During the autumn 1956 revolution, the army was divided. When the opening demonstrations on 23 October 1956 were fired upon by ÁVH secret policemen, Hungarian troops sent to crush the demonstrators instead provided their arms to the latter or joined them outright. While most major military units in the capital were neutral during the fighting, thousands of rank-and-file soldiers went over to the Revolution or at least provided the revolutionaries with arms. Many significant military units went over to the uprising in full, such as the armored unit commanded by Colonel Pál Maléter which joined forces with the insurgents at the Battle of the Corvin Passage. However, there were 71 recorded clashes between the people and the army between 24 and 29 October in fifty localities; depending on the commander; these were typically either defending certain military targets from rebel attack or fighting the insurgents outright, depending on the commander. When the Soviets crushed the Revolution on 4 November, the Army put up sporadic and disorganized resistance; lacking orders, many of their divisions were simply overpowered by the invading Soviets.