PKH Tank Squadron*
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PKH = Plzen-Klatovy-Horazdovice, a three-city region of Czechoslovakia.*
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A short history from the "Slovak Army Review" by PhDr. Jan STAIGL,CSc.*
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After WWII foreign-based military units along with resistance movements at home formed the basis for reforming the Czechoslovak army. Czechoslovakia´s new orientation towards the Soviet Union, and the fact its army was to be modelled on the Red Army, led from the outset to preferential treatment of Eastern-front units. The programme of the first Government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks declared on April 5, 1945, in the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, that the First Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR would become the "core" of the post-war Czechoslovak Army. Western-front units, namely the Czechoslovak Separate Armoured Brigade and the Czechoslovak Air Forces, would supplement and expand this core in line with approved peacetime structure.*
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The brigade, with 5,676 enlisted men and 324 officers, was part of the 21st British division that towards the end of the war besieged a German garrison in Dunkirk. It later contributed a company of 140 soldiers to the American 1st infantry division 18th regiment, which went on to liberate Western Bohemia. A few days after Germany surrendered, the entire brigade came home. On May 20, it was incorporated into the 22th Army Corps and on May 30 given a ceremonial welcoming in Prague. On June 1, it was reorganised into a tank corps of three brigades (11th, 12th, and 13th), an artillery regiment, an anti-tank detachment, a motorised batallion, and several supply units. The corps was deployed in the Plzen-Klatovy-Horazdovice area, fielding 200 Cromwell tanks, 22 British-made Challenger tanks, and 37 American-made Stuart tanks. Its number of soldiers was increased to 6,648, including 114 professional officers and 387 reserve officers.*
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Then, in June 1945, the Government´s military council decided that the "western tank corps be, for political reasons, split into separate tank brigades to form direct support units for rapid-reaction divisions". A new tank corps would be based around the 1st Czechoslovak tank brigade from the Soviet-based 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps.*
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On September 1, the western tank corps was removed from the American Army, put under Czechoslovak command, and by October 1 had been reorganised and reassigned. The 11th tank brigade was incorporated into the 13th rapid reaction division (1st military area), based in Milovice; the 12th brigade into the 15th division (2nd military area), based in Votice pri Benesove; and the 13th brigade into the 8th division (3rd military area) based in Olomouc-Praslavice. The tank auxiliary corps, relocated to the central Slovak city of Martin, was merged with the remnants of the wartime Slovak tank unit to form the basis of the 14th tank brigade, a part of the 4th division (4th military area). The corps´ remaining combat and supply units were similarly reorganised and redeployed. So, from being a cohesive single unit, the Brigade was dispersed across the republic.*
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The Communist regime which came to power in February 1948 found Western army models unacceptable. The once allies had become the main ideological and military foes. Active participants of the western resistance were persecuted, sacked from the army and many imprisoned as "agents of imperialism". Others for fear of political persecution, or just out of opposition to the new regime, emigrated abroad. For the next forty years, the combat traditions of western units would be wiped from memory.*
