¿Í´Ï | 2006-02-14 09:08:27
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In 1933 Adolf Hitler won the elections in Germany. The young Czechoslovakia had to secure its borders against a surprise German attack. There were two concepts how to do it. The first one -build large mobile army, and the second oone -build border fortersses. The first one had a big disadvantage. Czechoslovakia was too small to build a mobile army powerful enough to stop the bigger German army. However the second one also had disadvantages. If the fort line was broken, there wouldn't be enough strength to stop the enemy units entering Czechoslovakia. The second one won in the end, because the fortresses were built with an idea, that they could stop the enemy as long as alied forces (France and Great Britain) entered the war with an attack against Germany from the west. Czech engineers were influenced by the French Maginot Line (the Maginot Line was a system of French border fortresses, which was building from the early thirties to the begining of WWII), so the first types of the Czechoslovakian fortresses look much like the French types. There were two main types of the forts - light and heavy (blockhouses). |
The Czechoslovakian army command needed a better type of light fort, so the ingeneers designed a new type called vz.37. This type is in fact a miniature heavy object. These forts were built mainly in chains (one to three chains) in locations where enemy tank attack was impossible. They were also built between the heavy forts to defend areas which couldn't be covered by weapons of the heavy forts. There were plans to build some for a redoubt in the interior and for the defence of Prague, but only few of these planned were built. The Czechs called and still call these types "rop? (ropik)", because ROP (ROP) -Reditelstv?opev?vac?h prac?(Command for fortification works) cooperated construction of all forts. |
Heavy forts were built near the border with Germany and in some places in Slovakia near the border with Hungary. They were intended to stop enemy's main tank and infantry attacks. They were built in chains (space between forts is about 300-600 m). In some places artillery fortresses were built to provide the chain of independent forts with artillery support In Czechoslovakia there were built about 250 blockhouses between the years 1935 and 1938. Every fort was individually designed, so there are as many modifications as forts built, but we can divide them by their functions, shapes or by calasses of resistance. Shapes of early the types of the heavy forts were influenced by French types, but later there was a new type better suited for the Czech concept of defencence. |
After Germany occupied the Czech republic (Slovakia became "independent"),the German army tested the resistance of the forts. Many blockhouses were damaged by firing trials. There had been tests on some blockhouse's bells of special weapons which were used in attack at Eben Emael. Some steel components were removed from blockhouses and they were used in the Atlantic Wall (weapon L1 and its embrasures). All light forts in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia were destroyed by the Germans. Some blockhouses near Ostrava and Opava were used at the end of WW2 by German units against the approaching Red Army. In '50s the Czech company "n.p. Kovo쉜ot" ripped out remaining steel bells, cupolas and embrasures. Only a few of undammaged blockhouses remain - mainly near civilian houses which could have been damaged by explosion. All fortresses became military stores or bases (exept "Bouda"). Many blockhouses became storage place for waste. Nowdays there are a few museums, but majority of blockhouses and light forts are in very bad condition and sometimes it is quite difficult to find even a blockhouse in impenetrable woods. |
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