Today's blog post is going to bore you if you are not into history, particularly military history, although as a history major at university this is fun for me. This is the Czech Army Museum in Prague, and the best thing about it is it's absolutely free. Visitors are greeted with a tank out the front - pretty cool huh?
The Czech military history is quite interesting, because of it's geopolitical situation in Europe, where it has Germany to the West, Poland to the North East, Austria to the South, and Russia further east. The population of the Czech Republic is about 10 million, and Germany 80 million, so you can see a vast difference in resources already. In WW1 this area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire aligned with Germany, and after it's defeat, Czechoslovakia was created. In WW2 Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany as part of that dreadful appeasement of Hitler prior to the invasion of Poland. Note, at the time 3 million of the population was ethnically German.Today the Czech Republic is part of NATO and it has served in Afghanistan and the Balkans.
The museum has a quite good WW1 exhibition. The machinegun (pictured above) has been incorrectly blamed for the development of trench warfare. Artillery was the main killer in WW1 with around 70% of casualties caused by the big guns. Initially machine guns were not widely available, expensive, and generals did not have complete faith in them.
Besides the magazine bolt action rifle, like this British Lee Enfield (pictured above), perhaps the best rifle of the war could fire at 15-25 rpm depending on the skill of the user. When the Germans first encountered British riflemen they incorrectly reported it was machine gun fire.
These artillery shells were the real reason trench warfare developed, particularly the shrapnel shell in the middle, where you can see all those metal balls inside. The shrapnel shell, the most common ordance used in the early stages exploded above the heads of troops and shot those balls downwards like a giant shotgun. The only way to stay safe was to dig a trench and dugouts, hence a line of trenches quickly developed from Switzerland to the English Channel.
The exhibition does a good job of explaining what trench warfare was like, and they have an amazing collection of firearms from both WW1 and WW2, some I've only ever read about it. The Czechs are skilled machinists and still manufacture quality firearms in Brno like the CZ75 pistol, and CZ range of rifles. They also invented the Bren gun familar to my British Commonwealth readers.
In WW2 Czechs fought with a number of armies including the British, the French Foreign Legion, the German and Russian armies. They also fought in the Czech Resistance and famously assassinated SS General Reinhard Heydrich, 'The butcher of Prague', in a daring paratroop operation. His boss, Admiral Canaris, head of German Intelligence was secretly working for the British Secret Service, and there were well founded fears that Heydrich was starting to suspect Canaris involvement and would replace him as head of German Intelligence. Canaris and his Deputy along with most of the officers of the German Resistance were subsequently killed in 1944 and 1945 after the failue of the July 20th 1944 bomb plot to kill Hitler. Canaris's wife received a US pension for the rest of her life. The assassination of Heydrich, which cost the Czech para's lives and many in the Czech Resistance had a strategic affect and saved thousands of allied lives, because we were able to keep Canaris and the German Resistance in power and misleading Hitler, particularly about the location and timing of D Day. They are rightly remembered as heroes in the Czech Republic, and we should remember their sacrifice too.
The success of D Day enabled the allies to advance to the Elbe River in East Germany, and Patton's Third Army to Pilsen in the Czech Republic (where Pilsener was developed), and subsequently establish Liberalism in Europe with help from the United States and Marshall Aid that allowed Europe to recover from that terrible conflict. However, Czechoslovakia, remained behind the 'Iron Curtain' Incidentally General Patton, perhaps the best allied general of WW2, wanted to keep going and liberate all of Eastern Europe from the Soviets. Perhaps he was right?
Travel Info
Czech Army Museum
website: http://www.vhu.cz/english-summary/
U Památníku 2, Praha 3 – Žižkov, Phone No: +420 973 204 900, +420 973 204 924. The Army Museum Žižkov is open every day except Monday, from 10.00 AM to 6 PM. Admission is free of charge. To get to the museum, take bus 133, 175 or 207 from the Florenc underground station, stop U Památníku or 10 minutes walk from Florenc station.
Recommended Reading:
Bassett, Richard, Hitler's Spy Chief - details Admiral Canaris, head of German Intelligence, and other officers of German Resistance to Hitler in WW2, including numerous failed assassination attempts including the 20th July bomb as depicted in the film Valkyrie.
Howard, Michael, War in European History
McNeill, William, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society Since A.D. 1000
Parker, Geoffrey, War and the World and the Fate of Continents, 1450-2000
WW1
Keegan, John, The First World War.
WW2
Von Manstein, Erich. Lost Victories - this book by the German General who planned 'The Blitzkrieg of France' completely changed the way I thought about WW2.
Creveld, Martin van. Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009 - amateurs study tactics, pros study logistics.
