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CZECH DEFENCES

UNDERGROUND FORTS In contrast with the frankness concerning the most important matters discussed during Foreign Minister Yvon Delhos’s Prague visit was one subject vital to Czechoslovakia which, while fully covered in the conversations, was not mentioned in the public announcements, writes Frederick T. Birchall from Paris to the New York ‘ Times. ’ It was Czechoslovakia’s ability to withstand any possible attacks from without.

In the country itself there is never any public discussion of its defences. Not only does public policy negative any, but a stringent law forbids both publication and gossip concerning military matters. Nevertheless, the facts are important, and without revealing any military secret some of them may bo told.

That Czechoslovakia possesses a wellequipped and highly-eflieient army and air force is well known, because_ they could hardly he 1 concealed. What is not so well known, although it is no; secret to those whose business it is to inquire about such things, is that the country now possesses frontier defences modelled after the French, but with the original model greatly improved upon. They are regarded by experts as strong enough to hold hack any invading forces long enough to enable Czechoslovakia’s allies to go to her aid.

In view of the political tension it is quite natural that these defences are strongest along the German border. However, nobody travelling along that border—indeed, along any of Czechoslovakia’s frontiers would see_ any military works there excepting a single fort which probably was put there with the idea of letting it be seen. The real defences are underground and invisible. It is understood that they cover all the 27 possible means of access to the country. Natural barriers talk© care of the rest.

These hidden defences, of course, are not intended to keep off air attacks, although it is reasonable to suppose that they do not lack an adequate supply of anti-aircraft artillery, of which the Czechs possess an excellent type. Other means of protecting cities and manufacturing centres _ are relied upon, and are being taken in hand as funds are available. It is fully realised that Prague itself is only a two-hour flight from the military centres of Bavaria and Silesia. In artillery the Czechs already have proved themselves masters of modern armament. It is they who have supplied the model for the Bren machine gun now being manufactured under license in Britain and adopted as standard equipment by the British Army. As for the Czech army, although it is comparatively small, experts regard it as second to none in discipline and physical fitness. Czechoslovak defences are important not only to the country itself, but to its Eastern allies, because Czechoslovakia is the arsenal and arms manufacturing centre for all the Little Entente. hTom the Austrian Empire it inherited the great Skoda armament works at Pilseu, and this has been supplemented in recent years -by other factories. Thero was, in a certain sense, a weakness in the fact that Pilsen was within a comparatively short distance of the Bavarian frontier. The_ Czech Government quickly realised this and took steps to meet it. Plants more important to armament activities long have been transferred from the frontier to the interior—exactly where nobody tells. If any military supplies, other than railway equipment, is being manufactured in the original plant it would be surprising. • Incidentally, it is the one great grievance of the Sudetan Germans that so many important parts of the armament plant have been transported from the frontier districts, where they are a majority of the population. A good deal of unemployment in those districts has been the result. However, the transfer was unavoidable and the blame for it should be laid on other than Czech shoulders.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19380226.2.114

Bibliographic details

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 19

Word Count
617

CZECH DEFENCES Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 19

CZECH DEFENCES Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 19