How the Czechs selflessly worked for the Reich. Czech forge of German weapons Participation of Czechoslovakia in the Second World War

In the photo: the same "Hetzer"

So, after the formation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the entry of German troops into its territory, the entire arsenal of the Czechoslovak army went into the service of the Third Reich. And the arsenal was notable...

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Let's start with the tank units: “...by the spring of 1939, the LT-35 was already a little outdated (although the Germans gladly took 219 of these vehicles for themselves) - but the ChKD plant had already developed a new, much better, TNHP tank for a year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

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

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

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

...By taking the Czech Republic under their wing, the Germans received colossal production capacity heavy industry - thanks to which they doubled the production of military equipment and weapons. Plus, these new facilities were located deep in the European continent and, unlike the Ruhr, were completely and absolutely safe from enemy air raids (at least until 1943...
After Munich, the Germans began to look at the arsenals of the Czechoslovak army, not as a threat to Germany, but as a potential opportunity to instantly and repeatedly strengthen the Wehrmacht.
Which, in fact, happened six months later...

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

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

According to the German Center for War Economics, as of March 31, 1944 alone, the Fuhrer received almost 13 billion 866 million brands of weapons and equipment from the workshops of 857 factories in the previously annexed Czech Republic.
“ChKD factories (which became the VMM company after the Protectorate joined the Reich) produced 1,480 LT-38 tanks in 1939-1942. When this tank became hopelessly outdated, the plant’s specialists took an initiative to convert it into an anti-tank self-propelled gun. At first, the Germans looked at these Czech delights with disdain, but by the end of 1943, it became clear to the Wehrmacht command that the front needed a new, well-armored compact self-propelled gun - a tank destroyer, at a price as cheap as possible.
The ideal vehicle for these requirements was the self-propelled gun based on the 38 (t) tank - which received the name “Hetzer” in the Wehrmacht.

We need to tell you more about this “Hetzer” (its name can be translated as “jaeger”).
In March 1943, the Inspector General of Tank Forces, Colonel General G. Guderian, gave the order to begin work on the creation of a small, light and well-armored tank destroyer. In December of the same year, a prototype based on the PzKpfw 38(t) light tank was ready. After completing the tests, the results of which exceeded all expectations, new car was put into service under the name "Hetzer".
On January 28, 1944, A. Hitler personally determined the earliest possible start of production and an increase in its volume as the most important task for the army in 1944. A production schedule was established that called for production of 1,000 vehicles per month by March 1945.

Since April 1944, serial production of new anti-tank self-propelled guns began at the enterprises of the VMM company (formerly ChKD), and in September Skoda joined it. During production, self-propelled guns were constantly improved and modernized. It was also planned to produce modifications with Pak 39/1 cannons of 75 mm caliber and StuG 42 cannons of 105 mm caliber.
A total of 2,584 Hetzer tank destroyers were produced in 1944 and 1945.
The Hetzer turned out to be the best light anti-tank self-propelled gun of the Second World War. The vehicle had a completely new low hull, characterized by a large slope of the frontal, side and rear armor plates, the thickness of which varied from 10 to 60 mm. Due to the increase in weight compared to the standard tank PzKpfw 38(t) chassis was strengthened and expanded. In fact, only the transmission and chassis components were borrowed from the base tank. A more powerful 160-horsepower engine was used as the power plant.

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

These statistics perfectly show WHICH front was the MAIN one for Hitler, don’t they?!

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

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

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

As we can see, the Czechs, like Stakhanov, worked for the Third Reich until its very end. With creativity, initiative and sparkle. Neither Allied bombing nor the Germans' lack of 75-mm PaK 39/2 cannons, produced in Germany, hampered them. To replace them, proactive Czech specialists immediately offered THEIR StuK 40, of their own production.

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

Here is what A. Petrov wrote about Czech assistance to Hitler’s Reich in the article “Cunning Petition”:
By June 1941, German units were almost a third full Czech weapons. Czechs assembled a quarter of all tanks, 26 percent of trucks and 40 percent small arms German army. According to the German Center for War Economics, as of March 31, 1944, the Fuhrer received weapons and equipment worth almost 13 billion 866 million Reichsmarks from the workshops of 857 factories in the Czech Republic.

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

According to German sources, in 1944, the Czech Republic supplied Germany monthly (!) with about 11 thousand pistols, 30 thousand rifles, more than 3 thousand machine guns, 15 million cartridges, about 100 self-propelled guns artillery pieces, 144 infantry guns, 180 anti-aircraft guns, more than 620 thousand artillery shells, almost a million shells for anti-aircraft guns, from 600 to 900 wagons aircraft bombs, 0.5 million signal ammunition, 1000 tons of gunpowder and 600 thousand explosives. As for the labor productivity of Czechs, it was not inferior to that of German workers.
It is interesting that the main workshops of Prague's military factories did not open until May 5, 1945.
The half-kilometer ambulance train, “a gift of the Czech people to the warring Reich,” somehow was not “deposited” in the selective memory of the Czechs. Forgotten were parcels with warm knitted mittens - “from mothers” to the Stalingrad “cauldron”, and friendly Nazi greetings from conscientious Czech workers, leaders of production, sent to health camps for shock work for the sake of the victory of German weapons created by their skillful hands... which kill Russians, Poles, Jews, Americans and British...
By the way, it was the Pilsen Skoda factories that at the very end of the war would become almost the only source of weapons for the Wehrmacht.

