Holešov barracks incident
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| Holešov barracks incident | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Czechoslovakia |
 Soviet Union | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Lt. Col. Vladimír Košan Maj. Jiří Dufek Lt. Col. Miroslav Šedina | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 700 paratroopers | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | None | ||||||
The Holešov barracks incident was a stand-off confrontation between Soviet and Czechoslovak soldiers during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak paratroopers prevented Soviet soldiers from entering the Czechoslovak People's Army barracks at Holešov.
Around 5 a.m. on 21 August 1968, an elite Soviet tank battalion from Lviv entered Holešov, and in the following hours surrounded the Holešov barracks, home of the 7th Parachute Regiment.[2] The Soviet command considered it extremely important to surround the elite airborne units of the Czechoslovak army before their commanders recovered.[3] However, the Soviets failed to accomplish this.
The Czechoslovak paratroopers, who belonged to the elite of the army and who were trained to carry out diversions, were woken up at three o'clock in the morning by a battle alarm.[4] Led by Lieutenant Colonel Vladimír Košan, the commanders of the barracks decided to defend it. Armed with submachine guns, plastic explosives, and anti-tank missiles, the paratroopers were ready to fight.[4] The first confrontation took place at the barracks gate.[4] When a Soviet soldier at the gate asked: "How come you have weapons?", he received the answer "You have them too!"[4] The paratroopers refused to surrender the barracks; which was the only barracks in the whole of Czechoslovakia that did not fall under Soviet control on August 21.[4]
Later that morning, the paratroopers received a message from the command of the Intelligence Administration of the General Staff (military intelligence) that the leading representatives of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia had been kidnapped.[4][5] At the same time, they were given the task of freeing them and bringing them back.[5]
The paratroopers tried to get information about Alexandr Dubček's whereabouts.[5] Reports were inconclusive.[5] According to some, Dubček was supposed to be in a secret location in Czechoslovakia, others spoke of Poland or the area of the former Subcarpathian Rus.[5][6]
On the night of August 21–22, while the guns of the Soviet tanks were aimed at the barracks, ten armed Czechoslovak paratroopers in civilian clothes slipped away to guard strategic points in the city, and sixty more men with weapons and supplies reached the nearby forests as a preparatory phase for eventual action.[2][5][6] The 60-member detachment continued in groups to the village of Přílepy via the shooting range in Dobrotice, where it hid in dugouts.[6] After three days of waiting in the forest, however, the team quietly returned to the barracks.[4]
It became clear that Dubček and other Czechoslovak politicians were already in Moscow, and the plan to rescue them was therefore unrealistic.[5]
In the end, there was no armed conflict at Holešov.[7] The Czechoslovak soldiers managed to convince the Soviets to turn their tanks' guns around to point away from the barracks.[7] After a few days, the Soviets retreated to the surrounding streets and fields.[7] Later, the Soviets anchored by the forest in Přílep, a few kilometers away, where they stayed until October.[7]