The Museum and Hurka Artillery Fort - Kraliky, Czech Republic
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ToRo61
N 50° 05.317 E 016° 46.188
33U E 626599 N 5549983
The Museum of the Czechoslovak fortification and Hurka Artillery Fort.
Waymark Code: WMQ4EA
Location: Pardubický kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/18/2015
Views: 18
The Czechoslovak government built a system of border fortifications, as well as some fortified defensive lines inland, from 1935 to 1938 as a defensive countermeasure against the rising threat of Nazi Germany. The objective of the fortifications was to prevent the taking of key areas by an enemy (not only Germany but also Hungary) by means of a sudden attack before the mobilization of the Czechoslovak army could be completed, and to enable effective defense until allies (Britain and France and possibly the Soviet Union) could help.
The Czechoslovak border fortifications
The several of Museums of
Czechoslovakian fortifications exists and Hurka Artillery fort is one of them. The museums are usually in hands of enthusiasts who repair forts and they are also guides in those forts.
The fortress had been planned to be ready in 1939-1940. However, the full installation of all the water, electricity and air distribution systems, some technical equipment, and artillery weapons in particular, could not be finished. During the mobilization in September 1938, the fortress was occupied by the battalion VII of the border regiment 19 with its 169 men.
The plan of the Hurka Artillery Fort
As a result of adoption of the Munich Treaty signed by Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain, the Czechoslovak Army had to leave the fortress at the beginning of October 1938 and to hand it over to the German Army without any fight. Fortunately, prior to the handover all the weapons and equipment had been evacuated to the inland.
Artillery fortification HURKA
is a unique military-historical monument. It is one of Czechoslovakian’s five big fortifications, which were structurally completed until the so called Sudeten Crisis in September 1938. HURKA consists of five mighty bastions, which are connected by an extended (total length 1.75 km) system of tunnels and caverns deep inside the hill. These are two sophisticated designed infantry blocks, one artillery casemate, one artillery block with projected retractable gun turret and the entrance block. The infantry blocks and especially the artillery casemate served during the German occupation in the times of WW II as targets for the testing of various weapon systems. The combat blocks of the fortification HURKA were also used as test objects for the development of one secret weapon of the 3rd Reich – of so called Röchling concrete piercing grenades. The well preserved underground infrastructure of the fortification contained everything the garrison of more than 400 carefully selected and specially trained soldiers needed to accomplish their combat task during the expected period of a couple of weeks. The visitors can see some rare exposition pieces: a big armored gate in the entrance block, the fully operational sloping ramp lift and the electric locomotive with cargo wagons of the narrow gauge railway (from the fifties of the last century). In the fortification HURKA the visitors will understand, how large-scaled and costly the Czechoslovakian defense plans were under the threat of Hitler’s aggression. The fortification HURKA is in the same state, as it was in May 2008 when given over from the Army of the Czech Republic to the town of Králíky. There are various exhibitions and installations planned in the underground caverns.
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