May Uprising of Czech People was an armed uprising of the Czech people against the German occupiers during World War II in the Czech Republic, which took place in early May 1945. About 130,000 people actively participated in it in the current-day Czech Republic, plus 14,000 partisans (a significant part of whom were of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nationality). Another 100,000 people helped build barricades in Prague.
Preparations
The Czech lands were the longest-occupied territory in Europe. Domestic resistance began to form almost immediately after the invasion, with an early uprising against the occupiers expected, but the rapid advance of German forces after the outbreak of war soon demonstrated how unrealistic were these plans. In the early years of the war, resistance fighters in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia focused primarily on supplying intelligence to British intelligence. The resistance was supported by paratroopers sent to the Protectorate from both the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Perhaps the most significant manifestation of the resistance was the assassination of the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak paratroopers sent from Great Britain.
Since 1944, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London had been considering preparing an armed uprising in the Protectorate. The paratroopers were to organize an underground army, to which weapons would then be airlifted. Most of the landings that were sent in this way were, however, arrested or failed for other reasons. After the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, the exiled Ministry of National Defense realized the impossibility of organizing an uprising in this way. In August 1944, an uprising broke out in neighboring Slovakia, but German troops suppressed it within two months.
Nevertheless, there were increasingly significant manifestations of guerrilla warfare on Czech territory and penetrations of partisan groups into the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In the second half of 1944, the resistance organization Council of Three played an increasingly important role. Important partisan groups included the Jan Žižka Partisan Brigade, the Jermak, Miroslav Tyrš, Jan Kozina and Mistr Jan Hus partisan units.
From the autumn of 1944, the resistance organization Czech National Council (ČNR) began to form. It began to prepare an armed uprising against the Germans. Independently of them, a group around former officers František Slunečko, Karel Kutlvašr and František Bürger prepared the uprising. The two groups did not know about each other until the outbreak of the uprising. Both groups also lacked soldiers and weapons. The weapons, radios, and other military equipment that the government-in-exile had promised to deliver to the partisans by air were not delivered for a long time. The Soviets also initially refused to supply weapons. It was not until mid-March that the British began to supply the rebels with weapons, but the deliveries were hampered by many problems. By 5 May 1945, only about 1,600 men had been armed with them, which was insufficient for the uprising. The Soviet Union also supplied weapons on 27 April, and another shipment was sent during the uprising.
Other partisan groups began to emerge mainly in March and April 1945, when the partisan struggle against the German occupiers reached its peak, with open partisan warfare taking place, especially in the territories of eastern and western Moravia (Wallachia and Vysočina).German columns were increasingly attacked, fuel was released from tankers, trains were derailed and bridges were destroyed by explosions. For example, on April 10, 1945, the important Brno–Jihlava railway line was severely damaged, which was not repaired until the end of the war. During this action, a German military transport was blown up, killing or injuring almost 200 military and other people. [source?] In addition to diversionary actions on the railways, Nazi garrisons, ammunition depots, military facilities were attacked, and electrical, telephone and telegraph lines were interrupted.
The outbreak of the uprising
By the end of April 1945, Soviet troops had liberated part of Moravia in two operations – the Ostrava and Bratislava-Brno operations – which, together with the later news of Hitler’s death, provided grounds for open resistance. The uprising began on May 1 in Přerov, when a false report about Germany’s capitulation spread. The German and Hungarian troops were disarmed, and the National Committee took power. The uprising spread to Olomouc and surrounding villages on the same day, but SS units intervened there. However, the insurgents managed to stop the transport or liquidation of industrial equipment and supplies that the Germans wanted to take from the Ostrava, Vsetín and Zlín regions. On May 2, Nymburk, Poděbrady, Chlumec nad Cidlinou and Úpice rose up, the next day Semily, Železný Brod, Turnov, Jilemnice, Stará and Nová Paka, Příbram, Beroun, Vizovice, on May 4 Vsetín and Kladno, on May 5 Louny, Jindřichův Hradec, Rokycany, Klatovy, Domažlice and others. Anti-occupation demonstrations were recorded in approximately a thousand places, which consisted of the hoisting of Czechoslovak flags, the removal of German signs, the destruction of orientation signs, demonstrations to celebrate liberation, protest actions against the occupation authorities, etc. There were also strikes in factories and the confiscation of weapons from arms factories in favor of the insurgents. Negotiations on the takeover of power took place in more than 120 places in the Protectorate. In some areas, the uprising flared up thanks to the activities of partisan groups, which increasingly entered into open combat. For example, in Vsetín on May 4, the Jan Žižka partisan brigade attacked the Germans, who had begun to carry out destructive work in the city, which had to be stopped. The city was liberated after 4 p.m. by units of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. Partisan groups also played a major role in the Giant Mountains and other places.