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

There is something else worth telling about.
Russian White emigrant B. Tikhonovich recalled: “The Czechs got incredibly rich from Jews in 1939-1945. They took Jewish jewelry, paintings, and property “for safekeeping,” and then wrote denunciations against former friends. There was a saying in circulation: “They (that is, the Jews) will never return from there anyway.” Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, has still not received back the paintings that belonged to her family and were stolen by two Czech sisters from Prague.
All this was “shamefully” kept silent in post-war period by the Soviet leadership due to the fact that the Czechs are Slavic brothers and our allies in the socialist camp. Thanks to the Soviet Union, they, as well as other actual comrades-in-arms of the Third Reich, escaped with only a slight fright for collaborating with the Nazis and killing Soviet citizens.”

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

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

March 15 marks 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. Not by chance most of 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 the experience of battles in Spain showed, were superior to the German "Messerschmitts" in flight performance. technical specifications. 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 strongest armies peace. Documents from the German archives indicate that Hitler’s generals did not allow the Fuhrer to support the attempts of the Sudeten Germans to revolt the day before 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.

About the most important international events.

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 (a policy of uniting the nation within single state) one of its main tasks, provided significant support to the Czech Germans.

The main and only political organization The Czech Germans were 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 military intervention 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 Gaha ( new president Czechoslovakia) was summoned to Berlin, where Hitler invited him to agree to the German occupation of Czech lands, then “the entry of German troops would 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, from 21 tank division Five Wehrmachts 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. Created to manage industry special departments. Production of goods consumer consumption reduced, a significant part of them was sent to supply 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 new wave 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 sandwiches was Chief Editor magazine "Czech Word" (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 political figure Nazi Germany, head of the Main Office of Reich Security in 1939–1942, SS Obergruppenführer and General of Police.

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' Trial.

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. September 27 Czech Orthodox Church was banned, its property was confiscated, 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.

In the territory of the occupied Czechoslovakia there were four main resistance groups, the majority of their members were former officers 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, do 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, on railway Prague - Benesov train was derailed, as a result 27 platforms with tanks were destroyed.

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 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 one who had broken through. German tank. 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 turned out to be 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.

From time to time I get asked a question about where people work in Europe and the Czech Republic. After all, many tourists think that in the Czech Republic people only work as guides, waiters, office managers or tram drivers. In fact, European countries have developed a wide variety of industries, employing hundreds of thousands of highly qualified workers. And today I will introduce you to one of these productions, namely Czech weapons.

As you know, Czech weapons played an important role during the Second World War, because the occupation of the Czech Republic was very important for Hitler, because he needed equipment and weapons for his army, and the Czech Republic had a lot of weapons, and in terms of its technical characteristics it was ahead of many countries. Currently, the Czech Republic is also an important player in the small arms market and ranks 14th in the export of pistols, small arms and ammunition, earning more than $100 million annually.

Before we move on to consider modern Czech weapons, I will tell you about the Czechoslovak weapons of the Second World War.

Czech weapons of the Second World War

ZK-383- a submachine gun created in Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s at a factory Zbrojovka Brno in the city of Brno. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, production of the ZK 383 was continued, and the stocks available in warehouses entered service with the Slovak army, Waffen-SS units and police forces, and were also transferred to Bulgaria. ZK 383 was exported to Bolivia and Venezuela. ZK-383 submachine guns were chambered for 9x19 mm.

Shotgun MSS-41 was also created at the Czechoslovak arms factory Zbrojovka Brno. The gun later entered service in Germany. A special feature of the MSS-41 was that it was made according to the bullpup design (the impact mechanism and the magazine are located in the butt behind the trigger). In addition, these anti-tank rifles were first used as large-caliber sniper rifles. The SS troops had special teams armed with MSS-41 with optical sights, whose main task was to destroy firing points from long distances, as well as bunkers and bunkers. One of the advantages of the gun is that it can be carried by one person. In terms of armor penetration, this anti-tank gun was quite consistent with its contemporary foreign counterparts. With its help it was possible to hit armored cars and armored vehicles, but it was powerless against medium and heavy tanks.

ZB-53 heavy machine gun was developed by the Czechoslovak company Zbrojovka Brno. The machine gun was in service with the Czechoslovak army and was mass-produced. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, machine guns were transferred to the German army. Machine guns were exported to China, Romania, Afghanistan, Argentina and Yugoslavia. By the beginning of World War II, the German army had 12,672 such machine guns in service. The gun operated using the energy of air-cooled powder gases. Shooting was carried out with standard 7.92x57 mm Mauser cartridges with light and heavy bullets. The machine gun served as infantry support and as a transport weapon. Release license similar weapons bought by Great Britain and released a machine gun called BESA.

