In the study, the author deals with the position of J. Tiso as the Prime Minister as well as the creation of his position as the highest military commander at the time when the institutions of the newly originated Slovak Republic were constituted and their mutual relationships still were not exactly determined. The author states that during this constitutional provisional arrangement already, the function of the head of the state was personified in the personality of the Prime Minister, Jozef Tiso. The author argues convincingly that from this point of view, Tiso was accepted also as the highest military commander even prior to the adoption of the Constitution. In this context, he observes his interventions in the matters of national defence, building, personal structure and operation of the army. Logically, the greatest attention is paid to Tiso’s relationship to the Minister of National Defence, gen. Čatloš. The author states here that Tiso did not profile himself in the function of the highest commander of the Slovak military power, which was expressed in his dependence on Čatloš. According to the author, he often proceeded autonomously and had his decisions approved by the government retroactively.
In March 1939, the German Army occupied a part of the western Slovak territory up to the Váh River. The German battalions blocked the Slovak troops in the places of their dislocation, interning a part of soldiers in the barracks and starting to carry away the military material, equipment and armament from the occupied territory. They ignored the protests from the Slovak State civil and military authorities. The author maps the procedure of the occupational German battalions and focuses on the military situation in individual Slovak garrisons. The article presents the crude German pressure to clear the occupied territory, to which the Slovak part surrendered in April 1939.The evacuation of several Slovak garrisons is also described. In spite of the German disapproval, the Slovak symbolic crew guards remained in the occupied territory, however without any actual combat value. Finally, in May 1939, the Germans agreed to bilateral negotiations on the status and border of the occupied territory free of the Slovak military presence.
The study deals with the topic of the guard of honour of President Jozef Tiso. On a relatively large space, the author describes the circumstances of the origin of this Army unit and provides information on its functioning in 1939 – 1940. The author states that Jozef Tiso’s guard of honour was supposed to fulfil two tasks, in particular the ultimate guard and security service at the seat of the head of the state and the task of the honorary unit with special mandate for welcoming important personalities. The military guard of honour should have symbolised the position of Jozef Tiso as the head of the Slovak state and as the commander in chief of the Slovak military power. Did the military Guard of Honour fulfil this mission in the first months of its existence? There are no doubts that it did, outwardly, since the public accepted it. However, it remains a question whether it symbolised and represented the Slovak Army itself. The military Guard of Honour was a selective rather than a professional unit, therefore to a certain extent. It copied the common infantry divisions it was dependent on, including their maladies. The author states that the uncertainties around the origin, inclusion into the military organism, the name and unsuccessful steps in filling the commander posts do not indicate an exclusive and prestigious position inside the military organism.
Since the times of autonomy in the fall of 1938, the Slovak society underwent transformations of the democratic atmosphere towards authoritarian government. One of their goals was to exclude the Jewish population from the political, economic and cultural life by gradual escalation of the discriminative measures. Following the independence of Slovakia in March 1939, a number of legal regulations were adopted, aimed at absolute isolation of the Jewish ethnicity. The author presents, how the anti-Jewish rhetoric reflected in the military environment. Slovak Army as the power institution adapted to the requirements for the radical solution to the “Jewish question” and identified the Jews as the disruptive force and undesirable element for which there is no place in the Army. Since July 1939, they proceeded to creation of the first working units composed of the soldiers of Jewish nationality in active service. Isolation of the Jewish soldiers was markedly enforced during the war campaign on Poland in late summer of 1939, when a large number of reservists were recruited. The Ministry of Interior intended to place all the Jewish men capable of work in the work camps, whereas the Slovak Army was supposed to prepare the command and guard staff for this purpose. The intention of the Ministry of Interior was not successfully implemented. The new Military Service Act of January 1940 excluded Jews from the Slovak military forces and subjected them to work duty.
In his original study, on the basis of detailed analysis of the available archival documents of Slovak origin, Slovak period press and published works of Croatian historians and publicists, the Czech historian introduces the reader to the facts documenting the bilateral cooperation of the Slovak and Croatian aviation during the World War 2. The author considered this information in creating the content of his original study. Apart from the historical facts already published, it contains a number of additional, as yet unpresented, information. From this point of view, this is a beneficial paper, successfully eliminating another one of the blank spots of the Slovak military history. The author introduces the reader to many members of the Croatian and Slovak aviation, as yet little known or even completely unknown to the Slovak professional public. In relation to the Slovak aviation, he brought to light the almost forgotten members of the Slovak Aviation Corps: the non-powered flying officer, Jozef Kalnovič; the technical officer, Štefan Pleško; or the main teachers – gliders (non-powered flying instructors) Pavol Poliaček, Štefan Pagáč and Erik Kvasnička.
