Forces
Accounts of the exact numbers of combatants vary. At first, the rebel Slovak partisan forces consisted of an estimated 18,000 soldiers. The total increased to 47,000 after mobilization on 9 September 1944, and later to 60,000, plus 18,000 partisans from over 30 countries. The Slovak Insurgent Air Force had a small number of mostly obsolete planes.
In addition to Slovak forces, the combatants included various other groups: escaped French prisoners of war, Soviet partisans, and Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operatives. The Slovak side had to use mostly biplanes and improvised armored trains to fight against the better equipped German weapons. In addition to Soviet aid, United States B-17 Flying Fortress bombers landed at Tri Duby airfield on 7 October 1944 and brought supplies and OSS agents. They also took out 25 Allied pilots shot down over Slovakia and five French partisans.
After the uprising started, Czechoslovak officials in exile discussed the possibility of bringing in Czechoslovak units deployed on the Eastern Front with the Soviet Army. Two such units were brought it. On 15–17 September 1944, the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Regiment landed at Zolná airfield near Zvolen with 21 Lavochkin La-5 fighters. Later the 2nd Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade was transferred from the Carpathians, arriving 25 September to 15 October.
Read more about this topic: Slovak National Uprising
Famous quotes containing the word forces:
“True Shandeism, think what you will against it, opens the heart and lungs, and like all those affections which partake of its nature, it forces the blood and other vital fluids of the body to run freely thro’ its channels, and makes the wheel of life run long and chearfully round.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“And whoever forces himself to love anybody
begets a murderer in his own body.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail—its roof may shake—the wind may blow through it—the storm may enter—the rain may enter—but the King of England cannot enter!—all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!”
—William Pitt, The Elder, Lord Chatham (1708–1778)