Prague Spring

 

 

  Warsaw Pact Operation "the Danube" - aggression against Czechoslovakia - involved 6 300 tanks, 2 000 cannons, 550 fighter planes,  250 transport planes and about 450 000 soldiers
  • 20 Soviet divisions - first echelon, 10 divisions as second echelon later (never confirmed officially),
  • 3 Polish divisions ( 24 000 soldiers, 647 tanks, 285 cannons, 36 choppers),
  • 1 Hungarian reinforced division ( 10 000 soldiers, 177 tanks, 165 cannons, 10 choppers and one transport plane),
  • 2 Bulgarian regiments (one in Prague, 2164 soldiers)
  • and about 250 East German soldiers ( with Soviet units as support, radio operators etc, 6 divisions were planned, but fear of Czech citizens reaction resulted only 2 divisions on Czech-German border on German area),
  • Czechoslovak army had 13 divisions, 2 anti-aircraft corps and 7 brigades of border guard on the whole in 1968.

     

From August 21, 1968 to October 1, 1968 Warsaw Pact armies killed 90 Czechoslovak citizens:

  • three 15 years or less old children,
  • nine between 15-18 years old people,
  • twenty-seven 30 years or younger people)

88 were killed by Red Army (Soviet), 2 by Polish soldier in Nový Jičín. This soldier was sentenced and executed and his Polish unit dispatched from Nový Jičín to home instantly.

301 people were heavy injured, 526 lightly injured.

Soviets lost:

  • 12 dead due to "Czechoslovak citizens hostile activity consequence",
  • 50 dead due to crashes, disasters,
  • 24 due to non careful manipulation with weapons,
  • 4 due to illness,
  • 3 for other circumstances,
  • 5 suicides,
  • 185 Soviet soldiers were injured