Sudetendeutsches Freikorps

On 12 September 1938, immediately after the end of Hitler's Nuremberg speech, a mob of up to 4,000 SdP members and supporters rush into the streets, sacking 38 Jewish and Czech shops and lynching Jews and Czechs. Altogether 70 members of the Gendarmerie and 30 State Police officers try to restore order, using only batons as they are under orders preventing use of firearms apart from necessary self defense.

On 13 September the mob in the streets number some 2,000 people, but now armed with knives, sticks and stones and also some firearms. The mob try to push the police cordon out of the main square. Several shots are fired in both directions, leading to the death of one German while police officers Lodr, Anděl and Čmelák suffer injuries in the scuffle. Thereafter the mob disperses. Later during the day reinforcements of 60 policemen and an army unit including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles arrive, fully restoring order in the town.

On 14 September, police move to conduct a search of a local hotel on suspicion that it is being used to store illegal firearms for Ordner. As police try to breach the entrance, several perpetrators open fire from hotel windows from rifles, pistols and at least one machine gun. Police officer Jan Klenner is mortally wounded. Railway worker Emmanuel Bláha, who happens to be nearby, attempts first to help Klenner, then to return fire with a policeman's rifle, but is also shot dead. Another civilian, Václav Tejček, tries to help the two but is also shot dead. Immense gunfire from hotel windows hits and kills three uninvolved German civilians in the street. After dusk, police use many hand grenades and then enter the building, which is already mostly empty. The only person caught is later released as there is no evidence tying him to the gunfire; according to his testimony a group of around 10 men armed mostly with pistols and two machineguns are responsible for the shootout.^[22]

Two Ordner are killed and two others seriously wounded during first two hours of shootout, leading the Germans to call for more reinforcements against the three policemen whose telephone line was cut. The Germans then try to flood the station using a firefighting vehicle, but are again driven away by police gunfire. The Germans then take one of the policemen's wife, put a noose on her neck and send her half-naked in front of the station while holding the other end of the noose, demanding immediate surrender under threat of killing her. The policemen surrender.

Constable Matěj Příbek is beaten and locked in nearby house. Constable Jan Paulus is beaten senseless and then twice again after regaining consciousness. Constable Antonín Křepela, after seeing the mob attack on Paulus, tries to run away and is shot and wounded. Lying on the ground, the Germans beat him to death with clubs and pickaxes.

Having lost all contact, county police HQ sends a bus with 15 policemen to Habartov at 1 pm. Immediately after stopping at the town square in front of the police station, policemen are subjected to a barrage of fire from Germans hidden in windows in houses overlooking the square. Corporal Stanislav Roubal is shot in the head and killed, Constable Vavřinec Hyka is shot in the head and wounded. Policemen try to get into the station, which is however also occupied by Ordner who open fire as they try to get in. Policemen then scramble towards a house nearby while Sergeant Vladimír Černý is shot in the chest and killed. Eleven policemen manage to get into a house opposite to the station, from which they start firing at the Ordner. At 2 pm, further police reinforcements arrive and the Ordner mostly run away towards the border with Germany. Seven perpetrators are caught and arrested, but due to developments in the following weeks they escape justice. Court proceedings continue only after World War II, leading to ten perpetrators receiving the death penalty, six of which are carried out.^[23]

After a brief standoff, two buses carrying reinforcements with 14 policemen and several soldiers arrive. While the situation around the police station de-escalates, one bus is sent with three policemen to the customs house. While trying to negotiate the release of customs officials and their family members, policemen are ambushed by Germans shooting from behind concrete barrier on the border. Constable Josef Falber is shot in the stomach and bleeds to death. Constable Bohuslav Kazda is shot in the head close to the ear and loses consciousness. Superintendent Nový returns fire and suffers a gunshot wound to the hand and leg. Meanwhile on the ground, the mob attacks him. German customs officers cross the border and prevent Nový from being beaten to death.

