoslovakia in 1938 if the Western powers had supported Prague?”
The answer was: “Of course not. We were not strong enough from a military point of view. The goal of Munich (that is, reaching an agreement in Munich) was to oust Russia from Europe, gain time and complete the armament of Germany."
The territory of Czechoslovakia was reduced by 38%, the country turned into a narrow and long, easily vulnerable state, which later became a protectorate of Germany. German troops found themselves 30 km from Prague. In addition, on December 3, 1938, a secret agreement was concluded with Czechoslovakia, according to which it could not “maintain fortifications and barriers on the border with Germany.” The fate of the remaining territory of the country was thus sealed.
Meanwhile, a serious conflict was brewing in Czechoslovakia between Slovak nationalists and the Prague government, which was used by Hitler as a pretext for the annexation of the “Remnant of the Czech Republic” (German: Rest-Tschechei).
In exile in London at the outbreak of World War II, Edvard Beneš, the second president of Czechoslovakia, created Czechoslovak government in exile, which enjoyed the support of the anti-Hitler coalition (since the USA and the USSR joined it). [ ]
There is a theory of the continued existence of the Czechoslovak state, according to which all decisions taken on the territory of the country after Munich until the year were invalid, and Benes, who was forced to resign, retained presidential powers all this time.The rapid and successful annexation of the relatively small but strategically and economically significant Czechoslovakia, with its large (23.5%) German population, created the impression of an easy victory and encouraged Adolf Hitler to continue his offensive against the countries of Central Europe.
The population of the Czech Republic and Moravia was mobilized as a labor force that was supposed to work for the victory of Germany. Special departments were organized to manage industry. Czechs were required to work in coal mines, metallurgy and arms production; Some of the youth were sent to Germany. However, as the German researcher Detlef Brandes notes, , iron ore mining remained at pre-war levels, work on opening and preparing deposits was abandoned, machines were overloaded; by 1944 production capacity had increased by only 18%.
During the first months of the occupation, German rule was relatively moderate. The Gestapo's actions were directed primarily against Czech politicians and intellectuals. Nevertheless, .
The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and a ghetto was organized in the town of Terezin. In June 1942, after Heydrich's death, Generaloberstgruppenführer SS Kurt Daluge was appointed his successor.
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 were injured.
The spontaneous resistance of the citizens of Czechoslovakia to the German occupation and the creation of the first underground organizations on the territory of Czechoslovakia and beyond its borders began shortly after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. So, on October 28, 1939, on the 21st anniversary of the declaration of independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918, protests against the occupation took place in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, and Kladno, which were suppressed. German troops opened fire on the demonstrators. On November 15, 1939, medical student Jan Opletal, wounded on October 28, died; his death sparked student demonstrations. In response, the occupation authorities began mass arrests: politicians, public figures, and 1,800 students and teachers were arrested. On November 17, all universities and colleges in the protectorate were closed, nine student leaders were executed, and hundreds of people were sent to concentration camps.
Representatives of various organizations and associations of Czechoslovak emigrants focused their activities on various states and political forces:
Anti-fascist resistance in Czechoslovakia took various forms, forms of passive resistance (boycott, failure to comply with orders of the occupation administration), as well as strikes, anti-fascist propaganda and sabotage (in particular, the production of substandard military products) became widespread. Thus, during 1939 alone, 25 strikes took place at 31 industrial enterprises in Czechoslovakia. 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 as much as we can", written by Czechoslovak workers.
In November 1939, as a result of a series of arrests, German intelligence services destroyed the “Political Center” ( Politické ústředí) - an underground organization that united supporters of E. Benes.
At the beginning of 1940, the underground anti-fascist organization ÚVOD ( Ústřední výbor odboje domácího).
In February 1940, special “extraordinary courts” were created to hear political cases.
In October 1940, protests by miners took place in Gandlova.
In total, 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 the summer of 1942, underground fighters set fire to the Czech-Moravian-Kolben-Dansk plant in Prague.
In September 1942, on the Labe River, underground fighters sank barges with cargo for the German army.
