Slovaks on the Eastern Front
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2006

In an earlier installment, we looked at Lithuania’s refusal to join German aggression against Poland in 1939, and how a different choice might have changed the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union as shown in our Defiant Russia game. But where Lithuania refused, on Poland’s southern border Slovakia joined in with enthusiasm, and the Slovak Army would fight alongside the Germans again in 1941.

Slovakia’s first brief period of independence began with the slow destruction of the Czecho-Slovak state in 1938 and 1939. For centuries the lands that would be known as “Slovakia” had been part of the Hungarian crown lands, and were ceded to the new Czechoslovakia following the First World War. Czech claims were based on ethnic and linguisitic similarities, but Hungary and Poland had their own historic and ethnic claims on the region and the small Slovakian intelligentsia did not rest easily under Prague’s rule.

Slovak troopers pose with a machine gun on an anti-aircraft mount, 1941.

Taking advantage of the September 1938 Munich crisis, Slovak separatists pressed their demands for autonomy on the central government. Czech President Eduard Benes resigned following the cession of the Sudeten border region to Germany, and his successor accepted establishment of a Slovak government in October. Two weeks later, the Germans informed the Slovaks that they would have to cede about 1/4 of the country’s land area to Hungary, along with small border regions to Poland and a small plot to Germany. In March, at Adolf Hitler’s personal prodding and promise of protection, the Slovaks declared their full independence. This brought an end to Czech independence as well — the British and French declared that their guarantees made so solemnly at Munich only applied to “Czechoslovakia,” and as this entity no longer existed following Slovak independence, the Germans were free to annex Bohemia and Moravia (today’s Czech Republic).

The Slovaks inherited a large amount of former Czech army weaponry, though the Germans confiscated about half of it. The remainder left them enough to arm a peacetime cadre of about 15,000 men with reserves of another 50,000. The Slovak Army fought the Hungarians in March and April 1939, and mobilized three infantry divisions to fight alongside the Germans against Poland in September. But Slovakia did not formally join the Axis until November 1940.

Unlike the Finns and Romanians, Slovakian officers were not included in the early plans for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. But Slovakia threw itself into the campaign to a greater extent than any other member of the Axis. Some preparations began in May 1941, when a German corps moved into Slovakia for the upcoming campaign, but mobilization was not fully declared until 22 June. The army called up all of its 65,000 men, and organized them into a small Rapid Brigade and a corps of two infantry divisions, plus supporting artillery and engineer units. The Rapid Brigade crossed into Soviet terriutory on 23 June and the “Slovak Field Corps” followed on the 30th.

Slovak tank crews and their new LT-38 machines.

The Field Corps had severely limited motor transport, and moved forward very slowly. While the Rapid Brigade fought a number of engagements with the Soviets, the Field Corps only arrived long after the fighting had ended and spent its time collecting Soviet weapons left on the battlefield and performing limited security duties. Slovakia’s War Minister, Ferdinand Catlos, served as commander of the “Slovakian Army Group” but made only one brief visit to his troops during this period, commanding to army from his office in Bratislava.

On 25 July, Catlos issued new orders. The Field Corps was to yield up all its motorized elements to the Rapid Brigade, which would be renamed the Rapid Division. The new Rapid Division had two small motorized infantry regiments and an artillery regiment; all the Slovak tanks had already been sent back to the home country for repairs. It fought as part of Panzer Group 1 in Ukraine for the rest of the 1941 campaign, ending it in defensive positions along the Mius River. By this point, most of its vehicles had broken down and it was no longer a true motorized unit. But it compiled a good combat record during that span, though in 1943 it barely escaped the doomed “Kuban Bridgehead” and lost most of its heavy equipment. By 1944 it would be considered unreliable and eventually would be disarmed. But that’s a story (and a variant) for another time and another game.

The Security Division was formed around the 2nd Division’s headquarters, with two infantry regiments, supporting units and an attached German armored train. It fought partisans in the Zhitomir region of northern Ukraine for the remainder of 1941 and into 1942. These two units required less than half the manpower sent into the Soviet Union; 35,000 reservists were demobilized and sent home in time to help in the fall harvest.

A Slovak LT-40 light tank.

We did not include the Slovaks in Defiant Russia because, well, they didn’t rate inclusion. One brigade-sized motorized unit, already factored into German strength, and a very slow infantry corps had no place in the game. But gamers can never have enough new toys, especially game pieces representing unusual military units.

The Slovak Field Corps (2-2 strength) arrives as a Turn Two reinforcement in hex 2601. On Turn Three or later, if it is at full strength and is not adjacent to an enemy unit, it may be replaced with the Slovak Rapid Division (1-5 strength). The Rapid Division does not project a zone of control, but it may expend one movement point during the Axis Exploitation Movement Phase.

Slovak units may not enter hexes in Hungary, and may not be stacked with the Hungarian unit. Replacements may not be used on Slovak units.

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