After hearing gunfire, three policemen and four customs officers (whose families are held hostage) drive a second bus towards the customs house. Being ambushed by heavy gunfire, they disembark about 100 meters from the target. Sergeant Major Hrádek, the police station chief leading the group, is shot in the leg. Severely outnumbered and with orders preventing them from returning fire in the direction of Germany proper, they load the wounded Nový and Kazda and drive back to the police station.

Ordner send negotiators to the police station. The Germans agree to free the customs officers and their wives and children. The family members drive further inland to Czechoslovakia and the freed customs officers reinforce the police station. Ordner cut the telephone line to the station and start building barricades around the police station. The police chief burns all secret files; shortly thereafter the mob breaks through the doors and all 45 members of Czechoslovak security forces surrender with no shots being fired.

Altogether 45 captive members of Czechoslovak security forces are taken to Germany proper where they are imprisoned until mid-October when they are returned to Czechoslovak authorities.^[25]

After successfully dealing with the situation in Stříbrná (see elsewhere in this table), Sergeant Major František Novák is ordered to send a patrol to Bublava with which the regional HQ lost telephone contact. Novák himself leads an SDG group of two policemen, eight customs officers and two armed civilians. Unknown to them, all members of security forces in Bublava were already captured and kidnapped over the border to Germany.

The SDG group reaches Bublava after dusk. While advancing towards the police station, the group walks into a well-prepared ambush. An intense firefight erupts. Superintendent Emil Martinů is wounded by the explosion of a hand grenade. Constable Vojtěch Brčák is shot in stomach and dies. Sergeant Major František Novák suffers multiple shot wounds and dies. Armed civilian František Moucha is wounded in the head. Customs superintendent Cheníček is wounded in the face. Customs officers Hájek, Kovanda and Říšský are also wounded. The SDG members scatter, regroup outside of the town and retreat back to Stříbrná.

The next day, an army unit of about 120 soldiers with three LT-35 light tanks and two armoured fighting vehicles takes position on a hill overlooking the town. SdP members and Ordner cross the border towards Germany proper. The army does not enter the town, which remains in no-man's land, seldom entered either by Czechoslovak or German patrols until the German occupation.^[24]

Many Freikorps members surrounded customs house about 100 meters within Czechoslovak territory during the night of 18 to 19 September. The building was under intense fire from firearms as well as hand grenades. Czechoslovak police fired a flare to signal distress to other Czechoslovak units and barricaded themselves. They did not return fire outside of the building in order to prevent any possible accusation of Czechoslovak forces shooting across the border to Germany.^[37]

The customs house in Bílá Voda, which was located directly on the Czech–German border, had been targeted by gun fire from Germany since 18 September. Its personnel was ordered not to return any fire over the border towards Germany and was allowed to retreat only in the afternoon of 22 September, when it joined the local SDG squad in its attempt to get further inland (see below).^[38]

SDG Squad No. 16 dug a trench near railway line 700 meters from the German border. The Freikorps charged their position but failed, losing one. Then, the Freikorps carried out sporadic gunfire from beyond the German border with the knowledge that the SDG was under orders not to return fire into German territory. Customs officer Ladislav Krch was hit and seriously wounded. SDG Squad laid covering fire into the German territory in order to enable Krch's transport towards hospital.^[39]

• Unknown number of Freikorps members
• SA men^[40]

• Several Gendarme officers
• Several Customs officers

Freikorps attacked customs house in Horní Malá Úpa in the evening of 19 September 1938. The building was burned to the ground. Several wounded officers managed to retreat. Two Gendarme officers were captured and abducted to Germany. Constable Eduard Šíma was killed and his body was also abducted to Germany.^[38]

