Slovak National Uprising - Preliminaries

Preliminaries

Edvard Beneš, leader of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, initiated the preparations for a possible revolt in 1943, when he made first contacts with the dissident elements of the Slovak Army. In December 1943, various groups that would be involved with the uprising—the government in exile, Czechoslovak democrats and Communists, and the Slovak army—formed the underground Slovak National Council, and signed the so-called Christmas Treaty, a joint declaration to recognize Beneš's authority and to recreate Czechoslovakia after the war. The council was responsible for creating the preparatory phase of the Uprising.

In March 1944, Slovak army Lieutenant Colonel Ján Golian took charge of the preparations. Conspirators stockpiled money, ammunition and other supplies in military bases in central and eastern Slovakia. The rebelling forces called themselves Czechoslovak Forces of the Interior and the First Czechoslovak Army. Approximately 3,200 Slovak soldiers deserted and joined partisan groups or the Soviet Army. In April 1944 Slovak Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escaped from Auschwitz and eventually spoke about the horrors of German death camps.

In summer 1944 partisans intensified their war against German occupation forces, mainly in the mountains of north-central Slovakia. In July, Soviet troops in Ukraine and Poland began to advance towards Slovakia. By August 1944 Soviet troops were at Krosno, Poland, within 40 kilometers of the northeastern Slovak border.

Two heavily armed divisions of the Slovak Army together with the entire eastern Slovak Air Force were deliberately relocated to Prešov in north-eastern Slovakia in summer 1944 to execute one of two planned options to begin the uprising. The two options were:

1. Capture Dukla Pass (joining Poland and Slovakia through the Carpathian Mountains) when the Soviet (1st Ukrainian Front under Marshall Ivan Konev) arrived.

1. As ordered by Colonel Golian, capture Dukla pass immediately and hold the pass against any German forces until the Soviet Army could arrive.

Colonel Viliam Talský was Chief of Staff over the two divisions. He had agreed in advance with the insurrectional army leadership and the uprising planning committee of the Slovak National Council to execute either of these two plans, depending on the circumstances he faced. On 23 August 1944 neighboring Romania changed sides to support the Allies. On 27 August 1944 in Martin, a group of Communist partisans under Soviet direction killed 30 members of a German military mission leaving Romania. The next day, German troops began to occupy Slovakia to put down the rebellion. German arrangements for such occupation were done a few weeks earlier.

At 19:00 hours on 29 August 1944 Slovak Defence Minister General Ferdinand Čatloš announced on state radio that Germany had occupied Slovakia. At 20:00, Golian sent the coded message to all units to begin the Uprising. But instead of adhering to the agreed plan, on 30 August Colonel Talský and the entire eastern Slovak Air Force flew to a prearranged landing zone in Poland to join the Soviet Army, and abandoned the two divisions at Prešov. The two divisions, left in chaos and without leadership, were quickly disarmed on the afternoon of 30 August without a single shot. Consequently, the uprising commenced prematurely and lost a crucial component of their plan as well as the two most heavily armed divisions.