Siege of Prague (WFAC)

Siege of Prague
German Heinkel He-111P bombers of 1./KG 157 over Prague, October 1, 1938.
Date	October 1, 1938 - March 15, 1939
Result	Decisive German victory
Belligerents File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.png Czechoslovakia File:Flag of Nazi Germany.png Nazi Germany Commanders File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.png Arm. Gen. Vojcechovský File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.pngDiv. Gen. Emil Linhart File:Flag of Czechoslovakia.png Brig. Gen. Cyril Langer File:Flag of Nazi Germany.png GenObst. Fedor v. Bock File:Flag of Nazi Germany.png Gen.d.Art. Walther v. Reichenau File:Flag of Nazi Germany.png Gen.Lt. Heinz Guderian Strength Hraniční pásmo XI ”Dalibor”, aircraft support 6 infantry divisions, 2 motorised divisions, 1 armoured division, aircraft support Casualties 1000 killed, 1,200 WIA, 13 tanks lost 1,500 killed, missing, captured or seriously wounded, 20 AFVs lost

The Siege of Prague was fought between the ČSR Army garrisoned and entrenched in and around the industrial centre of Plzeň and German Army. It started with aerial bombardments by the Luftwaffe starting on October 1, 1938.

Land fighting started on March, when the Germans reached the suburbs of Prague. On October 18 the Germans broke through and then swept across the areas surrounding the city, and by October 22 the city had almost been encircled. On October 24 the first German armoured units entered the Wola area and south-the northern suburbs of the city. Despite German radio broadcasts claiming to have captured Plzeň, the attack was stopped and soon afterwards Plzeň was under siege. The siege lasted until March 5, 1939, when the outmanned and outgunned Czechs were forced to capitulate.

Background

Prague was the capital and largest city of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague had been the political, cultural, and economic centre of the Czech state for over 1100 years.

Plzeň was also one of the main industrial centres in Czechoslovakia, being the home of the ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk), established in 1927, and famous for their production of the tank LT vz. 38, which was used with great success by the Czechs in the conflict and thus subsequently taken into service by the Germans after the capitulation of Czechoslovakia.

Being one of the major industrial centres, it was equally strategic important for both Germany and Czechoslovakia. In the orignial planning for Fall Grün, it was called for by the Luftwaffe not to attack the industrial centres of Czechoslovakia, as these plants would be vital for the German economy and war machine. Being the political centre of the whole republic, the Czechs had built several defensive lines of fortification around the town, in addition to the defensive line running along the German-Czech frontier in northern Bohemia.

Air battle

From the very first hours of the campaign, Prague was a target of an unrestricted aerial bombardment campaign by the German Luftwaffe. Apart from the military facilities such as infantry barracks and the Ruzyně airport and aircraft factory, the German pilots also targeted at most centres of transportation and political centres, but at a few occasions also civilian facilities such as water works, hospitals, market places and schools.

The first regular act of war took place on October 1, 1938, at 04:40, when 25 Heinkel He-111 bombers of 2./KG 157 of German Air Force (Luftwaffe) bombed the Czechoslovak capital, Prague. At 05:05, Heinkel He-111 bombers of 1./KG 157 and Dornier Do-17 bombers of 5./KG 153 escorted by Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter aircrafts of 1./JG 132 commenced bombing runs on the centres of transportation and political centres of Plzeň and Prague, while other cities such as Karlovy Vary, Brno, Ostrava and Bratislava were bombed as well. As a result of these bombing runs, around 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians. However, damage on the cities and the effectivity of the attacks were severly reduced due to bad weather.

At 15:30 25 Heinkel He-111 bombers from 3./KG 157 began the third aerial bombardement of Prague, targeting the central railway station. While being quite successfull at this, they were surprised by 25 Avia B-534 fighters of the stíhací letka 44 and 83.5 mm anti-aircraft guns on the ground. The Czech pilot František Peřina achieved several victories, shooting down 2 Heinkel He-111 bombers and damaging a third. Then a group of Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter aircrafts from 6./JG 132 appeared, and a feroucious air-to-air combat began. The German aircraft were superior in terms of firepower and speed, while the Czechs had a small advantage in manouevrebility. After 30 minutes both sides flew back to their air bases; the Germans had lost 12 aircrafts and the Czechs 19.

The responsibility of defending Warsaw was divided between fighter aircraft of the Czechoslovak Air Force and Anti-Aircraft batteries on the ground. The Air Force was equipped with Avia B-534 fighter biplanes, which was a quite, while the AA artillery was equipped with 83.5 mm heavy anti-aircraft guns, as well as with 20 mm VKPL vz. 36 light anti-aircraft guns and an unknown number of anti-aircraft machine guns. The latter was composed mostly of fire-fighter brigades and volunteers.

Initially the air defence of Prague was fairly successful. By October 16, 1938, the Pursuit Brigade had managed to shoot down 73 enemy aeroplanes, while anti-aircraft artillery had shot down a similar number of enemy bombers. In addition, there were also 13 unconfirmed victories and 50 damaged planes. However, the Czechs had also suffered losses, and by October 20 it had lost a total of 58 machines.

The AA defence started to crumble during the winter of 1938-39. However, a combination of careful behaviour from the Luftwaffe and bad weather prevented further attacks and thus large parts of the capital had been left untouched by German bombing raids.