In October 1942, a train was derailed on the Prague-Benešov railway, resulting in the destruction of 27 platforms with tanks.
In the summer of 1943, strikes took place among workers at the Skoda factories, as well as among textile workers in Žilina and Ružomberok.
In December 1943, the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and a number of bourgeois underground organizations entered into an agreement on joint activities, as a result of which the Slovak National Council was created.
In mid-March 1944, the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and several anti-fascist organizations in the Slovak army entered into an agreement to coordinate activities.
In 1941, the II regional headquarters of SOE was created in Cairo, within which a department was created responsible for the activities of British intelligence services in Czechoslovakia.
Later, the British intelligence services trained and dropped several reconnaissance, sabotage and organizational groups into the occupied territory of Czechoslovakia:
On July 18, 1941, an agreement was signed between the USSR and the government of E. Benes on the restoration of diplomatic relations and mutual assistance in the fight against Germany, which provided for the creation of Czechoslovak military units on the territory of the USSR. On September 27, 1941, the Soviet-Czechoslovak military agreement was signed.
In October 1943, the formation of the 1st Separate Czechoslovak Fighter Aviation Squadron began in Ivanovo.
On December 30, 1943, the formation of the 2nd Czechoslovak Airborne Brigade began in the area of the city of Efremov.
In April 1944, the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps was created in Rovno.
In June 1944, the 1st separate Czechoslovak fighter regiment (32 aircraft) was created.
At the end of July 1944, the 1st separate Czechoslovak tank brigade (65 tanks, three tank and one motorized infantry battalion) was created.
After the start of the Slovak National Uprising on August 30, 1944, the deputy commander of the East Slovak Army, Colonel of the General Staff of Slovakia William Talsky and Major of the Slovak Air Force Trinka with a group of officers and military personnel of the Slovak Army flew to the side of the Soviet troops. Together with them, an air group of 27 aircraft of the Slovak Air Force (6 Focke-Wulf-189, 3 Messerschmitt-109B and 18 transport aircraft) landed at the location of the Soviet troops.
In December 1944, a separate mixed Czechoslovak air division was created (two fighter and one attack air regiment, a total of 99 aircraft and 114 pilots).
The USSR provided significant assistance in the creation and maintenance of the activities of Czechoslovak military units. In total, during 1944 alone, the USSR transferred to them 9,187 rifles and carbines, 5,065 submachine guns, 520 light, heavy and anti-aircraft machine guns, 258 anti-tank rifles, 410 guns and mortars, 35 tanks and self-propelled guns, 28 armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles, 25 aircraft (not counting training weapons and captured weapons); in addition, during 1944 alone, 425 Czechoslovak military personnel were trained in ten Soviet military educational institutions.
From the moment of its formation until the end of the war, in combat operations against Nazi Germany and satellite countries of the Third Reich, units of the 1st Czechoslovak Corps disabled 30,225 enemy troops, destroyed 156 tanks, 38 aircraft, 221 guns, 274 vehicles and a certain amount of other equipment, seized a significant amount of weapons, equipment and military property. The losses of the 1st Czechoslovak Corps amounted to over 11 thousand military personnel killed.
On May 15, 1945, all Czechoslovak units were united into the 1st Czechoslovak Army.
Participation of citizens of Czechoslovakia in the Soviet partisan movement (1941-1944)Citizens of Czechoslovakia took an active part in.
