Battle of Bruntál (WFAC)

The Battle of Bruntál (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Freudenthal; Czech: Bitva u Bruntálu) was a battle fought during the invasion of Czechoslovakia at the beginning of World War II. It began on the morning of 1 October 1938, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne operation south of the Czechoslovak border fortifications near Bruntál under the code name Unternehmen Freudenthal (Operation Freudenthal).

After one day of fighting, having misinterpreted the intelligence information regarding the defences around Bruntál, the Germans had suffered very heavy casualties and the Czechoslovak troops were close to prevailing against the German invasion. However, while unable to successfully attack the border fortifications in the area, the landing forced the Czechoslovaks to divert troops to engage the paratroopers, weakening the troops manning the fortifications under attack by the ground forces of the German Second Army.