Don't bother , Kevin , even Rolf Michaelis wrote in his book about the SS-FalliBtl. total BS regarding Operation Panzerfaust ...
See this Thread for more on Michaelis and Skorzeny :
http://forum.balsi.de/index.php?topic=210.0
Jan-Hendrik
What happened to the Czech Army?
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Jan-Hendrik
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big_buddha
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sid guttridge
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Henrik Andersson
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dis somebody die?
Bohemia-Moravia have a small army. 7000 i think, but somebody die in action fore Hitler?
I think most of them desurted from the army in the last period of the war.
I think most of them desurted from the army in the last period of the war.
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sid guttridge
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Hi Henrik,
The army of the Protectorate (Vladni Vojsko) was, as you say, set at about 7,000 men.
It had twelve infantry battalions but no specialist units outside them.
President Hacha three times offered to send a Czech volunteer force to the Eastern Front. This would presumably have been based on the Vladni Vojsko. Hacha's reasoning was that if such a Czech force was accepted it would have similar status to the French and Spanish volunteer units and would therefore give the Czechs an independent profile within what looked as though it was going to be an Axis-dominated post-war Europe.
However, Hitler had no intention of falling for this promotion of an independent Czech identity within Axis Europe and rejected all three offers.
By mid 1944 the Protectorate was the site of some of the last major Axis armament plants at extreme Allied bombing range. As the Vladni Vojsko was thought to be increasingly unreliable and a threat to them, eleven of its twelve battalions were therefore sent to Italy to act as construction troops. There they suffered a nearly a thousand desertions to the Italian partisans and Switzerland, so their small arms were taken off them in late 1944. Several dozen Czechs died during the Italan Campaign from Allied bombing, Partisan attack, accident, illness, suicide, or execution by the Germans. At the end of the war they were titled as "1st Czechoslovak Division in Italy" by the government-in-exile in London and were repatriated as Allied troops.
The 1st Battalion of the Vladni Vojsko had stayed in Prague as Hacha's presidential bodyguard unit. It took part in the Czech uprising against the Germans in early May 1945.
Shortly after WWII, before the Communist takeover in 1948, a book was published in Prague detailing the Vladni Vojsko's experiences in Italy. It includes some poor quality photos. In the last two or three years a new paperback book dedicated to the Vladni Vojsko has been published in Czech. There also used to be a good website dedicated to it, but I think this disappeared a couple of years ago. (I have also made earlier references to the Vladni Vojsko on Feldgrau - see the Search facility above).
Cheers,
Sid.
The army of the Protectorate (Vladni Vojsko) was, as you say, set at about 7,000 men.
It had twelve infantry battalions but no specialist units outside them.
President Hacha three times offered to send a Czech volunteer force to the Eastern Front. This would presumably have been based on the Vladni Vojsko. Hacha's reasoning was that if such a Czech force was accepted it would have similar status to the French and Spanish volunteer units and would therefore give the Czechs an independent profile within what looked as though it was going to be an Axis-dominated post-war Europe.
However, Hitler had no intention of falling for this promotion of an independent Czech identity within Axis Europe and rejected all three offers.
By mid 1944 the Protectorate was the site of some of the last major Axis armament plants at extreme Allied bombing range. As the Vladni Vojsko was thought to be increasingly unreliable and a threat to them, eleven of its twelve battalions were therefore sent to Italy to act as construction troops. There they suffered a nearly a thousand desertions to the Italian partisans and Switzerland, so their small arms were taken off them in late 1944. Several dozen Czechs died during the Italan Campaign from Allied bombing, Partisan attack, accident, illness, suicide, or execution by the Germans. At the end of the war they were titled as "1st Czechoslovak Division in Italy" by the government-in-exile in London and were repatriated as Allied troops.
The 1st Battalion of the Vladni Vojsko had stayed in Prague as Hacha's presidential bodyguard unit. It took part in the Czech uprising against the Germans in early May 1945.
Shortly after WWII, before the Communist takeover in 1948, a book was published in Prague detailing the Vladni Vojsko's experiences in Italy. It includes some poor quality photos. In the last two or three years a new paperback book dedicated to the Vladni Vojsko has been published in Czech. There also used to be a good website dedicated to it, but I think this disappeared a couple of years ago. (I have also made earlier references to the Vladni Vojsko on Feldgrau - see the Search facility above).
Cheers,
Sid.
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mightythor99
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i was lucky enough to interview a sudeten-german, ..........
he enlisted/drafted into the wehrmacht, and ended up being one of the lucky ones to be captured in stalingrad. he was taken to siberia, and put into a harsh prison camp, where the guards joyfully beat to death anyone they wanted to, whenever they wanted to do it. he was looked upon as being "different", in that he tried to, and succeded in learning to speak russian, as well as being from a country that was "taken over" by the germans, and "forced" to fight for the nazi's. other then that, he would have suffered the same fate as most everyone else from his group. he also said that, the only thing that kept him alive, was the fact that he would follow around the horses they used for working, and when they would take a crap, he would pick the apple seeds out of the poop. he said, "it was simple......everyone who refused to eat the apple seeds, died from starvation."
we dont know how good we have it today folks.
he was just one of those kind of old looking german guys, that you would see any and everywhere in germany, and pass on the street, never knowing what all had happened in his life. i wouldnt have ever known, except that i bought a photo album off of him, from someone else's antique shop. he liked to work in this one shop, he loved woodwork, and polishing wooden desks, etc.
ask old people questions...............for some day they wont be around to ask any longer!!
we dont know how good we have it today folks.
he was just one of those kind of old looking german guys, that you would see any and everywhere in germany, and pass on the street, never knowing what all had happened in his life. i wouldnt have ever known, except that i bought a photo album off of him, from someone else's antique shop. he liked to work in this one shop, he loved woodwork, and polishing wooden desks, etc.
ask old people questions...............for some day they wont be around to ask any longer!!
I am interested in buying / trading for photo albums, photo groupings, diaries, feldpost groupings,etc, from any country in the world, any army/navy, etc, mostly 20th century!!