Ludvík Krejčí (Fall Grün)
From Alternative History
| Ludvík Krejčí | |
 Official portrait. | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance: |  Austria-Hungary (to 1917) Czechoslovak legion (to 1919) Czechoslovakia (to 1939)
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| Service/branch: |  K.u.k. Armee Československé legie Československá armáda
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| Years of service: | 1910–1939 |
| Rank: |   General of the Army
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| Battles/wars: | First World War (1914-1918) Russian Civil War (1918-1919) Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1938-1939) |
| Commands: | Chief of the Army |
| Awards: | Czechoslovak War Cross (1914-1918) Legion d'Honneur Czechoslovak War Cross (1938-1939) |
| Biography | |
| Born: | August 17, 1890 Tuřanech u Brna, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
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| Nationality: | Czechoslovak |
| Occupation: | Officer, forest official |
| Signature: | 
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Ludvík Krejčí (born August 17, 1890) was a prominent four-star general of the Czechoslovak Army, a veteran of the Czechoslovak Legion and the Chief of Staff of the Czechoslovak Army from 1933 to 1938. On September 23, 1938 he was appointed Chief of the Main Headquarters of the Czechoslovak Army, and was responsible for the reoganization and mobilization of the Czechoslovak Army during the Munich Crisis and the subsequent Axis invasion of Czechoslovakia between October 1, 1938 and March 15, 1939.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and military career
He was born on August 17, 1890, in Tuřanech u Brna, a town near Brno. He was the youngest of eight children of a farmer from an old farmer family. He studied at the Gymnasium in Vyškov, and from 1907 in the professional school for forest economy in Písek. After graduation, he joined the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1910. After one-year military service in Brünn he was appointed to an official in the low service of the forest office in Slavonia. Already in July 1914, he was transferred to the 4. Bosnien-Herzegowina-Regiment, where he climbed up the ranks from company commander up to the battalion commander. He fought in Serbia and Montenegro, Albania and later on the Italian and the Romanian fronts. In May, 1917, he was captured by the Russians and already three months later he entered in Borispol the Czechoslovak Legion. As a First Lieutenant of the reserve and with the honouring "Signum laudis" he was one of the highest ranked officer who joined the legion.
[edit] Service in the Czechoslovak Legion
In October 1917, he became in Pirjatino first the second-in-command of the 1st battalion of 6. Hanna-Schützenregiments, later the commander of the whole regiment. This regiment was counted as the best in the Czechoslovak Legion and was also present in most fights. His fame began with the victory in the fight in Bachmatsch in the Ukraine in March 1918, where he was the commander. During the next two years Krejčí proved himself in the defence of the Sibirian Railway. With this railway line the legionaires should be transported to Vladivostok and from there then to the French battlefield. During the transport to Vladivostok, known as "Sibirian Anabase“, Ludvík Krejčí became commander of one of the units of the 6. Regiment. Later he was promoted (already then colonel) to the commander of the 2nd Division of our legions in Russia (from Milan Rastislav Stefánik). He commanded the so-called Kungur front in the Urals, after the retreat to the Magistrale the segment Omsk-Novonikolajevsk-Atschinsk. Under his guidance his division came without appreciable losses to Vladivostok. Krejčí even led the transport of the legionaries on the ship "President Grant".
[edit] Interwar years
He returned to the young Czechoslovak Republic on June 18, 1920. After his return he concluded the War Academy in Paris, then at home he became the commander of the infantry division in Hradec Králové in the rank of the Brigadier General.
Between 1932-33 he was the commander of the Košice Military Command. President Masaryk promoted the capable, honest and experienced officer on November 30, 1933 to the Chief of General Staff of the Czechoslovak armed forces and in March 1934, to the General of the Army. Krejčí was aware of the German threat, which continued to build up its army, navy and airforce, and worked with determination on the strengthening of the defensive possibilities of the Czechoslovak Republic. Under him the army was motorised and a system was built by border defence arrangements (fortresses). Even Adolf Hitler confirmed the effectiveness of this system. During the mobilisation in September 1938, Krejčí was promoted by President Beneš to the Chief of the Army. General Krejčí was one of the many Czechoslovak generals which deeply disapproved the agreement.
[edit] Munich Crisis
[edit] Invasion of Czechoslovakia
- Main article: Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1938-1939)
In the early hours of October 1, 1938, Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia.
During the whole conflict, Krejčí worked closely with both his Chief of Staff, Gen. Bohuslav Fiala, the Military High Command as well as Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Jan Syrový. While he spent most of his time in the headquarters of the Military High Command in Prague, he also made many visits to the front as long as the situation allowed it. His military and oganisational skills made him one of the prominent figures of the Czechoslovak defence aginst the Axis invasion.
The Czechoslovak Army managed to stop the initial offensive following the decisive victories at Ivančice, Otnice, Bošovice and Velké Hostěrádky as well as the defence of Plzeň. The Czechoslovak Army, supported by Soviet reinforcements, managed to hold off the German and Hungarian invaders for five months, but the defence, albeit fierce and effective, was ultimately futile. When the Germans launched their spring offensive on March 1, 1939 the Czech defences collapsed due to lack of ammunition, supplies, equipment and manpower. 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, the commander of the I. armáda "Havlíček", and Brig. Gen. Langer, the commander of the defence of Prague, 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".
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's Ruzyně Airport. Prime Minister 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 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.
In the early morning of March 14, 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. The next morning the remaining Czech forces capitulated to the Germans and Hungarians, thus ending the five-month conflict.
[edit] Final years
[edit] Decorations
[edit] See also
[edit] Positions held
| Military offices | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Office established | Chief of the Main Headquarters of the Czechoslovak Army September 23, 1938 - March 15, 1939 | Office abolished |
| Preceded by: Jan Syrový | Chief of Staff of the Czechoslovak Army 1933 - 1938 | Succeeded by: Bohuslav Fiala | |