Eve of the battle

After a standstill since February, the German spring offensive (Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen) got under way on March 1, 1939. At dawn, German artillery opened fire on the Czech positions, and after three hours of continuous artillery barrage, German air force dropped thousands of leaflets over the cities of Prague, Plzeň and Olomouc, saying that president Edvard Beneš and the Czechoslovak government, the communists, the Soviet Union and others had sent the Czech people into the War, and urged them to capitulate to the Germans. In the meantime, the German Minister in Prague urged the Prime Minister Syrový to capitulate, but he answered that they would do nothing until the matter had been discussed with the cabinet.

One hour after the leaflets had been dropped over the three major cities still in Czech hands, German bombers commence aerial bombings of the cities, aiming key populated centres and key government and military installations.

While the Germans were eliminating the pocket at Plzeň, the Eighth and Tenth Armies continued their advance towards Prague at full speed, and by March 13 they had completely encircled the capital.

The military situation of Prague was relatively good. Brig. Gen. Cyril Langer, the commander of the Defence of Prague, managed to gather enough forces and war material to successfully defend the city for several weeks longer. However, the situation of the civilian inhabitants of Prague became increasingly tragic, as the city now was surrounded by the Wehrmacht. Despite that the Luftwaffe could not efficiently bombard the civilian facilities, the lack of food and medical supplies resulted in heavy casualties among the civilians.

The water works were destroyed by German bombers and all boroughs of Prague experienced a lack of both potable water and water with which to extinguish the fires caused by the bombardment. Also, the strategic situation became very difficult. As Prague was cut off from the rest of the still Czech-controlled areas, any means of resupplying the Czech defenders were impossible.

Clashes at the outskirts of Prague

On March 11, as the Germans were closing in on Prague, the commander of the Tenth Army, Gen.d.Art. Walther v. Reichenau presented Arm. Gen. Sergěj Vojcechovský and Brig. Gen. Langer an ultimatum: All Czech military units in Prague should capitulate on March 14, or else the Luftwaffe would carry out their orders to "remove Prague from the face of the earth".

Capitulation

Gen. Sergěj Vojcechovský and Brig. Gen. Langer, seeing they had no chance to continue the battle without risking the lives of hundreds of thousands civilians in Prague, started negotiations for capitulation with the Gen.d.Art. v. Reichenau in the morning of March 13. At noon, President Beneš and most of the Czech government left for Warszaw from Prague Ruzyně Airport. The Prime Minister, Arm. Gen. Jan Syrový, wished to stay in Prague, as he insisted that as a soldier and the minister of national defence, he should stay until the end. He shared the same thoughts as Vojcechovský and Langer, and a capitulation would spare the suffering inhabitants of Prague from an unnecessary aerial bombardement. However, he chose to follow the chief of military intelligence František Moravec after being told that his position as prime minister, minister of national defence and as a soldier could be abused in the post-invasion Czechoslovakia.

Considering the circumstances and the strength of the Luftwaffe Prague had been quite lucky, and much of the cultural treasures of Prague, including the Hradčany, Karlův most (Charles Bridge), the many churches and monasteries and the Old Town (Staré Město) were mostly untouched by the German bombing campaign. The bad weather over the city had been partially been responsible for this, but the Czech anti-aircraft cannons and the Air Force had proven to be quite effective in holding off the bombers in the first two months of the war.

In the evening of March 13, František Moravec, 10 of his fellow intelligence officers and Syrový secretly managed to fly away with the most valuable intelligence files and archives from Prague Ruzyně Airport to Stockholm-Bromma Airport with a stopover on Warszawa-Okęcie Fryderyka Chopina Airport in an ad hoc chartered KLM Douglas DC-3, as the Germans were closing in. Only 20 minutes after Moravec and Syrový left for Warsaw, the forward elements of the 1. Panzer-Division swarmed the airfield. Rescued files and archives were handed over to the British MI6 to be used against Germany.

On September 14, at 12.00 a cease fire agreement was signed and all fighting halted. Soon afterwards Prague capitulated. Several units declined to put down their weapons and cease fire, and their commanding officers had to be visited by generals Vojcechovský and Langer personally. During the night of March 14-15 the garrison of Prague started to hide or destroy their heavy armament. On March 15 German units entered the city. At 10.00 on March 15, an full capitulation of all Czechoslovak Armed Forces was signed on Pražský hrad by Gen. Vojcechovský and Brig. Gen. Langer, with Gen.d.Art. Walther v. Reichenau and Gen.Lt. Heinz Guderian acting as representatives of Germany. The following day the evacuation of Czech forces to German POW camps started. The campaign in Czechoslovakia was over.

Aftermath

German soldiers enters Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) during a military parade celebrating the German victory over Czechoslovakia, March 15, 1939.

The Czechoslovak Army lost approximately 6,000 killed in action and 16,000 wounded in action. After the capitulation approximately 5,000 officers and 57,000 soldiers and NCOs were taken into captivity. The civilian population of Warsaw lost 25,800 dead and approximately 50,000 wounded. As an effect of bombardment 3% of buildings were turned into ruins. No official list of German casualties was published.

Czechoslovakia was divided among Nazi Germany, Hungary and Poland. Nazi Germany annexed the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, Hungary annexed Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine, and Poland annexed the Zaolzie territory and parts of northern Slovakia. Following the annexation of the Czech lands into the German Reich, Prague became the capital of the Reichsgau Böhmen.

See also

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