31 August – 3 September 1944 Four days in the gorgeŠtyri dni v tiesňave

The Slovak National Uprising began on 29 August 1944, and within two days German battle groups were pushing east out of Žilina toward the insurgent centre at Banská Bystrica. The only road and the only railway ran through the Strečno gorge, so the gorge is where the uprising had to make its stand. From 31 August to 3 September 1944 some two to three thousand insurgents — the Žilina garrison under Major Jozef Dobrovodský, the Martin garrison under Lieutenant Colonel Emil Perko, and partisans of the 1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of M. R. Štefánik — held the narrows against a larger German force with tanks, howitzers and aircraft. The Germans took the pass on the fourth day; what they gained was a wrecked stretch of railway and four days lost, and those four days were the whole point.Slovenské národné povstanie vypuklo 29. augusta 1944 a o dva dni už nemecké bojové skupiny tlačili zo Žiliny na východ, k povstaleckému centru v Banskej Bystrici. Jediná cesta aj jediná železnica viedli strečnianskou tiesňavou — a tak sa povstanie muselo postaviť práve tam. Od 31. augusta do 3. septembra 1944 držali úžinu dvetisíc až tritisíc povstalcov — žilinská posádka majora Jozefa Dobrovodského, martinská posádka podplukovníka Emila Perka a partizáni 1. československej partizánskej brigády M. R. Štefánika — proti presile s tankami, húfnicami a letectvom. Nemci priesmyk na štvrtý deň dobyli; získali rozbitý úsek železnice a stratili štyri dni — a práve o tie štyri dni celý čas šlo.