Welcome to the web pages concerning the history of Dědice Proving Ground

Dědice Proving Ground is a 5,189-acre Czech Army facility, which is located near the town of Vyškov. Since its establishment in 1935, it served as a training facility for several armies, including the Czechoslovak Army and German Wehrmacht.

The armies which controlled the facility created there a large number of infrastructures for training, namely an extensive variety of pillboxes and other concrete objects. During their service, these pillboxes stood for very sophisticated objects for the training of different types of troops, ranging from infantry to tank troops.

The troop training and construction of the pillboxes are basically divided into three periods—from 1935 to 1939, from 1939 to 1945 and post-1945.

Czech pillbox

From 1935 to 1939, Czechoslovakian Army started several construction projects which aimed to build training pillboxes for the garrisons of defensive pillboxes against potential German invasion to Czechoslovakia. These objects stood for skillfully made training facilities, which were able to create an authentic simulation of combat, and were used not only to train troops but also to rectify potential construction errors of the defensive border pillboxes. In addition to that, in Dědice, the Czechoslovakians built several concrete objects for specific purposes, such as the "Houba" pillbox and the "Granátka". The "Houba" (the Czech for mushroom) pillbox was built in order to protect observers of air bombing training an received its nick due to the resemblance to a mushroom. Being completed in 1938, the second object, "Granátka" (the Czech for Grenade throwing facility), stood for an extremely sophisticated training facility for grenade throwing,

Granátka

which was projected to simulate all situations which were likely to happen in combat. Moreover, it also featured an elaborate command post for conducting and evaluating the training. However, when Wehrmacht occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, there was built only a small number of Czechoslovak pillboxes in Dědice and their potential was never fully exploited.

As hinted above, after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Wehrmacht took control of all former Czechoslovak proving grounds, including Dědice. With the arrival of Wehrmacht, the construction of training facilities in Dědice started to flourish at an unprecedented scale and Wehrmacht gradually worked on larger expansion of the training facilities.

Wehrmacht pillbox

As to the types of concrete objects which were built during the Wehrmacht occupation, they consisted of four basic types: lookouts, infantry shelters, machine-rooms and special objects. The first two types of pillboxes stood for the most widespread German concrete objects in Dědice. These pillboxes were constructed in an extensive number of versions in order to fit into each specific location and, therefore, provide both cover and view of training situation. The heart of the training system was constituted by a group of machine-rooms, which contained a sophisticated engine assembly used for the target pulling. In addition to that, a large proportion of these pillboxes were equipped by a special room used as a

Inside the pillbox

look-out in order to improve the training evaluation. The fourth category, special objects, concerns several pillboxes which served for particular purposes, such as those constructed on the Stříbrná and Vítězná hills. The former one was constructed as a standard look-out; however, due to its advantageous location on the top of the hill, it was extended by adding a tower on the ground floor of the pillbox and, therefore, it provided an extensive view of the Dědice Proving Ground. The latter one, Vítězná, stood for one of the most interesting and mysterious objects in Dědice. This look-out was constructed with an obelisk on its joist, accessible by a stairway, and probably meant as a commemorative monument to Wehrmacht; however, the reasons for its construction are still unknown. Nevertheless, after WWII it was severely damaged and nowadays there are only few remainders of its monumentality left.

Stříbrná

As shown by the variation of the German pillboxes, the Wehrmach training activities in Dědice were held very extensively. In fact, the former area of Czechoslovak proving ground was insufficient and Wehrmacht started to extend the former frontier of Dědice Proving Ground, expatriating inhabitants of the surrounding villages, including Rychtářov, Lhota, Pařezovice and many others. As to the form of the training, its procedures are not fully revealed. Nevertheless, it is supposed that the system of pillboxes was used to pull targets in the shape of infantry and tanks and both troops and artillery trained their combat skills shooting on them. The system was made very sophistically and Wehrmach was able to simulate really genuine battle situations. The training was supervised by a group of observes, whose task was to evaluate the training and give a detailed feedback to troops in order to improve their readiness for combat. Nevertheless, as WWII was heading to its end, Wehrmacht was forced to abandon this proving ground and leave its pillboxes mostly unused. Nowadays, most of the Wehrmacht pillboxes are either damaged or completely destroyed, which hardens the precise recognition of their former functionality.

Vítězná

After the year 1945, Czechoslovak Army mostly abandoned the construction of pillboxes in Dědice and focused on more conventional ways of training. Until the year 1989, Dědice served as the basis for the training of the Warsaw Pact troops, preparing soldiers for the supposed aggression of NATO. And, finally, after the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, respectively the Czech Republic, it was incorporated into the NATO system of proving grounds and became one of the key training grounds of the professional Czech Army.

Due to the fact that the history of this proving ground is extensively interesting, the administrators of these web pages find themselves absorbed in its exploring and consider the publication of their research being worth mentioning. Therefore, we would like to invite you to share our knowledge and discover the peculiarities of Dědice Proving Ground. In addition to that, it is important to highlight that our research is conducted with the permission of the Administration of Dědice Prooving Ground.

These web pages are regularly updated with fresh news and facts; however, their translation into Czech stands for an extensively time-consuming process, but we are doing our best in order to provide their full English version for you. If you have any further questions, please, feel free to contact us via e-mail.

Administrators of vvpdedice.net