Czechoslovak Army
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| guide | |||
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| Commander in Chief : |
Most recently President of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel |
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| Headquarters: | Prague | ||
| Military strength | |||
| Active soldiers: | 150,000 (1924/25) 220,000 (1937) |
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| Reservists: | 50,000 (1935) | ||
| Conscription: | |||
| Eligibility for military service: | |||
| household | |||
| Military budget: | N / A | ||
| Share of gross domestic product : | 14% 25% (1939) |
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| history | |||
| Founding: | 1918 | ||
| Factual foundation: | 1916 ( Czechoslovak Legions ) | ||
| Resolution: | 1992 | ||
| Replacement: | Armed Forces of the Czech Republic , Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic | ||
The Czechoslovak Army ( Czech Československá armáda ) was the military of the Czechoslovak Republic . It consisted of an army , air force and a navy limited to river ships . Around 200,000 soldiers and an additional 50,000 reservists served in their three branches of the armed forces (as of 1937). Before the Munich Agreement, the Czechoslovak Army was one of the most powerful armies in Central Europe . In 1992 it was divided into the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic .
history
From the units of the Czechoslovak Legions returning after the end of the First World War , the new Czechoslovak Army was founded in 1918 . France played an essential role in this: the French Military Mission , which was active in Czechoslovakia from February 1919 , actively helped to form the General Staff of the Army (the Commander of the Military Mission provided the Chief of Staff in the first few years), and the Military Mission also supported the establishment of the War College Vysoká škola válečná was used and built on the model of the French École supérieure de guerre .
1918 until mobilization in 1938
The forming Czechoslovak Army occupied the German-speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia in 1919, which were claimed by German Austria . In the Polish-Czechoslovak border war they occupied the Olsa area , which was claimed by Poland as part of the former Duchy of Teschen .
In the interwar period, the Czechoslovak armed forces had a personnel strength of 220,000 soldiers and an additional 50,000 reservists, in 17 infantry divisions and 4 fast divisions after the massive armaments in the 1920s. Due to the high budget, the units were well equipped and excellently trained. The high command was especially respected in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later formed an alliance with this and with the Kingdom of Romania . The defense plans were initially secured by the Czechoslovak Wall . The defense budget was not limited and was not burdened by the own production of weapons and allowed a large margin for other military interests.
The mobilization plan of 1936 called for the drafting of 972,747 soldiers. Of these, 718,230 were of Czechoslovak, 192,844 German-Bohemian and 61,671 of Hungarian descent. The Slovaks made up only 3.6 to 5% of the officers.
During the Sudeten crisis , the Czechoslovak Army mobilized at the end of September 1938 and members of the German-Bohemian ethnic group were also called up. The Munich Agreement put an end to the acute threat of war by gradually annexing the German-Bohemian areas to Germany on October 1, 1938. The Czechoslovak Army actually ceased to exist on March 15, 1939, when Germany forcibly incorporated the remaining part of Czechoslovakia as a protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia into the German Reich.
Czecho-Slovakia 1938/1939
After the Munich Agreement , the army (Wehrmacht) marched into the Sudetenland and captured the systems of the wall. The Czechoslovak Army then left the Sudeten areas and began to set up new state borders.
Occupation and World War II
In March 1939, Czechoslovakia disappeared from the map of Europe. The Czechoslovak Army, which had offered little resistance to the occupation of the country , was disbanded - with some units moving to neighboring Poland and Romania . Until May 1939, other units in the Carpathian Ukraine fought against the Hungarian armed forces and tried to bring the Carpathian Ukraine back under their control. In 1940, shortly after the establishment of the Czechoslovak government in exile, the Czechoslovak Army in Exile was set up in London . She fought on the side of the Allies in Europe , Africa and parts of Asia during World War II . In August 1944, the army took part in the Slovak National Uprising against the puppet government of the First Slovak Republic . On April 4, the Red Army together with the Czechoslovak legions captured Bratislava and Prague on May 9, 1945. The Prague Uprising broke out in the capital between May 5th and 9th . The occupation of Prague by the Red Army and the legions on May 9th also ended the struggle of the Czechoslovak resistance against the Germans. A so-called government force of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Vládní vojsko in Czech , was set up on the territory of the Protectorate . It was a mock army; however, it should only partially perform the tasks of an army: above all, it should maintain inner calm, defense tasks were only considered.
