| Hungarian National Army Magyar Nemzeti Hadsereg[1] (1919–1920) Royal Hungarian National Army Magyar Királyi Nemzeti Hadsereg[2] (1920–1922) Royal Hungarian Army Magyar Királyi Honvédség[3] (1922–1945) | |
|---|---|
.svg) Infantry colour of the Royal Hungarian Army (1939–45) | |
| Active | 6 June 1919[1] – 8 May 1945[1] |
| Country |  Hungarian RepublicKingdom of Hungary |
| Type | Army |
| Size | 115,447 (1920)[4] 35,000 (1921)[4] 57,648 (1930)[4] 85,332 (1937)[4] 1,000,000 (1944)[4] |
| Garrison/HQ | Budapest |
| Nickname | MKH |
| Mottos | Királyért és hazáért[5] "For King and Country" |
| Anniversaries | 28 June[6] |
| Engagements | Subcarpathia Slovak–Hungarian War World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Supreme Warlord | Miklós Horthy(1919–44) Ferenc Szálasi[7](1944–45) |
| Commander-in-Chief | Pál Nagy(1922–25) Hugó Sónyi(1936–40) |
| Chief of the General Staff | Viktor Lorx(1922) Károly Beregfy(1944–45) |
| Notable commanders | Károly Beregfy Lajos Csatay Elemér Gorondy-Novák Gusztáv Jány Géza Lakatos Dezső László Béla Miklós Vilmos Nagy Lajos Veress |
| Insignia | |
| Insignia (1942–1945)[8] | .svg) |
| War Flag (1919–1939)[9] | .svg) |
| War Flag (1939–1945)[10] | .svg) |
TheRoyal Hungarian Army (Hungarian:Magyar Királyi Honvédség,German:Königlich Ungarische Armee) was the name given to the land forces of theKingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945.[11][12][13] Its name was inherited from theRoyal Hungarian Honvéd which went under the same Hungarian title ofMagyar Királyi Honvédség from 1867 to 1918. Initially restricted by theTreaty of Trianon to 35,000 men, the army was steadily upgraded during the 1930s and fought on the side of theAxis powers duringWorld War II.
As a vanquished power inWorld War I, Hungary had hardly grown at all in the immediate post-war years thanks to the territorial demands of its old and new neighbouring states, theKingdom of Romania,Czechoslovakia and theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. TheHungarian Red Army that was formed during the period of theHungarian Soviet Republic, in which many world war veterans enlisted, was defeated by the allied armies in theHungarian–Romanian war of 1919. The consequence was that large areas of Hungary were occupied and many regions that Hungary had claimed were finally lost.
In July 1919 the former Commander-in-Chief of theAustro-Hungarian Navy, AdmiralMiklós Horthy, had begun to set up the "National Army" (Hungarian:Nemzeti Hadsereg) as directed by the opposition government. This was supported by formerk.u.k. officers likeGyula Gömbös,Döme Sztójay andAnton Lehár. After the withdrawal of Romanian troops in 1919/20 they took over the defence of the country, but remained dependent on the goodwill of the victorious powers that had met at theParis Peace Conference.
TheTreaty of Trianon that was signed on 4 June 1920 confirmed Hungary's territorial losses and restricted its armed forces to avolunteer organisation of 35,000 men. Heavy weapons such as heavy artillery, tanks, aircraft and anti-aircraft guns were forbidden as was the creation of ageneral staff. Compliance with these restrictions was supervised by an allied control commission.
On 4 January 1922 the National Army was renamed the Royal Hungarian Army. On 11 May 1922 the new organisation came into being with seven military districts, each defended by amixed brigade (Hungarian:Vegyesdandár). In addition there were two cavalry brigades and three engineer battalions.
The length of military service was three years. Pre-military training under the supervision of army officers was conducted in the youth organisation,Levente, founded in 1921. From the age of ten, boys who wanted to pursue an officer's career, could attend a military middle school. Potential officers were then trained at theLudovica Military Academy in Budapest (for infantry or cavalry) or the János Bolyai College of Military Technology (for artillery, engineering and intelligence troops). Secret general staff courses were run from 1923 onwards. The senior officer corps was predominantly staffed by former k.u.k. officers, of which a disproportionate number were of German-Austrian extraction.
In addition to the army there were other armed organisations that were partly used to create a cadre of training military reservists. The most important of these was the gendarmerie (Hungarian:Csendőrség) which was subordinated to the Interior Ministry and was organised in the same way as the military districts and whose strength in places clearly exceeded that of the regular armed forces. Other organisations that took on ex-soldiers were the police, the customs and border guards and the treasury guard (Finanzwache). The river police (Hungarian:Folyamőrség) who monitored traffic on the RiverDanube with 8 patrol boats initially worked to the Interior Ministry until it was subordinated in January 1939 to the Defence Ministry as a corps of river troops (Hungarian:Magyar Királyi Honvéd Folyami Erők).