Assault on SDG squad

The Freikorps designated the chief of local Gendarme station Jan Trněný as a "dangerous Czech" and targeted him for assassination. Trněný was supposed to be delivering messages to forward SDG Squads during the evening of 19 September. Unknown to the Freikorps, Trněný was swapped by Gendarme officer Antonín Měsíček. Měsíček was well liked by the local German population and received a warning about possible Freikorps assault, but decided to carry on with his orders. Měsíček was ambushed while on the road in the woods leading back to his home station in Rychnůvka with rifle fire and grenades. The Freikorps ran away after an SDG Squad that was nearby fired a flare when they heard the gunfire. Měsíček died in hospital the next day. Back in Germany, Freikorps member Franz Bayer was awarded 200 Reichsmarks for killing Měsíček.^[39]

Numerous Freikorps members surrounded the customs house in Starostín. With heavy machine gun and rifle fire, they managed to get directly to the building, but they fled after the policemen used several hand grenades.^[38]

Assault on customs house

• Crowd of several hundred ethnic Germans
• unknown number of Freikorps members

The city of Aš borders with Germany from three sides and had only two main access roads from inland Czechoslovakia. Heads of local state authorities were advised that they would not receive further reinforcements from inland, but at the same time they were ordered to hold their posts. On the evening of 21 September, the chief of the local State Police station was summoned to a meeting held by the head of the Aš District, an ethnic German. The meeting was attended by a number of Sudeten German Party officials, who requested that the policemen lay down their firearms and hand the area over to the SdP. The chief refused and returned to the station. Soon after a mob of people broke down the main gate leading to the station's courtyard and apprehended the chief. The rest of the policemen, still being under general order not to use firearms (which were changed only the following day) surrendered.

Meanwhile, the Freikorps took over the local gendarme station after they threatened to set the station ablaze with hand grenades.^[43]

• 10 members of Customs Administration
• 5 soldiers
• 2 Gendarme officers

About 30 Freikorps members and other local ethnic German citizens came to the customs house in Bartulovice, demanding that the SDG members hand over the building as well as their weapons. SDG chief first wanted to request orders from his superiors, however, the local post office, where the telephone switchboard was situated, had already been occupied by the Freikorps. The SDG decided to retreat from the municipality fully armed, passing a truck full of heavily armed Freikorps members from neighboring Jiříkov without incident. One customs officer remained in the building unarmed in order to formally resist occupation of the building by the Freikorps. After doing so, Freikorps he was abducted to Germany where he was interned in a concentration camp. The rest of the SDG unit continued its retreat on foot through the woods towards Holčovice, which they reached some 15 hours later and where they regrouped with ten other SDG units that had retreated under similar circumstances.^[44]

On 20 September 1938, SDG members stationed in the border crossing station in the town Habartice observed maneuvers of German army units taking place over the border in Germany, leading them to fortify the building with sandbags and boarding. In the evening, the electricity was shut off on both sides of the border. SDG further observed that several trucks arrived at 10 PM on the German side of the border. Germans started crossing border bridge at about 3 AM on 21 September 1938 and mounted four attack waves with 30–40 men each against the SDG building, using not only firearms, but also hand grenades and dynamite. The Freikorps set off explosives which led to the collapse of the entire front wall of the building; the rest, however, remained standing. The SDG successfully defended the building, also using 36 hand grenades. The SDG squad chief had also called for reinforcements, but the soldiers had to dismount their truck after being targeted by machine gun fire over the border from Germany. The soldiers reached Habartice by crawling in ditches in the morning only after the attack had been repelled. The SDG suffered 4 seriously wounded servicemen, one of them permanently losing his eyesight. During the day after the night fight, Czechoslovak SDG members and army soldiers ostentatiously played volleyball right on the border line, some of them with bandages covering their wounds.^[45][46]

Numerous Freikorps members surrounded building of Customs Administration in Nové Vilémovice. Six officers that were inside surrendered without a shot. After this, Freikorps tried to capture another two officers that were on a patrol on the town's outskirts. A shootout ensued, in which one officer was killed while the other managed to retreat through forest. The perpetrators buried the victim's body in a secret location and then ran over the border to Germany to avoid arrest by Czechoslovak authorities. The perpetrators were not found and the court proceedings that took place in 1945 did not lead to any convictions.^[47]

