Prague uprising

For the 1848 events, see Prague uprising (1848).
Prague uprising
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Prague residents putting up a barricade, 6 May. In the background, a German-language sign has been painted over.
Date5–9 May 1945
Location
Prague, Bohemia and Moravia
50°04′43″N 14°26′04″E / 50.07861°N 14.43444°E / 50.07861; 14.43444
Result Inconclusive
Belligerents

Czechoslovakia Czech resistance

 Germany
Strength
30,000 insurgents[1][a]
18,000 Russian Liberation Army[7]		 40,000[1][b]
Several aircraft[11]
Casualties and losses
1,694–2,898 insurgents killed[12][13][c]
3,000 insurgents wounded[16][17]
300 ROA soldiers killed and wounded[18][19][d]		 1,000–2,000 killed[20][e]
263–2,000 Czech civilians killed[18][21]
1,000+ German civilians killed[22][f]

The Prague uprising (Czech: Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of occupation had fuelled anti-German sentiment and the rapid advance of Allied forces from the Red Army and the United States Army offered the resistance a chance of success.

On 5 May 1945, during the end of World War II in Europe, occupying German forces in Bohemia and Moravia were spontaneously attacked by civilians in an uprising, with Czech resistance leaders emerging from hiding to join them. The Russian Liberation Army (ROA), a collaborationist formation of ethnic Russians, defected and supported the insurgents. German forces counter-attacked, but their progress was slowed by barricades constructed by the insurgents. On 8 May, the Czech and German leaders signed a ceasefire allowing all German forces to withdraw from the city, but some Waffen-SS troops refused to obey. Fighting continued until 9 May, when the Red Army entered the nearly liberated city.

The uprising was brutal, with both sides committing several war crimes. German forces used Czech civilians as human shields and perpetrated several massacres. Violence against German civilians, sanctioned by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, continued after the uprising, and was justified as revenge for the occupation or as a means to encourage Germans to flee. George S. Patton's Third United States Army was ordered by Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower not to come to the aid of the Czech insurgents, which undermined the credibility of the Western powers in post-war Czechoslovakia. Instead, the uprising was presented as a symbol of Czech resistance to Nazi rule, and the liberation by the Red Army was used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to increase popular support for the party.

  1. ^ a b Mahoney 2011, p. 191.
  2. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 34–35.
  3. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 55.
  4. ^ Bartošek 1965, pp. 149–150.
  5. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 53.
  6. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 297.
  7. ^ Julicher 2015, p. 171.
  8. ^ Dickerson 2018, p. 97.
  9. ^ Bartošek 1965, p. 54.
  10. ^ Jakl 2004, p. 25.
  11. ^ Thomas & Ketley 2015, p. 284.
  12. ^ Kokoška 2005, p. 258.
  13. ^ a b "Publikace, kterou historiografie potřebovala: padlí z pražských barikád 1945". Vojenském historickém ústavu Praha. 3 May 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  14. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 42.
  15. ^ Pynsent 2013, p. 285.
  16. ^ Soukup 1946, p. 39.
  17. ^ Orzoff 2009, p. 207.
  18. ^ a b Marek 2005, pp. 13–14.
  19. ^ a b MacDonald & Kaplan 1995, p. 186.
  20. ^ a b Staněk 2005, p. 197.
  21. ^ Merten 2017, p. 114.
  22. ^ Lowe 2012, p. 127.
  23. ^ Lowe 2012, pp. 127–128.


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