Monitoring by the allied control commission ended on 31 March 1927 and in the same year the government ofIstván Bethlen signed a treaty of friendship with FascistItaly which was intended to form a counterweight to the encirclement of Hungary by the powers of theLittle Entente. In the years that followed the armament of the army, which had hitherto still consisted of wartime and pre-war stock, was modernised and, especially underGyula Gömbös, defence minister from 1929, clandestinely expanded.
The re-establishment of an air force had been planned as early as 1920 by the Ministry of Transport and, from 1925, by the Air Office of the Ministry of Trade. On 6 December 1928 theRoyal Hungarian Air Force (Hungarian:Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő) was founded, but its existence was kept secret until 1938.
On 5 March 1938, Prime MinisterKálmán Darányi announced the Győr Programme that envisaged the investment of a billionpengő over 5 years on the expansion of the armed forces. This was probably aimed at securing a rapid agreement with the Little Entente states on arms equality, something that was achieved by theBled agreement in August 1938. The reorganization of the army began on 1 October 1938 under mobilisation plans Huba I-III. In the seven military districts, the mixed brigades were now grouped intocorps of three brigades each (from February 1942, light divisions).
In November 1938 after theFirst Vienna Award, Hungarian troops occupied the disputed areas ofSlovakia andCarpatho-Ukraine. In the occupied region an eighth corps was established. After the break-up ofCzechoslovakia in March 1939, the whole of Carpatho-Ukraine was occupied and, a little later, following the briefSlovak–Hungarian War, a strip of land in East Slovakia.
That yearconscription was re-introduced. A new military service act forced officers with a Jewish parent to withdraw from active service. The remaining Jews, along with members of other national minorities and politically unreliable soldiers, were sent to serve in unarmedlabour battalions.
In March 1940, three field army commands were formed, each of three corps, together with theGyorshadtest ("Rapid Corps"). TheChief of the General Staff now took over the military command that had previously been the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence. He was placed directly under the supreme commander, the regent.
Northern Transylvania, which had been promised to Hungary, was occupied in September 1940, after theSecond Vienna Award and a ninth corps established there. On 20 November 1940, Hungary joined theTripartite Pact.
Although minister president,Pál Teleki, had signed a friendship and non-aggression treaty with Yugoslavia in December 1940, in March 1941 Hungary allowed the GermanWehrmacht to march through Hungarian territory. On 11 April 1941, following Telekis' suicide and by Hitler's invitation, the Hungarian3rd Army joined theBalkans Campaign in the wake of whichBačka,Baranya,Prekmurje andMedjimurje wereannexed.
Unlike their enemy, Romania, Germany did not envisage Hungary participating inOperation Barbarossa and, as a consequence, it was not directly involved in the preparations for the operation. The Chief of the General Staff,Henrik Werth, who was of German origin, pressed however for Hungarian participation in the campaign, supported by the Defence Minister,Károly Bartha. On 21 June, as a gesture to Germany, Hungary broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. A few days after the beginning of the war, on 26 June 1941, aircraft with Soviet markingsbombed the Hungarian occupied towns ofKassa andMunkács, which gave Hungary the pretext to declare war on the Soviet Union.
On 1 July the so-called Carpathian Group (Hungarian:Kárpát Csoport) under Major GeneralFerenc Szombathelyi, consisting of the VIII Corps and the Rapid Corps, crossed the Soviet border and reached theDniester within a week, meeting little Soviet resistance. The VIII Corps then remained as an occupation force in the conquered territory, while the Rapid Corps underBéla Miklós was subordinated operationally to the German17th Army to participate in subsequent operations. It was involved in the battles ofUman andKiev. By the end of October it had reachedIzium on theSeversky Donets, before being recalled in late November to Hungary. Hitler had previously reached an agreement during a meeting with Horthy to provide five Hungarian "security brigades" to protect the hinterland in exchange for the deployment of the Rapid Corps. These were subordinated to the occupation group (Hungarian:Magyar Megszálló Csoport) formed on 6 October 1941, whose headquarters was moved fromVinnytsia toKiev in December.
On 7 Dec 1941, theUnited Kingdom declared war on Hungary who, in return, backed the German-Italian declaration of war on the United States on 13 Dec 1941. On 17 Jan 1942 Romania announced that they were participating in the 1942 campaign with two armies and, five days later, Hungary stated that they were ready to dispatch their own army. On 11 April the2nd Army underGusztáv Jány began moving to the front occupied by the GermanArmy Group South nearKursk. The army took part in the German summer offensive,Fall Blau, that began in June 1942, and reached theRiver Don south ofVoronezh in July, where it moved into defensive positions.
