Soldier of the Royal Hungarian Honvéd inparade dress
The wordhonvéd in Hungarian (sometimes "honved" in English sources[4][5][6]) means "defender of the homeland" and first appeared during the1848 revolutions. At that time it was the name given to volunteers who were engaged for several weeks ora gyözelemig (i.e. "until victory") and sent to fight theSerbs andCroats. Subsequently, the bulk of the fighting was against theEmpire of Austria, whereupon a number of regular imperial regiments went over to the Hungarian side. Some volunteers were attached to these existing regiments and some joined new regular regiments. Consequently, the termhonvéd was used to refer to all members of the Hungarian land forces in 1848-49. The Honvéd was finally defeated by Austria with Russian assistance.
Around 40% of the private soldiers in the Hungarian Revolutionary Volunteer Army consisted of ethnic minorities of the country.[7]During the Hungarian revolution, around half of the officers and generals of the Hungarian Honvéd Army had foreign origin. There were at least as many ethnic Hungarian professional officers in the Imperial Habsburg army as in the Hungarian revolutionary Honvéd army.[8]
Following theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Royal Hungarian Honvéd was restored for Hungary, and theImperial-Royal Landwehr was created for Austria, but both states had to continue to finance the Austro-HungarianCommon Army, much larger than both. A common Austro-Hungarian War Ministry was formed immediately for the large Common Army, but it had no right to command directly the smaller Austrian Landwehr and the Hungarian Honvéd armies, which were respectively placed under the direct control of the separate Austrian and Hungarian Ministries of Defence. The Austrian and Hungarian Ministers of Defence were not placed under the command and jurisdiction of the Common War Ministry; they were subordinated only to their own prime ministers and the respective parliaments in Vienna and Budapest.[9] The Hungarian Honvéd army could join the imperial army only with the explicit authorization of the Hungarian government.[10]
The monarch became the supreme warlord, holding all authority over the structure, organization, and administration of the army. He appointed the senior officials, had the right to declare war, and was the commander-in-chief of the army.
On 21 May 1893 the Honvéd Memorial was unveiled inBudapest in commemoration of the deeds of the Hungarian national army during theHungarian Revolution of 1848-49. From 1919 to 1945,Honvédség was also a name given to theRoyal Hungarian Army.
Usually the termLandwehr implies units of limited fighting power. This was not the case in the Hungarian Honvéd. Although weaker in numbers - there were only threebattalions perinfantryregiment instead of the usual four in theCommon Army - the troops were regular combat soldiers and were highly trained.
The Royal Hungarian Honvéd was divided into the Hungarian Honvéd and theRoyal Croatian Home Guard (also called the Croatian-Slavonian Landwehr). TheCroatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 granted the Croats the right to introduceCroatian as their working and command language within their units. In addition, the Croatian-Slavonian Honvéd units were subordinated to theBan inAgram and not to the National Defence Minister inBudapest. However, both Ban and the Defence Minister were subordinated to thePrime Minister of Hungary .
In peacetime the officers of the Hungarian Honvéd either transferred from regular Hungarian regiments of the Common Army (K.u.K.) or graduated from the Ludovika Military Academy (a cadet school opened in 1872 specifically for the training of Honvédofficers) in Budapest. From 1869 onward the rank and file soldiers of the Honvéd were recruited as part of the general conscription process of the Common Army with individual Hungarian conscripts being allocated to specific K.u.K. or Honvéd regiments according to the numbers required. Entry to the Honvéd contingent or to the Common Army was decided by drawing lots.[11] Enlisted at the age of 21 the Honvéd soldier usually undertook 24 months of active service before passing into the reserve. The commitment for compulsory service ended at the age of 36.[12]
The Royal Hungarian Honvéd was the standing army of Hungary. A part of the Honvéd was theRoyal Croatian Home Guard (Kraljevsko hrvatsko domobranstvo), which consisted of 1 infantry division (out of 7 in the Honvéd) and 1 cavalry regiment (out of 10 in the Honvéd). Its order of battle at the outbreak of theFirst World War in 1914 was as follows (Hungarian designations listed in singular form):
6 Landwehr districts (honvéd katonai kerület)
2 infantry divisions (honvéd gyalogos hadosztály)
2 cavalry divisions (honvéd lovassági hadosztály)
4 infantry brigades (honvéd gyalogosdandár)
12 independent infantry brigades (honvéd önálló gyalogdandár)
4 cavalry brigades (honvéd lovasdandár)
32 infantry regiments (honvéd gyalogezred)
10 regiments of hussars (honvéd huszárezred)
8 field artillery regiments (honvéd tábori ágyúsezred)
In 1915, units of the whole Army that had nicknames or honorific titles lost them by order of the War Ministry. Thereafter units were designated only by their numerical designation, but the practice of honoric titles remained in the Honvéd.
The history of Austro-Hungarian forces is documented in detail in theMilitary History Museum in Vienna, which was founded by EmperorFranz Joseph I as the Imperial-Royal Court Armaments Museum (k.k. Hofwaffenmuseum). In a special display cabinet in Hall V (the Franz Joseph Hall) of the museum, several uniforms of the Imperial Royal Landwehr are displayed, a relief on the rear of the cabinet shows the territories from which the Hungarian Landwehr and theImperial Royal Landwehr recruited.[14]
^Austro-Hungarian Infantry,Royal Hungarian Landwehr (Honvéd) section, at www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk. Accessed on 18 Jul 2013
^Steed, Henry Wickham; Phillips, Walter Alison and Hannay, David (1914).A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland, Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
^Ortner, M. C. and Artlieb, Erich (2003).With Drawn Sword: Austro-Hungarian Edged Weapons from 1848 to 1918. Verlag Militaria.
^Tucker, Spencer C. (2005).World War One, Volume 1, p. 1053.
^League of Nations (1938).Armaments yearbook; general and statistical information, League of Nations publications. p. 426.
^JPRS Report: East Europe, Issues 23-31, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1992, p. 18.
Allmayer-Beck, Johann Christoph and Lessing, Erich (1974).Die K.u.k. Armee. 1848–1918 ("The Imperial and Royal Army 1848-1918"), Verlag Bertelsmann, Munich, 1974,ISBN3-570-07287-8.
k.u.k. KriegsministeriumDislokation und Einteilung des k.u.k Heeres, der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, der k.k. Landwehr und der k.u. Landwehr ("Location and Organization of the k.u.k. Army, the k.u.k. Navy, the k.k. Landwehr and the k.u. Landwehr") in Seidel'skleines Armeeschema – published by Seidel & Sohn, Vienna, 1914
Rest, Stefan, Ortner, M. Christian and Ilmig, Thomas (2002).Des Kaisers Rock im 1. Weltkrieg ("The Emperor's Coat in the First World War"). Verlag Militaria, Vienna.ISBN978-3950164206
k.u.k. Kriegsministerium (1911/12).Adjustierungsvorschrift für das k.u.k. Heer, die k.k. Landwehr, die k.u. Landwehr, die verbundenen Einrichtungen und das Korps der Militärbeamten ("Dress Regulations for the k.u.k. Army, the k.k. Landwehr, the k.u. Landwehr, the Associated Organizations and the Corps of Military Officials"), Vienna.