Assault on customs house

Assault on customs house

• 2 customs officers
• 6 soldiers

During the night from 22 to 23 September, Freikorps attacked a customs house located in the border town Bartošovice with heavy machine gun fire and grenades. Reinforcements sent to the customs house found themselves also under heavy fire and unable to reach it. During the fourth consecutive assault wave, the custom's house roof caught fire and started collapsing. All Czechoslovak personnel managed to retreat without any loss of life.^[50]

• 15 members of State Defense Guard
• 5 Gendarme officers

Freikorps members ambushed 15 members of SDG and 5 gendarmes in Bernartice. The soldiers and policemen were disarmed and abducted to Germany where they were interned by local authorities in a concentration camp.^[51]

The State Defense guard house in Bílá Voda, which was located directly on the Czech–German border, had been under fire since 18 September. The personnel received orders to retreat in the afternoon of 22 September. Retreating squad was ambushed by Freikorps. A part of the squad broke through, but 15 members of SDG were captured by the ethnic German rebels, disarmed, and abducted to Germany where they were interned by local authorities in a concentration camp.^[52]

• Gendarme officers
• SDG squad

About 150 Freikorps members crossed the border river Malše and ambushed a Gendarme and SDG squad in Cetviny; the entire squad was kidnapped to Germany. Meanwhile, an SDG squad that was stationed in the vicinity heard the gunfire and sent two members to scout the situation. One of them, Václav Klimeš, was shot dead and the other seriously wounded and kidnapped to Germany.

Czechoslovak forces recaptured the area after heavy fights in the following days. Considering it too vulnerable, it was then left without permanent presence.^[53]

An SDG squad stationed in a mountain cabin on the borderline outside of Varnsdorf was assaulted at 6AM with grenades and rifle fire.^[54] An assault on Varnsdord was undertaken later at 10 am (see below).

• 2 Customs officers
• 4 Gendarme officers

Two members of the Customs Administration were being lynched by ethnic German pro-Nazi mob in Černá Voda. When four gendarmes intervened, members of Freikorps opened fire with hunting rifles, pistols, and a light machine gun. Two members of Freikorps were wounded in the skirmish.^[51]

After 2 pm, SDG Squad No. 76 was retreating from border town Varnsdorf which was overrun by pro-Nazi German ethnic mob where was stationed also another SDG squad, whose leader collaborated with Nazis and ordered its members to surrender weapons to Freikorps. The squad stopped close to a gas pump in Dolní Podluží, with three customs officers driving to it to fill their motorbikes and others establishing a defensive position nearby. While pumping gas, they were ambushed by Freikorps. In the ensuing gunfight, customs officers Václav Kozel and Jan Teichman were shot dead and customs officer Miroslav Bernard was severely wounded. Gas pump owner Rudolf Stelzig was also shot and died.

Freikorps occupied SDG headquarters and other strategic buildings in the town Frýdlant and hung out Nazi swastika flags on many buildings in the town. The Czechoslovak army dispatched two infantry fighting vehicles with crews from Liberec. After arriving in the town, the soldiers announced that they would consider every building and person with a swastika as hostile, Freikorps packed the flags and withdrew from the town.^[45]

Freikorps occupied part of municipality of Heřmanice. A local SDG unit was stationed on a hill overlooking the municipality, secured its position and did not further intervene in the municipality itself. Generally, the control over the municipality was unclear with Freikorps occupying a part lying further away from the SDG and no mutual engagement. Two civilians loyal to the Czechoslovak state, a teacher from Frýdlant school Otakar Kodeš and ethnic German communist Perner, decided to investigate the actual situation in Heřmanice. On the road leading to Heřmanice, they passed an SDG patrol that unsuccessfully recommended them not to continue into Freikorps-controlled territory. Shortly after passing the SDG patrol, they were both shot. Kodeš was shot dead, while wounded Perner was abducted to Germany. Perner, a Czechoslovak citizen, was taken to Dresden, Germany, where he was tried and convicted for treason. Perner was interned in a concentration camp, not surviving through the war. Kodeš' murderer was found, tried, sentenced and hanged in 1947.^[45]