In Jan 1943, the 2nd Army was shattered by a major attack on theVoronezh Front (theOstrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive). The remnants were withdrawn from the front and allocated to occupation forces in Ukraine and southern Belarus. In summer 1943, a wide-ranging re-organization of the army was introduced: theSzabolcs I plan. The hitherto light divisions were largely disbanded and in their place fully fledged infantry and reserve divisions were formed. Two corps with a total of nine security divisions remained in the Soviet Union, where they were increasingly drawn into the fight with the advancingRed Army.
After the Hungarian government ofMiklós Kállay had entered into negotiations with the Western Powers in summer 1943 over a separate peace agreement, Germano-Hungarian relations noticeably worsened. Hungary's refusal to provide troops for the occupation of the Balkans, as well as her demands, to pull occupation troops out of Ukraine and Belarus to defend the homeland, were viewed with suspicion by the Germans. In March 1944 theWehrmacht occupied large parts of Hungary inOperation Margarethe in order to prevent her from leaving the Axis alliance. The largely demobilised Hungarian army offered no resistance. The newly elected government underDöme Sztójay declared itself ready to support the Germans with new deployments of troops.
In April the1st Army underGéza Lakatos was sent to the front inEast Galicia, in order to prevent the Soviets seizing the Carpathian passes. With the help of a newly established line of defence it was able to hold here until July 1944, before it had to pull back into the Carpathians in the face of theLvov–Sandomierz Offensive.
At the end of August 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Armies were mobilised again, in order to defend Transylvania and South Hungary following Romania's change of sides. The 2nd Army was subordinated to Army Group Fretter-Pico. In the wake of theCarpatho-Dukla Offensive andBattle of Debrecen, the Hungarian-German armies were pushed back during September and October into theGreat Hungarian Plain. During these battles, on 15 October,Reichsverweser Horthy was removed by theSS after his unilateral agreement of a ceasefire with the Soviet Union duringOperation Panzerfaust, and theArrow Cross Party underFerenc Szálasitook over the government and control of the army. As a result, the commander of the 1st Army,Béla Miklós, went over to the Soviet side and they installed him as head of an opposition government with its headquarters in Debrecen. Its Defence Minister was ex-Chief of the General Staff,János Vörös, who had also defected to the Soviets.
A 102-day-longSiege of Budapest by troops of the2nd and3rd Ukrainian Fronts began on 3 Nov 1944 and they invested the city until 26 December. Amongst the encircled troops who surrendered on 13 February 1945 that included Wehrmacht and SS units, was the Hungarian I Corps.
The 2nd Hungarian Army was disbanded in December 1944 after suffering heavy losses and the remaining units absorbed into the 3rd Army. The 1st Army pulled back to theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia after the fall of Budapest, where they surrendered in May 1945 to the4th Ukrainian Front. The 3rd Army had taken part in March in the abortivePlattensee Offensive, after which it was largely disbanded. The remnants gave themselves up in May to British and American forces inAustria.
Many Hungarian officers were sentenced and executed for war crimes, includingFerenc Szombathelyi,József Grassy,Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner andLászló Deák inYugoslavia for their part in themassacre at Novi Sad, andKároly Beregfy,Döme Sztójay,Gusztáv Jány andDezső László in Hungary.
| Royal Hungarian River Guard Magyar Királyi Folyamőrség[14] (1921–1939) Royal Hungarian Army River Forces Magyar Királyi Honvéd Folyami Erők[15] (1939–1945) | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1 March 1921[14] – 8 May 1945[16] |
| Country | Kingdom of Hungary |
| Type | Navy |
| Size | c. 1700 personnel[17] |
| Garrison/HQ | Budapest |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Commander[18] | Olaf Richárd Wulff(first) (1921–1933) Ödön Trunkwalter(last) (1944–1945) |
| Insignia | |
| Naval Ensign (1921–1939)[19] | .svg) |
| Naval Ensign (1939–1945)[20] | .svg) |
In April 1919 the Hungarian government established the Naval Forces (Hungarian:Hadihajós csapat,lit. 'warship group') under the authority of the Defence Ministry for the purpose of patrolling the Danube. It was replaced on 1 March 1921 by the civilian Royal Hungarian River Guard (Magyar Királyi Folyamőrség) under the Interior Ministry. Between March 1927 and May 1930, it expanded to about 1700 personnel, a number that held until the end of World War II. On 15 January 1939 the River Guard was renamed the Royal Hungarian Army River Forces (Magyar Királyi Honvéd Folyami Erők) and placed under the Defence Ministry.[15] It used naval ranks until 1 July 1944, when it switched to army ranks. In April 1941 it took part in theinvasion of Yugoslavia. From April 1944 on its minesweepers assisted theKriegsmarine (German navy) in clearing the Danube of aerial mines.[21]
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| National | |
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