Battle of the Border (Fall Grün)
From Alternative History
| Battle of the Border | |||||||||||||||||
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 German soldiers storm the Czechoslovak border fortification, October 1, 1938. | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | October 1 - October 16, 1938 | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Phyrric German victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of the Border was a series of military engagements between the Republic of Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany fought between October 1 and 12, 1938 along the German-Czech frontier. The series of battles ended in a costly German victory, as Czech forces were either destroyed or forced to retreat.
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[edit] Prelude to the Battle
Due to the unfavourable strategic position of Bohemia and Moravia had against Germany, Czechoslovakia could only maintain a defensive strategy, and so they tried to offset this through a system of fortifications in line with the French Maginot Line. Undoubtedly the "front continu" played a role through which they wanted to stop an invasion. The spatial distribution of the Czech arms industry with central points in Plzeň, Prague and Brno demanded a defence strategy, that could put the opponents forces to a halt at the border.
The expansion of the fortifications of the Czech-German border was decided by the Parliament of Czechoslovakia in 1932, and construction began in 1935. The fortifications were to be completed in ten to fifteen years. Like France, ČSR spent a large part on their defence budget on the construction of the border fortifications. It is calculated that until 1938 the actual expenditure of the fortifications had been 2.5 billion Kč. However, this was only a tenth of the sum that France had paid for the construction of the Maginot Line, even though its borders were ten times as long. The Czechoslovak border fortifications and the Maginot Line were in scope, depth and technical equipment uncomparable. With the line of deployment at this fortification system, the Czechoslovak General Staff renounced the necessity of an mobile operational doctrine
On March 20, 1935, the ministry of defence appointed General Karel Husárek as the head of the construction of the Czechoslovak border defences (Ředitelství opevňovacích prací, ŘOP). With significant participation of French experts, the concept of the border fortifications included several lines of fortifications along the country's borders consisting of "Heavy Objects", which were isolated Infantry Blockhouses and Forts inspired by the French Maginot Line, and "Light Objects", designated vz.36 (the so-called French type) and a more modern vz. 37, besides a system of obstacles (barbed wire, Czech hedgehogs, anti-tank ditches, and also natural obstacles). The "Heavy Objects" were armed with cannons and several machineguns, manned by 900 men. The heavy bunkers were armed with 3000 artillery pieces, not counting mortars or anti-tank cannons. However, the fortifications could not always be built as the foremost defensive line because of the heavy vegetation. Furthermore, a defensive line had been built around the capital Prague, and a defensive line running west and northwest of Plzeň.
If the invaders succeeded in breaking through the defence lines and into the vastness of space of the relatively flat Bohemia, all three arms centres would be threatened. A fight could, when a timely withdrawal had succeeded, then only be carried out in the mountainous regions of Slovakia, which lacked larger industrial infrastructure.
As the heavy fortifications required one year of planning and three to four years for construction, the development of the entire fortifications in the autumn of 1938 still not completed, and only about 20% of the heavy objects and 70% of the light objects had been completed.
The plan was to construct 1,300 heavy fortifications (so called "Heavy Objects") and 16.000 light fortifications. These were to be distributed around the borders Czechoslovakia shared with Germany, Hungary and Poland. Between 1935 to 1938, 9 artillery forts, 265 infantry casemates and nearly 9,500 light pillboxes had been completely constructed and armed. Of the heavy objects, 7 were constructed in southern Moravia against Austria (this was calculated because of the Austrian neutrality in a case of emergency), 11 in the whole of Slovakia and the rest in northern Moravia and Bohemia. Of the light pillboxes, 3,003 had been built in Western and Southern Bohemia, 1,852 in Northern Bohemia, 1,000 in Southern Bohemia, 1,195 in Northern Bohemia and 1,492 in Slovakia.
[edit] The Battle
[edit] Phase 1: Offensive repulsed
Both the Czechoslovak border fortifications and the mountainous terrain in Sudetenland proved to be a real challenge to the German invaders. Despite their technical, operational and numerical superiority, their mobility could not be used in the mountainous border regions, and therefore lost the strategic suprise.
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.
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, 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.