On June 17, 1944, a resolution was adopted by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) “On providing assistance to the Czechoslovak Communist Party in organizing the partisan movement on the territory of Czechoslovakia,” according to which the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement began training Czechoslovak cadets and preparing Soviet-Czechoslovak partisan organizational groups for activities on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The first groups were transferred to the territory of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1944. In total, from August 1944 to April 1945, at the request of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 37 partisan organizing groups were transferred from the USSR to the territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia. In February 1944, a Soviet partisan detachment was organized in northern Bohemia. The detachment was called “Konstantin” and was led by Konstantin Ivanovich Zhukovsky, a native of the Voronezh region. He was in a concentration camp, escaped with a group of comrades, grabbed weapons from the guards and disappeared into the forests. Had contact with factory workers. The detachment carried out sabotage in the Sudeten region and in the city of Jablonec. In January 1945, there were 300 people in the detachment; the deputy commanders of the detachment were Soviet officers and sergeants of the Red Army. In 1945, the detachment met a sabotage group from Colonel Khan's headquarters. After the meeting, they jointly led the subversive activities. In April 1945, the Konstantin detachment consisted of 3,000 fighters, of whom there were 6 women. On May 9, 1945, it merged with the 31st Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. From May 24 to May 30, the partisan detachment and equipment were transferred to the Army at p/p 36595. K.I. Zhukovsky himself was sent for treatment to Prague for 2.5 months, where he prepared a report on the work done to the government of the Czech Republic and to the Central Asia of Moscow NGO THE USSR. For his participation in the restoration of Czechoslovakia from the occupation of Germany during the war, Zhukovsky was presented with a Skoda Rapit car from General Vocek. The pass to travel to the USSR was signed by the commander of the 88th Infantry Division.
In December 1944, the Soviet-Polish-Slovak partisan brigade named after. Shchorsa (commander; the brigade included the Soviet partisan detachments named after Shchorsa, Vzryv and Sokol, as well as the Slovak partisan detachment Liptovsky). Having received information that the Germans had begun mining the city of Zakopane, the brigade made the transition to the city. On the evening of January 29, 1945, fighters of the reconnaissance and assault group in civilian clothes entered the city and attacked the commandant's office, while the main forces of the brigade attacked the outskirts of the city. As a result, the German garrison was defeated and the city was cleared of mines.
On February 14, 1945, 62 USAF B-17 Flying Fortresses, each carrying 16,500-pound bombs, . 93 unique historical buildings and some statues on the Charles Bridge were destroyed, about 200 were damaged, dozens of important engineering and industrial facilities were damaged, 701 people were killed and 1,184 were injured, 11 thousand people were left homeless. Not a single military installation was damaged, and only civilians were among the dead.
In May 1945, the German Army Group Center numbering about 900,000 people (1,900 tanks, about 1,000 aircraft and 9,700 guns) under the command of 52-year-old Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner was located in the Czech Republic. Despite the fact that Berlin had already capitulated and Hitler was dead, 200 kilometers east of Prague the Germans fought stubborn battles with Soviet troops. The Americans approached Prague to a distance of 80 km.
On May 2, Berlin fell, and on the same day, late in the evening, a delegation of Czech officers arrived at the location of the 1st KONR Infantry Division, introducing themselves as representatives of the uprising headquarters in Prague and asking for help and support. “The Czech people will never forget that you helped us in difficult times.”- they said. Negotiations took place on May 3 and 4.
On the morning of May 5, the parties agreed on a “joint struggle against fascism and Bolshevism.” Vlasovites were provided with maps of Prague and guides, and white-blue-red armbands were sewn onto the military personnel to distinguish them from Wehrmacht soldiers.
It was probably the calculation of the military strength of the 1st KONR Infantry Division that prompted the Czech leaders to start a popular uprising against the German occupation on May 5, since the civilian population had practically no weapons.
On the morning of May 5, following the permission of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to hang national flags on the streets, Prague residents began to protest against the occupiers. German military units were offered surrender, and Czech troops and police were invited to join the rebels. The rebels occupied the post office and telegraph office, a power plant, railway stations with military trains, including German armored trains, a number of large factories and the German air defense headquarters.
In response, the German police opened fire. The battle begins near the building of the Czech Radio and the construction of barricades in the city, of which more than 1,600 were erected. The commander of the 1st Infantry Division KONR, Major General Sergei Bunyachenko, gave the order to support the uprising. 18,000 people moved into battle against yesterday's allies, capturing the Luftwaffe bomber airfield in Ruzyn and the Prague district of Smichov, taking control of two bridges over the Vltava. On May 7, the Vlasovites broke through to the center of Prague and cut through the German group on the left bank of the Vltava. Taking Mount Petrin and the Kuliszowice area, they captured about 10,000 Wehrmacht soldiers.