Uprising
On May 5, an uprising broke out in the capital, Prague. The Czech National Council issued a declaration on the end of the Protectorate and the takeover of government and executive power. Demonstrations were also held here at first, but they soon turned into open resistance. Insurgents in Prague and throughout Bohemia and Moravia seized weapons, occupied post offices, railways and important road junctions. Thousands of insurgents from among the Czech population joined the resistance and partisan groups; former soldiers, gendarmerie, and liberated Soviet prisoners of war working as slave laborers in the Protectorate. The occupiers were prevented from transporting machinery, equipment and means of transport to Germany, so as to prevent the destruction of factories, etc. (ARLZ plan - scorched earth tactics). The insurgents prevented the smooth supply of the front and the organized retreat of the Wehrmacht.
The uprising, which broke out in 37 cities and 240 villages, and involved 130,000 people plus 14,000 partisans, received a severe counterattack in some places – German troops began to occupy important roads, streets, crossroads, railway stations and post offices, a state of emergency was declared, the occupiers took and murdered hostages in order to intimidate the Czech population. Their goal was to prevent the creation of a continuous insurgent territory. Nevertheless, the insurgents managed to tie down a significant force of German troops, which could not be used to suppress the uprising in Prague. The countryside supplied Prague not only with food, but also with medical supplies and light weapons; roadblocks were built and bridges were blown up to make transport as difficult as possible for the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS units. The resistance of the population continued in the countryside, where it was constantly expanding. In many places there was open fighting, in others only sabotage. The Germans increasingly resorted to murder and massacre of Czech residents, who were taken hostage or executed as a warning, not only in Prague, but in practically the entire occupied territory of Bohemia and Moravia.
Meanwhile, the American 3rd Army under General George S. Patton was advancing into Czechoslovakia from the west. By the end of April, Patton had already received orders to secure the Czechoslovak border all the way to Austria. On the evening of May 4, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, telephoned Patton and gave him permission to continue advancing into the interior of Czechoslovakia. Patton's army, which numbered about 540,000 soldiers, set out the next morning. In places it encountered stiff resistance, in others the Germans quickly surrendered, fearing Soviet capture. The Soviets did not agree with the American advance, but they themselves continued to Prague and fought fierce battles with the Germans. When Patton learned of the fighting in Prague on May 5, that evening and informed his superior, General Bradley, that he would capture Prague with his troops by the next day. Bradley disagreed, wanting General Eisenhower to decide on this action. Bradley ultimately forbade Patton from advancing further, and Eisenhower reassured General Antonov that he had ordered his troops not to advance beyond the Karlovy Vary–Plzeň–České Budějovice line. At 2 p.m. on May 6, Soviet forces from Dresden, Brno, and Krnov set out for Prague. However, the insurgents were not informed of this advance. After much hesitation, units of the Russian Liberation Army, the so-called Vlasovites, also joined the fighting against the Germans in Prague. They captured several Prague districts, including the Ruzyně Airport, but after a rift with the communist members of the Czech National Council (for example, Josef Smrkovský called the Vlasovites traitors and enemies), they withdrew from Prague. The Western Allies did not provide Prague with any assistance – the Soviets banned the promised air deliveries of weapons and ammunition, as they did not want any foreign aircraft in their territory, and when a delegation of the American army arrived in Prague on the evening of 7 May, they only informed the rebels that Germany had signed the surrender and that the Americans would not come to Prague. The Soviets also banned the involvement of Czechoslovak airmen.
The fighting continued even after Germany signed the unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945 (it was to take effect at midnight on 8 May), when German troops tried to surrender to the American army, as there were considerable fears of Soviet capture. These battles were led mainly by Waffen SS units, but it was not uncommon for Wehrmacht units to also participate. On the morning of 7 May, Hitler's successor Karl Dönitz ordered Marshal Ferdinand Schörner to retreat to the west with his army group. The main effort of Schörner's forces was to reach American captivity. However, the retreat was slowed down by the need to bypass the fighting Prague, the troops had to use side roads, and there were traffic jams.
On the evening of 7 May, an American military delegation arrived in Prague and met with representatives of the Bartoš command. However, it only brought news of the German surrender and the message that the Americans could not come to Prague's aid. Another American delegation arrived in Prague on the night of May 8. Its destination was the Velichovky spa, where Marshal Schörner's staff was located. In Prague, the members of the delegation negotiated with both Bartoš's headquarters and General Toussaint, the commander of the German forces in Prague. They asked him to stop the fighting in Prague and help convince Schörner to give the order to abandon resistance, since the Third Reich had already surrendered. It is unclear whether the delegation in Velichovky actually met Schörner - according to some sources, yes, but according to others, Schörner had already fled. However, the German generals refused to stop the fighting, citing the loss of communication with subordinate units and were determined to force their way into American captivity by force of arms. On the return trip, the American military mission avoided Prague. In Kralupy and Český Brod, she prevented the Germans from murdering Czech hostages.