- ground weapon of the Czechoslovak army during the Second World War. This is one of the most famous guns produced in Czechoslovakia. This light machine gun, developed in 1924-1926. chambered for the German cartridge 7.92x57 mm, adopted by the Czechoslovak Army in 1926 and exported to 24 countries (Iran, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, Sweden and others).

It is not surprising that the machine gun won love in so many countries: not only did it have excellent tactical and technical characteristics, it was also unpretentious in use, and the overheated barrel could be easily changed.

Modern Czech weapons

The most famous Czech company that produces pistols is Ceska Zbrojovka from the town of Uherski Brod. Ceska Zbrojovka began its activities in the production of pistols at the beginning of the 20th century with the production of pistols CZ 22, CZ 24, CZ 27 and others. The CZ 27 model was very popular and more than 700 thousand of these pistols were produced. Naturally, the Czechoslovak army was equipped with such pistols.

After the Second World War, production of the CZ 45 and CZ 50 pistols began. The CZ 45 used 6.35x15 mm Browning cartridges. The CZ 50 used 7.65x17mm cartridges. Design CZ 50 strongly resembled the design "Walter", although there was a difference: the fuse box was placed not on the frame, but on the shutter-casing; the pin indicating the presence of a cartridge in the chamber protruded not from the back, but from the side of the bolt casing; the safety bracket was made together with the frame as one part, and disassembly was carried out after pressing the latch on the side of the frame. The pistol was not used in the army, but it became the pistol of the Czech police.

Pistol CZ 75

The pistol, developed in Czechoslovakia in 1975, is considered one of the best combat pistols in the whole world! Initially, the pistol was created for export, but the model turned out to be so successful that it began to be supplied to the Czech police. CZ 75 pistols were supplied to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Thailand, and Poland. They are currently used by a number of large police departments in the United States (for example, Special Forces "Delta"). Clones of this pistol are produced by companies in different countries, in Turkey, China, Italy, Israel, Switzerland and the USA. Features of the pistol can be found in the American Springfield P-9, Israeli Jericho 941, Italian Tanfoglio GT-21, Swiss Sphinx AT-2000.

Pistols CZ-75 combine excellent reliability, survivability, strength, shooting accuracy, ergonomics, and at the same time their price is kept at an acceptable low level. CZ-75 pistols are available in a wide variety of modifications and chambered for different cartridges, for example, 9x19mm parabellum, 9x21mm.

CZ 82- a compact semi-automatic pistol developed in Czechoslovakia for the Czechoslovak army chambered for a 9x18 mm live cartridge. In terms of its characteristics, the CZ-82 is superior to its main competitor - the Makarov pistol. The CZ-82 has a larger magazine capacity (12 rounds instead of 8), a more comfortable grip, a more comfortable trigger, a noticeably better finish, is more durable and more accurate when shooting.

Automatic CZ SA Vz.58

CZ SA Vz.58- a 7.62 caliber assault rifle, developed in Czechoslovakia in 1958 at the Česká Zbrojovka plant in the city of Uherský Brod for the Czech army. Externally, the assault rifle is similar to the Kalashnikov assault rifle, but due to the difference in design, the Czech assault rifle can fire single shots and continuous bursts. The machine gun was exported to Iran, India, Cuba and African countries.

The CZ 805 BREN is a modern 5.56 x45mm assault rifle designed as a custom weapon for the Czech Army. The machine meets high requirements and operates stably in difficult conditions (dust, sand, dirt, high changes in air temperature). Thanks to the design of the machine, you can quickly change its caliber to 7.62x39 mm and 6.8 mm Remington SPC. The machine was introduced in 2009 and, in terms of its characteristics and convenience, is ahead of competitors, for example the Belgian SCAR machine.

Currently, three variants of the CZ-805 BREN assault rifle are being produced: a standard version (CZ-805 BREN A1), a version with a shortened barrel (CZ-805 BREN A2) and a third version (CZ-805 BREN A3) with an extended barrel for use as a machine gun or sniper rifle, equipped with a removable bipod handle and a tactical flashlight.

As you have already noticed, one of the most successful arms factories in the Czech Republic is Česká zbrojovka from the city of Uherská Brod. In addition to pistols and machine guns, the company produces rifles, small-bore rifles, 12-gauge shotguns for the American market, sporting weapons, ammunition and much more. Over the course of a year, the plant produces more than 200 thousand weapons worth more than 100 million dollars! The plant supplies its products to 90 countries, the most popular export destinations are the USA, Western Europe and Southeast Asia. The Česká zbrojovka plant is a major employer in the Czech Republic, employing 2,000 workers.

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 the experience of battles in Spain showed, were superior to the German "Messerschmitts" in terms of flight performance. Gaining air supremacy would be a big problem for the Germans.

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.

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