Battle of Otročín (Fall Grün)

The Battle
At 9:00 on October 8, the forward elements of Guderian's reached the villages of Tisová and Ranovice. A Fieseler Fi 156 Storch reconnaissance reported that the Czechs had set up positions around the village of Otročín. The Germans decided to drop leaflets asking the Czechs to give up and claiming that the west had betrayed them and further resistance would be futile. However, as the German Junkers Ju-52 aircrafts flew overhead, they were fired upon by Czech anti-aircraft artillery, which resulted in two aircraft being shot down. The Germans then ordered an artillery barrage on the Czech positions around the village. The Czech artillery in that area was somewhat weaker, but managed to fire back, resulting in several German casualties. After the preparations, the Germans attacked the northern flank of the Czech forces, clashing with them in the village of Brt'.

Schützen-Bataillon III of 1.Schützen-Brigade had cleared the village for Czech defenders by 11:00, but an hour later they were surprised by a Czech counterattack. Following a deadly artillery barrage, twentyfive LT vz. 35 tanks supported by accompanying infantry and Letov Š-328 light bombers, they had to retreat back to Tisová. 1. Schützen-Brigade was reinforced subsequentely by the Schützen-Regiment 113 and elements of Kradschützen-Bataillon 1 supported by ten anti-tank cannons of the Panzerjäger-Abteilung 37 and 40 Pz.Kpfw. I and 25 Pz.Kpfw. II light tanks of Panzer-Regiment 1.

Some of the LT vz. 35 light tanks during the Battle of Otročín on October 8, 1938.At 13:00 the Czech attacked the village of Tisová after an air attack consisting of three Avia B-71 light bombers and five Letov Š-328, with Avia B-534 fighters controlling the air. The following battle resulted in the first tank-to-tank battle of the war. To the German's they discovered that the Czech tanks were better than their own Pz.Kpfw. I and IIs. After the Germans had lost 18 tanks while only destroying 8 of the Czech tanks, they ordered their anti-tank cannons forward. General Heinz Guderian himself went in the field to lead the battle himself upon the discovery of the quality of the Czech tanks. On his way to Tisová Czech artillery shells began hitting around his command vehicle, one of them only 50 m from him. Only luck saved him from getting killed.

As the 37 mm PaK 35/36 anti-tank cannons arrived at the front line, they immediately opened fire on the Czech tanks. After 10 minutes 5 vehicles had been taken out of action. Seeing that their tanks were vulnerable to German anti-tank fire, they retreated back to Otročín. On the way back, a further 4 vehicles came victim of 4 Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers.

One of the German Pz.Kpfw. I light tanks destroyed during the Battle of Otročín, October 8, 1938.After the Germans had regrouped and come over the shock of the sudden Czech counterattack, they advanced again north and south of Otročín. At 16:30 elements of Schützen-Bataillon II had secured the village Poseč east of Otročín, thus encircling the Czech defences there. The next morning, at 06:45, the German artillery opened fire on the Czech positions around and in the village. The saturation of the bombardement lasted two hours. At 9:00, the Czech defences were attacked from three sides by German tanks and infantry. Initially the losses among German infantry were high, but after the regiment's 3 Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. C infantry tanks had been brought in to take out the defences, they managed to break through the defences around the village, and by noon they had captured the village.

Aftermath
In the process, they destroyed 3 OA vz. 30 armoured cars and 4 LT vz. 35 light tanks while capturing two pieces. They also took 250 Czech soldiers prisoner, as well as siezing a large number of rifles, ZB vz. 26 machineguns and several heavy machineguns and mortars as well. The remaining two LT vz. 35 tanks had been evacuated the day before due to damage substained in the battle.