Battle of Ostrava (WFAC)

The Battle of Ostrava took place between October 6 and October 7, 1938 between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany over the city of Ostrava, Czechoslovakia.

Prelude to the Battle
The Second Army began ground operations soon after 8 o'clock in the morning, securing the border stations without facing resistance. After securing the border stations, German troops poured over the German-Czech frontier. However, they ran shortly thereafter into the Czech border fortifications, and after attempting to storm the line twice in under two hours, GenObst. Gerd v. Rundstedt, the commander of the Second Army, decided to halt operations temporarily, seeing that the attacks were futile and the large number of casualties resulting from them. Thus he ordered the artillery and air force to soften up the positions.

After four days of heavy fighting, on October 5, the 3. Infanterie-Division finally broke through the lines where the fortifications were limited, after the defences had been softened with artillery shelling, and thus began its advance towards Ostrava. However, due to heavy casualties, they were ordered only to secure the town and then wait until the remaining elements of the Second Army had broken through the Czech lines. By the evening the same day, the Germans had pushed around 25 km inland, and encircled Ostrava. Gen.Lt. Walter Petzel, the commander of 3. Infanterie-Division, gave the orders for the capture of the town to begin the next day.

The Battle
In the early hours of October 6, German artillery of the bombarded the Czech soldiers of the SOS unit defending the city, while Dornier Do-17 bombers and Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers of the attacked them from the air.

Three hours later, the begun its assault on the town. They managed to secure the suburbs of Ostrava, but when they began to attack the town proper the assault was repulsed by the Czech defenders. Subsequently the Germans continued to push into the city, with Luftwaffe bombers of making the defence of the town even more difficult. While the Czechs furiously fought back only armed with small arms, machineguns and mortars, the poorly coordinated Czech defence was no match for the superior German forces.