Freikorps attacked the local SDG squad at 7pm. An attempt to take the town over failed.^[55]

• 8 customs officers
• 5 soldiers

Freikorps attacked the customs house in Hnanice early in the morning. While their first wave failed, Czechoslovak officers retreated during the second attack without sustaining any losses. Later, two SDG squads recaptured the customs house after heavy fighting, only to lose it again on 26 September. SDG squad leader Otmar Chlup was killed in action.^[56]

During the evening, some 200 Freikorps members started attack on a local assembly hall that was being used as an SDG station. The gunfight lasted for five hours and ended up with the Freikorps retreating.^[56]

• 11 members of customs administration
• 2 soldiers
• several Gendarme officers

A State Defense Guard squad was retreating further inland. When they reached the outskirts of Javorník, a group of Freikorps members offered them safe passage. While passing through the town, the squad was ambushed. The Czechoslovak servicemen were disarmed and abducted to Germany where they were interned by local authorities in the concentration camp in Patschkau (apart from two who were released and one who escaped during transport).^[57] Apart from soldiers, the Freikorps also abducted a district court judge and his clerk, who were taken to the concentration camp in Patschkau.^[58]

Freikorps attacked the customs house in the border town of Libná. SDG squad leader Robert Jokl was wounded and abducted to Germany, while the rest of the squad was forced to retreat further inland. Being severely outnumbered, other SDG squads were forced to retreat from the nearby municipalities of Zdoňov and Horní Adršpach. All units met at the hamlet Krčnov, where they established a new point of defense. Later in the evening SDG was reinforced by 9th Company of 48th Infantry Regiment with two armored vehicles and took control of all three towns; while retreating to Germany, the Freikorps set the customs house in Libná on fire, burning it to the ground. Czechoslovak units in the area faced further attacks until being ordered to retreat on 28 September.^[55]

• 150–180 ethnic Germans
• Unknown number of Freikorps members

Freikorps successfully gained control over police stations in the nearby towns of Albrechtice and Zlaté Hory, cutting both main routes from Liptáň with the rest of the Czech inland. Later in the evening, local Freikorps members opened a secret stash of German army rifles and submachine guns that had been previously smuggled across the border and stored within a railway station. A mob of 150–180 men, most of them armed, proceeded towards the local gendarme station.

Mob leaders forced Chief Constable Rudolf Mokrý to call the nearby station in Mokrá where gendarmes already surrendered. Gaining information that several nearby stations were handed over without any violence with Czechoslovak official mostly being allowed to withdraw inland, still under orders preventing use of firearms and facing an armed mob, the station chief agreed to surrender the station. Germans took the officers' firearms and held them captive inside the building while someone was sent to procure a car that could be used to transport the captives (it is unknown whether inland or to Germany).

Shortly after the officers within the station building were disarmed, two gendarme officers driving on a motorcycle arrived to town. As they were nearing the station, a firefight erupted. In general confusion, Germans started shooting not only at the officers, but also at each other; it is not known whether the officers managed to fire their weapons. The officers used the chaos and attempted to reach the station, not knowing that it was already fully under German control. Both gendarme officers Inocenc Dostál and Vítězslav Hofírek were shot dead immediately after entering the station. Outside of the station, most of the mob dispersed, leaving behind three dead bodies and several angry Freikorps members. The remaining disarmed gendarme officers Chief Constable Rudolf Mokrý, Constable Vilém Leher and Constable Ludvík Svoboda were dragged outside of the station and lynched. Constable František Čech, the station's messenger, was also lynched either with the three other officers or elsewhere in the town's vicinity.^[59]

Gendarme officers' bodies were transported over the border to the German town Lischwitz where they were buried in an unmarked mass grave.^[60] Their fate remained unknown until March 1939 German invasion of the remainder of Czechoslovakia, when German authorities acknowledged their deaths.