The Eighth Army similarily crossed the border at 8:00, but as they ran into the border fortifications, they attempted to break through the lines, but the Czech fortifications proved to be too difficult to break through, and they therefore decided to set up positions along the line, waiting for the artillery and air force to do its job.
Similarily, the Fourteenth Army began its ground offensive in southern Moravia at 8:00. They secured the border stations without meeting serious resistance, but a few kilometres inland they ran into the border fortifications running through the German-Czech border in southern Moravia. After similarily attempting to break through the lines, they had no other choice to temporarily halt the offensive, in order to let the artillery and the Air Force to exhaust the defenders.
In the first two weeks of the campaign, they only gained a few tactical victories in the well-fortificated border regions of northern Bohemia and in southern and northern Moravia, and therefore did not manage to obtain a major breakthrough, mostly due to lack of coordination between the infantry and the armoured units. While the Germans struggled to break through the defensive lines, the Sudetendeutsche Freikorps sabotaged bridges, positions and when possible, performed guerilla raids on Czech soldiers.
Despite several Czech tactical victories, the Czech forces defending the border fortifications were exausted by a week of continuous fighting, and were soon forced to retreat, as the Germans was breaking through the defensive lines.
[edit] Phase 2: Breakthrough
Their first major breakthrough was achieved on October 14. At 8:00, a massive artillery barrage by 105 and 150 mm howitzers, supported by Junkers Ju-87 Stukas, bombarded the Czech fortifications, destroying several of the bunkers completely. The saturation lasted for almost two hours. At 10:30, infantry, supported by assault engineers and tanks attacked the line at a wide front, while the artillery hindered reinforcements to reaching the defensive line. While the Pz.Kpfw. IV infantry tanks broke holes in the bunkers, soldiers and pioniers armed with flamethrowers poured into the bunkers, and after 2 hours of feroucious fighting they got their first breakthrough: the men of the Panzer-Regiment 3 of the 2. Panzer-Division finally eliminated the last bunker at 12:05, and now the tanks began pouring into the Czech hinterland, creating confusion and panic among the retreating soldiers. The other units of the Fourteenth Army soon followed in suit, breaking throug the line at different locations within that hour. The soldiers stationed at the defensive line, seeing that they now were being outflanked, were forced to retreat in order to regroup with the other Czech units farther inland.
Following the breakthrough in southern Moravia, the German Second Army broke through the Czech lines on October 15 and then headed for their target city of Olomouc. Later that day the Eighth Army broke through the lines in northern Bohemia, after the Czechs had retreated southwards and taken up positions around Prague and other secondary strongholds such as Mladá Boleslav.
In southern Bohemia, the Twelfth Army had managed to advance 15 km in the first five days of the invasion, but ran then into the fortifications, and several attempts were made in order to break through it, but without success. On October 16, a breakthrough was finally achieved when the 1. Gebirgs-Division and the 27. Infanterie-Division broke through southwest of České Budějovice. As the Germans began to break through at other points as well, the Czech border guard units were ordered to fall back to České Budějovice or other positions in southern Bohemia.
The breakthrough came as a shock to the Czech high command and as a blessing to the German high command. The defensive line had held the Germans out for a longer period of time than the Czech high command had anticipated, but now they had to deal with the multiple breakthrough through their lines, and all reserves were ordered to the most critical sectors of operations.
By October 16, the Czech forces were in retreat and General of the Army Ludvík Krejčí ordered all the troops to fall back to the secondary lines of defences.
[edit] Aftermath
The battle was expensive on both sides, but mainly for the Germans, who tried to break through over and over again without success. The number of German soldiers killed in action has never been determined.
The Czech border fortifications proved to be a real challenge to the German troops, who suffered severely from it, and the the defensive line had held the Germans out for a longer period of time than the Czech high command had anticipated, something that continued the war for months to come.
[edit] See also
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| Battles: | |||
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The Border - Ostrava - Karlovy Vary - Otročín - Bezděkov - Želetava - Šumperk - Siege of Plzeň - Ivančice - Otnice, Bošovice and Velké Hostěrádky - Brno - Hungarian offensive - Bratislava - Michalovce - Košice - Frühlingserwachen - Olomouc - Siege of Prague | |||
| Contemporaneous military operations: | |||