After 1945 and arms deliveries to Israel
On May 25, 1945, the provisional organization of the Czechoslovak armed forces, the Czechoslovak Army in Exile, set up a new army. These were all Czechoslovak soldiers who fought against National Socialism on all fronts in World War II and supported the Allies. When the Czechoslovak corps from the USSR took the Carpathian Ukraine in October 1944, the military began to mobilize the population of the region and pulled in almost all of the able-bodied inhabitants. In Kassa program cooperation with the Soviet Union was committed. In May 1945, the re-established Czechoslovak army was divided into over 16 infantry divisions, supplemented by several tank corps and artillery divisions. The strength of the army in March 1946 was around 750,000 soldiers. However, there was a lack of material and money. After the war, the army was also given the task of expelling the Germans . In 1947 the army's manpower was greatly reduced and a number of units disappeared. After the communist revolution in February , many army officers were dismissed and replaced by pro-communist ones. In addition, generals who fought on the side of the Western powers during World War II were convicted in political show trials .
Between June 1947 and October 31, 1949, Czechoslovakia supplied weapons to the Israeli army and trained their fighter pilots. The arms deliveries included 25 S-199 fighters , 200 MG-34 machine guns , 4,500 P18 rifles (a modified K98 replica ) and 50,400,000 rounds of ammunition. Israel paid around $ 700 million for the weapons and services .
Czechoslovak People's Army (1954–1990)
After the KSČ came to power , the army was disarmed to 200,000 soldiers. In 1954 it was renamed the Czechoslovak People's Army Československá lidová armáda (ČSLA) and in 1955 it joined the Warsaw Pact . In the 1960s it was the most powerful army in the Eastern Bloc after the Soviet Army. But she accepted the Soviet invasion without resistance. In 1990 the ČSLA changed its name back to the Czechoslovak Army.
Disarmament and division
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the economic situation of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic deteriorated rapidly. As part of the Czechoslovak government's austerity program, the Czechoslovak army was disarmed from 200,000 to 180,000 soldiers. On December 25, 1992, the army was divided into the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic .
literature
- Kurt Erhart: The Czechoslovak People's Army. Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense , Berlin 1960.
- Michael Sadykiewicz: Soviet-Warsaw Pact Western Theater of Military Operations: Organization and Missions. RAND, Santa Monica 1987.
Web links
- Structure of the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact ( Memento of December 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Military technology of the Czechoslovak People's Army 1948–1989
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Deist: Military, State and Society. Studies on the Prussian-German military history. (= Contributions to military and war history , volume 34) Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-486-55920-6 , p. 390.
- ↑ Marian Zgórniak: Europe on the brink - 1938. Lit, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6062-0 , S. 176th
- ↑ a b Marian Zgórniak: Europe on the brink - 1938. Lit, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6062-0 , S. 133f.
- ^ Jörg K. Hoensch: History of Czechoslovakia. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-17-011725-4 , p. 145.
- ^ Karel Straka: Francouzská vojenská mise v Československu 1919–1938 , publication of the Vojenský historický ústav VHÚ (Military History Institute) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, online at: vhu.cz ...
- ^ Oswald Kostrba-Skalicky: Armed powerlessness. The Czechoslovak Army 1918–1938. In: Karl Bosl (Ed.): The First Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 , pp. 439-528, here: p. 520.
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↑ Z peněz od Izraele platilo Československo evropské komunisty
Wolfgang Weber : The United States and Israel. On the past and present of a political symbiosis . Steiner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-515-05966-0 , p. 56.