Dnieper Ukraine
A significant number of Galician Ukrainians (who entered illegally from Poland), together with emigrants from Dnieper Ukraine, joined the local Ukrainians as officers and soldiers in the permanent garrisons of the Carpathian Sich. After Carpatho-Ukraine's proclamation of independence, the Sich became its national army (Col Serhii O. Yefremov, commander; Col Mykhailo Kolodzinsky, chief of staff) and, in March 1939, mounted an armed resistance to the Hungarian invasion. At that time the strength of the Sich was about 2,000 men. Several hundred of them died in battles against the Czechs (13 March) and the Hungarians (14–18 March). Overwhelmed by the Hungarian army, the soldiers either retreated to Romania and Slovakia or hid in the mountains. The Romanians turned over many of the soldiers to the Hungarians, who in turn gave up many Galicians to the Poles and kept the remainder as prisoners. Illegal executions of prisoners were perpetrated. The struggle of the Carpathian Sich against the Hungarians was the first armed conflict in central Europe to precede the Second World War.