The victims' bodies were later exhumed and ceremonially buried in Czechoslovakia. The culprits were never captured (although having been identified), but three other Germans that took part in the attack were arrested, tried and executed by hanging in October 1946.^[60]

The local Gendarme station faced heavy gunfire. All officers successfully retreated further inland.^[56]

Freikorps members ambushed an SDG squad in Mikulovice. The servicemen were disarmed and forced to wait for a train to Germany at a local train station. Meanwhile, a train going in the opposite direction was passing through the station and the soldiers hopped on it before the Freikorps could stop them. The squad got to Jeseník and engaged Freikorps in numerous firefights in the following days, arresting five.^[51]

After Freikorps overran the town of Javorník (see above), local Gendarmerie supported by some of the soldiers that managed to retreat from Javorník, established a new defense posts on the line between municipalities of Vápenná – Supíkovice – Rejvíz. Gendarme officers were repeatedly attacked by Freikorps, with six ending up wounded and one killed in action in the following days.^[62]

Customs house on the border in Varnsdorf was attacked at 2am with several hand grenades, but attackers immediately retreated behind the border.

At 10am a train led by SdP's Czechoslovak Parliament member Franz Werner and full of Freikorps members crossed the border. The Freikorps took over the train station and captured six soldiers and several railway workers. After some negotiations, SDG squads stationed in the town started retreating inland. One SDG squad leader ordered his men to surrender leading to their kidnapping to Germany; the man, who was of partially German ancestry, was later uncovered as long-term German agent.

There was an army unit with three tanks stationed in nearby Rumburk, but they were ordered not to relieve SDG in Varnsdorf. At 5 pm, the army unit also left Rumburk and retreated further inland.^[54]

Varnsdorf was retaken by the army the following day (see below).

• 2 Gendarme officers
• State Defense Guard squad

A large mob of Czechoslovak ethnic Germans that had previously left to Germany came to the border crossing in the town Vidnava carrying Nazi swastika banners. Among them were a number of Freikorps members, who used the commotion and got right to the two Gendarme officers on duty and disarmed them. The mob released the two officers and continued towards the town center. After briefing the two disarmed Gendarme officers, SDG squad leader Josef Novák contacted the town's mayor, an ethnic German Göbel, who promised that he would negotiate the return of the Gendarmes' firearms. Officers Novák and Pospíšil left SDG station and went towards the town center, now in the hands of the Freikorps. There, they were both immediately attacked and lynched. Before dying, Pospíšil tossed a hand grenade, wounding several assailants. Later that day Freikorps members also lynched an ethnic German communist Fitz. Groups of heavily armed Freikorps started taking over the whole town. Remaining SDG members and Gendarme officers decided to lay covering fire and evacuate several civilians as well as themselves towards the train station. There they fortified several wagons and drove away. Meanwhile, however, the Freikorps blocked the railway line leading to the next train station in Velká Kraš and took positions in a school building overlooking the line. After the train stopped before the blockage just in front of the school, Freikorps opened fire with rifles and started tossing hand grenades. The train occupants ran away from the building and train towards fields, leaving behind one dead civilian and two wounded SDG members and several wounded civilians, who were captured by Freikorps and delivered to Germany. There they were first treated and later released. The rest managed to get away and under constant covering fire reached the train station in Velká Kraš. Here, Freikorps leader Latzel first persisted that the SDG personnel must surrender. The SDG squad, now consisting of 13 seriously wounded and a few lightly wounded members, refused and stated the intent to either get further inland or die trying. Freikorps then let the seriously wounded be taken on a train with expelled ethnic Czech civilians bound for Jeseník while the few remaining SDG members left on foot through the woods to Zighartice. In Jeseník hospital, ethnic German doctors with swastika pins on their lapels refused to treat the seriously wounded SDG members, until one of the SDG members threatened to discharge hand grenades.^[63]