Having learned about the uprising, Schörner begins urgently transferring reinforcements to the city.
On May 6, German SS units and three tank divisions approached Prague. Pilot Heinrich Höffner dropped a bomb on the radio building. The Germans, with the help of tanks and aircraft, again captured part of Prague. The rebels suffered heavy losses, forcing them to radio "to all who can hear" for help. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of General Ivan Stepanovich Konev at that moment were 200 km from the city, the Americans were 80 km away. But the Americans were not going to help.
On May 7 at 14:30 one of the last German bombs was dropped on the Mala Strana region. That same evening, a German plane dropped a bomb on the Kinski Palace on Old Town Square, next to which the rebel headquarters was located.
In total, during the Prague operation, the losses of the Red Army amounted to 11,997 people killed and 40,501 wounded, material losses amounted to 373 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1,006 artillery installations and 80 aircraft.
Soviet troops were withdrawn from Czechoslovakia after the war, in November 1945
Army of Czechoslovakia at the end of September 1938
If you calculate carefully, it turns out that at the end of mobilization the Czechs had 21 infantry and four “fast” (rychlych) divisions. Plus the 1st Infantry Division, which was deployed for mobilization in the Prague UR. A total of 26 divisions of field troops.
There were another 12 so-called. border regions (hranicnich oblasti), which did not have a regular structure, but were approximately equivalent in number to an infantry division. By design, they were parts of the field filling of fortified areas.
There were also two “groups” (skupini) of approximately division strength and one “group” of brigade strength. Total: 40 and a half 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 vehicles - 469, machine guns - 43876, rifles - 1,090,000, pistols - 114,000, cartridges - more than a billion shells - more than 3 million, armored trains - 17.
Not all Czech guns fell to the Germans as trophies. After Munich, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense decided to reduce the army and began to sell off weapons. It is known, for example, that they were looking for buyers for LT vz.34 tanks, but did not find them. But they found it for artillery. Germany.
Just shortly before the occupation, on February 11, 1939, the Czechs managed to sell to the Germans all their artillery of high and special power (17 305-mm mortars, 18 210-mm mortars and 6 240-mm cannons) and part of the field artillery - 122 80-mm cannons mod. .30, 40 (that is, also, in general, everything) 150-mm heavy howitzers model 15 and 70 150-mm howitzers model 14/19. With ammunition and tractors.
To maintain internal security and order, the German authorities in the summer of 1939 established the armed forces of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Only “Aryans” were allowed to serve, that is, not Jews or Gypsies.
Most of the commanders and soldiers had previously served in the Czechoslovak Army. They even retained the same uniform, emblems and system of 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 right up to the notorious Munich Agreement and the Vienna Arbitration of 1938 (under which the Sudetenland was transferred to Germany, the southern regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary, and Cieszyn Silesia to Poland).
It is believed that in the tragic autumn of 1938 the moral will of the Czechs to resist the aggressor was actually suppressed, and they were overcome by despondency and apathy, which contributed to the surrender of March 14-15, 1939.
By the spring of 1939, the Czechoslovak army was significantly weakened by the military policy of President Emil Hacha, a well-known Germanophile, and his government, which set a course for maximum concessions to Hitler in order to avoid war.
In order “not to provoke the Germans,” the reservists were demobilized, the troops were returned to their places of permanent deployment, staffed at peacetime levels and partially staffed.
According to the garrison schedule, the 3rd battalion of the 8th Silesian Infantry Regiment (III. prapor 8. pesiho pluku "Slezskeho"), consisting of the 9th, 10th and 11th Infantry and 12th 1st machine gun company, as well as the “armored semi-company” of the 2nd regiment of combat vehicles (obrnena polorota 2. pluku utocne vozby), which consisted of a platoon of LT vz.33 wedges and a platoon of OA vz.30 armored vehicles.