Following the declaration of state independence of Slovakia in March 1939, in the eyes of the emerging new state and political power, a number of the former Czechoslovak citizens became Slovak citizens overnight. The author documents how the question of citizenship was treated complexly in the military environment, which was struggling with lack of military staff, mainly at the command level. In the Slovak Army, there were Slovak citizens as well as foreigners serving, often unaware of their new citizenship, but also other soldiers whose citizenship could not be determined with certainty, since the current dominant position of the principle of home affiliation was no longer respected and the national aspect started to be considered, which was dominant towards the members of Czech nationality. The discriminatory measures were then clearly aimed against the Jewish ethnic group, even though most of them had become Slovak citizens.
The Slovak Army originated in March 1939 from the organisational bases of the Czechoslovak Army units dislocated in the Slovak territory. The army had to go through a process of “Slovakization” in order to fulfil the characteristics of a new army, independent of its predecessor. They were searching for their own military tradition, military regulations, and ranks, commands, adapting their external and internal signs to the new order. The army had to deal with the legionary past of their members, which was also related to the Slovakization of the legacy of M. R. Štefánik, a general in French uniform and co-creator of the modern Czechoslovak state. The residua of their predecessor persisted for a long time, for never quite succeeding in making a striking discontinuity with the preceding military period, either in the staffing of the officer or sergeant corps, or in the material equipment or dislocation of their units. Some of the signs or manifestations of the “olden” times remained, only getting a new shade.
After its formation, the Slovak Army went through turbulent changes and suffered from a critical shortage of officers and warrant officers, i.e. educators of Slovak soldiers. The officer and warrant officer ranks were supplemented from the civilian environment, which was not always sympathetic to the idea of an independent Slovak state. Officers and sergeants, not to mention the general duty men themselves, were thus prone to listen to propaganda that was not favourable to the ruling political regime. The army elite dealt with it by bans, appeals to national feeling and military (state) honour. Officers and warrant officers were the bearers of military duties, i.e. the duties of military service and status, such as obedience, loyalty, vigilance, bravery, discipline, and the preservation of military honour. Failure to perform military duties took various forms, including undignified behaviour affecting the military (state) honour itself. Disciplinary proceedings with the participation of disciplinary committees at the level of higher headquarters (divisions), or the main military headquarters and the Ministry of National Defence were used to deal with disciplinary offences of officers and warrant officers. Officers and sergeants needed the approval of the military administration to marry under strictly fixed conditions. It was typical for the Slovak Army that it was forbidden to marry foreign citizens (especially those from Czech lands). The author documents how the conditions were circumvented under the influence of various intercessions, interventions and service and family ties.
During the training in July 1939, 10 Slovak soldiers drowned on the Nitra River. The following month an all-army swimming and rescue course was held for several dozen selected future instructors and non-swimmers. However, it was not possible to initiate a regular swimming training in the Slovak Army for the soldiers to acquire swimming abilities due to a lack of trained physical education officers in military formations, as well as a lack of material base in the form of swimming pools in military garrisons. Swimming and bathing often took place in the open air on watercourses and lakes. These activities were accompanied by insubordination of the soldiers, which increased the risk of accidents and drowning. Orders to prevent them were in many cases carried out only formally. Throughout its existence, the Slovak Army failed to enforce systematic swimming skills training in its own ranks.
Material provision of professional officers and warrant officers was one of the important elements of their on-duty and off-duty life. Service benefits were graded according to military rank, status group, and degree of military and civilian education. They were intended for providing decent housing, procuring the basic life necessities and food, spending a pleasant leave to recuperate, and last but not least, claiming various types of service uniforms. The basis for the payment of service benefits can be found in the practice of the former Czechoslovak Army, where the conditions of entitlement to service salary and other additional allowances were contained in the Czechoslovak service regulation Sm 100 and instead of Czechoslovak crowns, Slovak crowns were quoted at a ratio of 1:1. On the example of individual life situations, the author illustrates how the military administration was able to take care of professional officers and warrant officers, how it financially secured their social status and family background in 1939/1940.
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