• Ethnic German mob of several hundred
• Several dozen Freikorps members
• Two trucks with unmarked heavily armed men from Germany proper

A mob of several hundred ethnic Germans and several dozen Freikorps members, who were placing women and children in front of them, surrounded the Gendarme station in Zlaté Hory and demanded surrender of the officers. After arrival of two trucks with unmarked armed men from Germany proper, the officers surrendered and were abducted to Germany, where they were held first in prison in Glatz (now Kłodzko in Poland), later in a concentration camp in Dresden.^[60]

Already on 9 September, German customs house on the other side of the border had its windows facing Czechoslovakia boarded up, leaving only small slits for shooting. On 23 September 1938 at 11 pm, two ethnic Germans entered the Czechoslovak customs house in order to be cleared to pass the border to Germany. While customs officer Václav Čep was dealing with the necessary formalities, not facing the two Germans, one of them shot him from point blank into his temple. At the same moment, the other German opened fire on two customs officers present in the room, instantly killing officer Josef Vojta and mortally wounding officer Bohumil Hošek (shot in the back). As the two Germans ran across border to Germany, other assailants opened machine gun fire, forcing two remaining customs officers (not present in the room at the time of shooting) to withdraw to another building in the municipality held by SDG squad. Three SDG members were killed in the subsequent gunfight.^[45]

• 1st Battalion of 47th Infantry Regiment
• Emergency platoons of 47th Infantry Regiment
• Tank platoon
• Armored train

At 6 am, Czechoslovak units started moving forward from the border fortifications around Varnsdorf and recapturing territory from which SDG left the previous day. By 10 am the army started assault on Krásná Lípa and Varnsdorf. Both were taken by 5 pm without any soldiers lost. The Army captured a number of Freikorps members that did not manage to retreat to Germany as well as large stockpiles of arms and ammunition.^[30]

Two state policemen on a motorbike with a sidecar were patrolling the area around local branch of Česká zbrojovka small arms maker when they were ambushed by 8 Freikorps members. Driver Václav Staňek was shot in the backbone and immobilized, while Josef Hřích remained lying on the ground. As Freikorps emerged from their cover and approached the scene, Hřích unholstered his pistol and started shooting, wounding two. Staňek later died in hospital while the Freikorps retreated over the border to Germany with their wounded.^[67]

Heavy fight over the factory started few days later, see below

• 10 District office clerks
• 2 State Police officers
• 8 Gendarme officers
• 15 army soldiers
• 5 army officers
• 35 Gendarme cadets

State Defense Guard units in Bruntál and surrounding areas had been under sporadic attacks since May 1938. The frequency of assaults rose up in September and culminated between 24 and 26 September. The main attack started at noon of 24 September and continued through the night with Freikorps members shooting from buildings as well as rooftops. The next day authorities found one dead and eight severely wounded Freikorps members, as well as many others' pools of blood. The large scale battle led many civilians to leave the town while authorities declared martial law. Fight broke out also next evening and continued throughout the whole night. SDG members resorted to defending their own buildings and swept the town next morning, finding a large number of blood pools but no bodies or wounded Freikorps members. In the following nights the SDG sent most of its personnel patrolling the streets and no other fights broke out. In total, 6 SDG members were wounded. The number of Freikorps casualties remained unknown but was presumed to be as high as 80, which was the death-toll that the Freikorps sustained in a similar size assault that was taking place meanwhile in Krnov and which matched the number of large blood pools that were found in the morning following the night fights.^[47]

• 700 Freikorps members and armed civilians (mainly WW1 veterans)
• 160–180 SS soldiers with light cannons

• State Defense Guard squad (30 members) with 2 light tanks
• Several armed civilians (mainly young German Social Democratic Party members)

