| abstract | - With the rise of Hitler and his demands for unification of German minorities (the Sudeten Germans) and return of other claimed territories (the Sudetenland), the alarmed Czechoslovak leadership began defensive plans. While some basic defensive structures were built early on, it was not until after conferences with French military on their designs that a full scale effort began. A change in the design philosophy was noticeable in the "pillboxes" and larger blockhouses similar to the French Maginot line when the massive construction program began in 1936. Construction was very rapid, and by the time of the Munich Agreement in September 1938 about 20% of the heavy objects and 70% of the light objects were completed, however most of the remainder were near completion and would have been functional despite missing certain heavy armaments in some structures. The total planned (and nearly all mostly completed) was 10,014 light pillboxes and 264 heavy blockhouses (small forts). The original plan was to have the first stage of construction finished in 1941-42, whilst the full system should have been completed by early 1950s. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia border regions as a result of the "Sudeten crisis", the Germans used these objects to test and develop new weapons and tactics, plan, and practise the attacks eventually used against the Maginot Line and Belgium's forts (the most notable is Fort Eben-Emael), resulting in astounding success. After the fall of Belgium, France and the low countries, the Germans began to dismantle the "Beneš Wall", blowing up the cupolas, or removing them and the cannon/MG embrasures, some of which were eventually installed in the Atlantic Wall against the Allies. Later in the war, with the Soviet forces to the east collapsing the German front, the Germans hurriedly repaired what they could of the fortifications, often just bricking up the holes where the cannon/MG embrasures once were, leaving a small hole for a machine gun. The east-west portion of the line that ran from Ostrava to Opava which is a river valley with a steep rise to the south, became the scene of intense fighting. It is unknown how vital those fortifications were to German defense, but after hurried patching of some buildings leaving holes for machine-gun nests they where used against the Soviet advance from about April the 17th to the 26th, 1945.[citation needed] During World War II the Germans had removed many armored parts like domes, cupolas and embrasures from the majority of the objects. Some objects became subjects of German penetration shells or explosives testing and are heavily damaged. In the post-war period, many of the remaining armoured parts were scrapped as a result of a loss of their strategic value and general drive for steel. After the war they were further stripped of useful materials, and then sealed. A couple of the large underground structures continued to be used long after as military hardware storage, and some still are to this day, by the now once again independent Czech military, 60 years later.
- Work to improve the Czechoslovak Border Fortifications increased after Germany annexed Austria in early 1938 and was still underway when war between Czechoslovakia and Germany broke out at the end of September of that year. The forts and the rugged terrain stopped the German advance for some weeks, but since none of Czechoslovakia's allies took serious action against the Germans during that period the Wehrmacht was finally able to break through the weaker section near the Austrian border, and cut Czechoslovakia in half.
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