The head of the garrison was the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Karel Shtepina. Taking into account the fact that Slovak soldiers, in light of the maturing independence of Slovakia, deserted en masse and fled to their homeland across 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 Moravians. About half of the soldiers were recent 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 began advancing in marching formations deeper into its territory.
Flying to Berlin for the fateful “consultations” with Hitler, President Emil Haha ordered the troops to remain in their places of deployment and not offer resistance to the aggressors.
Even earlier, the disheartened Czechoslovak General Staff began sending out capitulation orders. The Wehrmacht's armored and mechanized forward columns raced against these orders, capturing key points and objectives.
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 start of the firefight, the officer on duty, Lieutenant Martinek, announced a combat alert in the garrison. Czech soldiers hastily dismantled their weapons and ammunition. Captain Karel Pavlik raised his company and ordered the deployment of the machine guns at its disposal (mostly the Česka Zbroevka vz.26) at improvised firing positions on the upper floors of the barracks.
Shooters with rifles, including soldiers from other companies who voluntarily joined Pavlik’s company, positioned themselves at the window openings. The captain entrusted the command of the defense sectors to the senior non-commissioned officers (cetari) of his company, Štefek and Gola.
The first attempt of 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 using small arms and machine guns. According to eyewitnesses, local residents, who suddenly found themselves in the epicenter of a real battle, hid in cellars or lay down on the floor in their houses.
Only the owner of the beer hall located around the corner did not succumb to panic, who, already during the battle, began to serve the occupiers who ran in to “wet their throats” for Reichsmarks.
The commander of the 84th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Steuwer, 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 preparing 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 were deployed, one 37-mm anti-tank gun RAK-35/37 from the anti-tank company of the regiment, 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 a completely thoroughly, albeit hastily, prepared assault.
After a short fire training, the German infantry, supported by an armored vehicle, again rushed to storm the Chayankov barracks. The guard soldiers holding forward positions, two of whom were wounded, were forced to leave the trenches and take refuge in the building.
The Wehrmacht soldiers, under fire, reached the fence and lay down behind it. However, that was where their success ended. The mortar and machine gun fire of the Germans and even the 37-mm shells of their anti-tank guns could not cause significant damage to the powerful walls of the barracks, or serious losses to their defenders.
At the same time, Czech machine guns fired a dense barrage, and the riflemen extinguished the car headlights one after another with well-aimed shots. A German vehicle attempting to break through the gate was forced to turn back after its commander (sergeant major) was killed in the turret, which was barely protected from above.
By this time the battle had lasted more than 40 minutes. The Czechs' ammunition was running out, and Colonel Steuver was pulling all available forces to the barracks, so the outcome of the fight remained unclear...
However, what was decisive in the fate of the battle for Chayankov barracks was not another German assault, but an order from the headquarters of the Czech 8th Infantry Regiment. Colonel Eliash ordered an immediate ceasefire, enter into negotiations with the Germans and lay down arms, threatening the “disobedient” with a military court in case of disobedience.
After four hours of “internment,” the Czech soldiers were allowed to return to their barracks, and the officers were placed under house arrest in their apartments. The wounded on both sides were treated by German and Czech military doctors, after which they were admitted to the civilian hospital in the city of Mistek.
On the Czech side, in the battle for Chayankov barracks, six soldiers were wounded, including two seriously. The local population, fortunately, was not harmed, except for material damage. German losses ranged, according to various sources, from 12 to 24 killed and wounded.
The government of the dying Czechoslovak Republic hastened to blame the “regrettable incident” in the city of Mistek on the officers commanding the garrison, but not one of them was brought to either the Czech or the German military court 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 most prominent figures of the Czech anti-Nazi resistance.
When in 1942 Hitler's secret police captured and forced to cooperate one of the leaders of JINDRA, Professor Ladislav Vanek, he handed Karel Pawlik over to the occupiers.
Captured Karel Pavlik, the Nazis, after interrogation and brutal torture, sent him to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp. There, on January 26, 1943, the sick and exhausted Czech hero was shot by an SS guard for refusing to comply.
http://samlib.ru/m/mihail_kozhemjakin/karel_pavlik.shtml
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