After taking control of Aš during the night of 21 to 22 September (see above), SdP started executing control over the territory of Aš District, blocking main roads from inland Czechoslovakia and pushing further inland as far as the municipality of Libá. The Freikorps push inland was stopped at a hamlet two kilometers from Libá and the line of contact stabilized at this place for a few days with sporadic exchanges of rifle fire. During the afternoon of 25 September, two light tanks of the SDG squad drove forward in order to test the enemy's strength. An exchange of fire ensued and the light tanks started retreating. Germans on foot engaged the tanks with machine gun fire and hand grenades, to no effect. As the tanks retreated back to the hamlet, Germans took cover in haystacks in its vicinity. The armoured vehicles received anti-tank fire from the German side^{[citation needed]} of the border. Severe exchange of gunfire continued until the haystacks were set on fire and Germans forced to retreat.^[43]

The intensity of the skirmish led to panic in SdP ranks which requested reinforcements from Germany: SdP reported that they had only 700 armed men (Freikorps sent from Germany and civilians, mainly members of a WW1 veterans' association) at their disposal and that they would not be able to hold in case of counterattack. Two SS companies were sent from Germany and replaced Freikorps at the point of contact. The line remained stable with continuous exchanges of rifle and machine gun fire until the evening of 28 September when SDG squad was ordered to retreat. The hamlet was taken over by SS on 29 September.^[43]

The hamlet was severally damaged in the fighting and immediately used by German propaganda as an example of "Czech terror against German civilians".^[43]

• SS
• Freikorps

Numerous SS and Freikorps crossed border into the town of Javorník and its vicinity. SDG units present retreated inland towards border fortification line without fighting.

200 well-armed Freikorps members crossed the border into Brandov and assaulted the local SDG unit. SDG briefly retreated, however after receiving reinforcements pushed the Freikorps out of the town.

The Freikorps recaptured the entire town as well as local small arms factory the next day, only to be pushed back again by SDG on 29 September.^[67]

Freikorps attempted to seize the town, starting assault during midnight change of SDG shifts. Heavy exchange of rifle and machinegun fire and much use of grenades by both sides. Freikorps retreated to Germany before morning, leaving behind several pools of blood.^[39]

The line of contact at the area had been stable for several days with Freikorps controlling municipality of Házlov by the German border and Czechoslovak authorities controlling municipality of Horní Lomany lying between Házlov and first major Czechoslovak town, Františkovy lázně. On 28 September at 2 am, a motorbike with two men drove towards Czechoslovak fortified checkpoint by the railway tracks near Horní Lomany. The men were shouting in broken Czech: "Don't shoot, we are German Social Democrats, we are your friends." Customs officer Rudolf Josiek left the barricade to talk to them, was ambushed and shot dead. Both perpetrators, Freikorps members, managed to escape.^[69]

The same day in the evening, Freikorps opened fire from Házlov towards a position of SDG in Horní Lomany. SDG squad carried out assault against the enemy in an infantry fighting vehicle, killing two Freikorps members before retreating back to original position.^[69]

SDG patrol consisting of two customs officers (Dostál, Trojan) and one soldier (private Novák) was attacked by a large group of Freikorps. SDG, armed with rifles and one light machinegun, defended their position and seriously wounded 14 Freikorps members; two of them later died. By the time 7 other members of SDG came to relieve them, Freikorps were already retreating with their wounded.

SDG Squad (armed with rifles, hand grenades, and one light machine gun) established a defensive post in the woods next to the municipal graveyard and sent 4 members to patrol near a train stop by the border. Shortly after midnight, several dozen members of Freikorps attacked the patrol by the train stop. The patrol was relieved by the rest of the SDG and pushed the Freikorps behind the border, only to face even more of them shortly afterward. Facing heavy machine gun fire and being several times outnumbered, SDG retreated further inland without losses. The next day SDG recaptured the area with help of army reinforcements that included three tanks.^[70]

Undeterred by the losses of previous day (see above), Freikorps again attacked SDG patrol. This time, Freikorps were also armed with machine guns. The patrol held their ground until the arrival of an infantry fighting vehicle, which forced the Freikorps to retreat.