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Soon after, Herr Hitler issued two other proclamations. One officially mobilized the Army, which of course had got its real marching papers long before: "Wherever the march meets resistance, it shall be broken immediately and with every means. ..." A third manifesto announced the new triumph to the German people. They showed no emotion. Herr Hitler has never let them think for a minute that any of his adventures have the smallest chance of meeting defeat.
6 a.m. One hour and 45 minutes after the first proclamation was issued the Army's march on Prague began. "Attention! Attention!" blared Czech radios every five minutes all day. "German Army infantry and aircraft are beginning occupation of the republic. . . . The slightest resistance will bring . . . utter brutality. All commands have to obey the order. The units will be disarmed. Military and civil airplanes must remain in airports. . . ."
From dawn until dusk 200,000 tank troops and motorized infantry poured across the border, successively occupying Moravská Ostrava, Pilsen, Koblovice. The huge iron works at Vitkovice were taken (according to the official German News Bureau) "so fast that Communist workmen could not carry out their plans to damage the plant."
Meanwhile in Prague Germans began arrogant demonstrations. Storm Troopers in Henleinist uniforms posted themselves outside German schools. Squads of German students in jack boots and arm bands jostled their way through the bewildered crowds shouting "Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!" When Czech policemen tried to shut up one obstreperous young Storm Trooper, he shouted "Let me alone! The time for all this is over."
9:15 a.m. Repeatedy warned that resistance would be fatal, dazed by surprise, their spirit broken since Munich anyhow, crowds greeted the first armored cars in Prague's streets in dumb despair. Later in the day they grew defiant. Whistles and jeers greeted each new squadron. Groups sang the Czech anthem and wept openly. Some shouted "Pfui! Pfui! go back home!" But the only physical resistance Herr Hitler's tanks met was a volley of snowballs. Down in Prague's Jewish district there was terror. Two lovers shot themselves, a couple jumped from their apartment window. By week's end suicides had mounted to 100.
The soldiers, acting under incredibly detailed orders obviously worked out weeks in advance, closed all banks, took over hotels, invaded barracks to disarm one of the best-equipped armies in Europe, and began to arrest political prisoners from a list of over 2,000. Residents were ordered to fly swastika flags which had been systematically distributed a few days before (ostensibly for the annual memorial to German War dead).
5 p.m. Adolf Hitler had snatched a few minutes' sleep on a train from Berlin to the border, had then driven in swirling snow and over icy roads through Sudeten villages and Czech towns to Prague. There he had an emperor's triumph exactly eight hours after the arrival of his vanguard, exactly 25 hours after having summoned Dr. Hacha to Berlin, exactly one year and a day to the hour after his triumphal entry into Vienna after Anschluss.