Pappenheim looked into the water: already in the first months of the battles on the Eastern Front, the Hungarian ground units, which were used by the German command mainly to pursue the retreating Red Army troops, suffered significant losses. Only the Hungarian mobile corps continued to participate in the battles, which included cavalry, motorized and tank formations. But parts of the so-called "Carpathian Corps", which consisted of the 8th border brigade and the 1st mountain rifle brigades, were actively used by the Germans as occupation troops.
In the fall of 1941, the battered mobile hull was withdrawn from the front. The German command demanded that Hungary put forward a significant contingent of occupation forces as a replacement. The political leadership of Hungary began to send rifle brigades, which were stationed in two different regions, to ensure occupation activities on the territory of the USSR. The 111th, 123rd and 124th brigades were deployed in Ukraine in the Poltava region, where it was relatively calm. But in the south of the Bryansk forests, where the 102nd, 105th and 108th infantry brigades were deployed, the picture was completely different - partisans were operating there.
The Hungarian units, as well as the SD (German Sicherheitsdienst - security service) and GFP (German Geheime Feldpolizei - secret field police) units responsible for this territory, had to work closely with each other - until the summer of 1942, each Hungarian division had a group of GUFs was seconded, consisting of 50-60 people. These police groups were divided into 6-8 groups and distributed among the Hungarian battalions. Their task was to interrogate local residents and captured partisans, as well as to carry out the sentences of the military court. Therefore, when considering the atrocities of the Hungarian occupation forces on the territory of the USSR, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the Hungarian occupation forces all the time acted together either with the Germans or under German control. However, the Hungarians themselves in their punitive actions against the civilian population were zealous beyond all measures.
This was especially evident in the actions of the divisions that ended up at the border of the RSFSR and Belarus. For example, a multi-week military operation to clear the Bryansk forests from partisans by the forces of the 102nd and 105th light divisions, which ended on May 30, 1942, ended, according to Hungarian data, with the following results: 4375 "partisans and their accomplices" were destroyed, 135 prisoners, and only 449 rifles, as well as 90 assault rifles and machine guns were captured from weapons. From this it is possible to draw a quite definite conclusion - the overwhelming majority of the liquidated "partisans" did not have any weapons.
The total losses of the "partisans" were almost nine times higher than the losses of the attackers, and from the indicated number of captured weapons it follows that at most 600-700 partisans could have died in battles, the rest were civilians. Similar actions in 1941-1942. were carried out repeatedly. In total, the Hungarian occupation forces from November 1941 to August 1942, according to incomplete data, destroyed 25-30 thousand "partisans", while it is obvious that the overwhelming majority of them were civilians.
Over time, the Germans realized that Hungarian methods in no way contribute to a real fight against the partisans. This is evidenced, for example, by the report of Lieutenant Colonel Cruvel:
“Taking into account the enemy's propaganda, their (Hungarian) indiscipline and absolutely arbitrary behavior towards the local population could only harm German interests. Looting, rape and other crimes were common. An additional dislike of the local population was obviously caused by the fact that the Hungarian troops could not defeat the enemy in hostilities. "
Since 1943, the Hungarian occupation forces have carried out fewer and fewer major actions against the partisans. One of their main tasks was to ensure the safety of the railway: for this, the Hungarian formations stretched for thousands of kilometers. Due to the huge territory, the protection of the railway could only be solved with the help of fortified outposts, located several hundred meters from each other, which kept under control the strip cleared of vegetation on both sides of the railway embankment. However, the Hungarians, of course, did not forget about the punitive actions against civilians.
War crimes of the Hungarians
The Hungarian occupation units were zealously sowing fear and horror on the occupied land. Here are just a few examples. Peasant woman of the Sevsky district of the Bryansk region V.F. Mazerkova:
“When they saw the men of our village, they said they were partisans. And the same number, i.e. On May 20, 1942, they seized my husband Mazerkov Sidor Borisovich, born in 1862, and my son Mazerkov Alexei Sidorovich, born in 1927, and tortured them, and after these torments they tied their hands and threw them into a pit, then lit straw and burned them in a potato pit. On the same day, they not only burned my husband and son, they also burned 67 men ”.
The partisans captured by the Hungarians are for some reason very similar to ordinary people. 1942 - "There is no room for indulgence ..." | Military-historical portal Warspot.ru
The partisans captured by the Hungarians, for some reason, are very similar to ordinary inhabitants. 1942 year
Peasant woman of the same area E. Vedeshina:
“It was in the month of May, 28th day of 1942. I and almost all the inhabitants went into the forest. These thugs also followed there. They are in our place, where we (inaudible) with our people, shot and tortured 350 people, including my children were tortured: daughter Nina 11 years old, Tonya 8 years old, little son Vitya 1 year old and son Kolya 5 years old. I was barely alive under the corpses of my children. "
A resident of the village of Karpilovka R.S. Troy:
“In our village Karpilovka, only Hungarian units (Magyars) perpetrated atrocities and atrocities, especially in the period from May to August 1943 [...] they ordered us to take shovels, gathered us to an anti-tank ditch about 40 people and ordered us to bury an anti-tank ditch with shot corpses. […] The moat was about 30 meters long and 2 meters wide. The corpses lay in a mess, and it was difficult to establish traces of firearms, for it was a bloody mess of old men, old women and teenagers. There was a terrible picture, and I could not look closely where their wounds were and where they were shot. "
The Honvedians also did not stand on ceremony in their treatment of Soviet prisoners of war. For example, during the retreat in 1943 from the Chernyansky district of the Kursk region, the Hungarian military units drove away 200 Red Army prisoners of war and 160 civilians from the local concentration camp. On the way, all of them were closed in the school building, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot.
The caption to the original photo says that Hungarian soldiers are talking to an arrested Red Army soldier. Judging by his clothes, in fact, he could be anyone - "There is no room for indulgence ..." | Military history portal Warspot.ru
The caption to the original photo says that Hungarian soldiers are talking to an arrested Red Army soldier. Judging by his clothes, he could actually be anyone
There are also eyewitness memories. Former prisoner of war, military doctor of the 3rd rank Vasily Petrovich Mamchenko spoke about the regime in the Dulag-191 concentration camp, located at a brick factory:
“The prisoners were herded into brick-drying sheds, where there were no windows or a ceiling. They slept on bare ground. The sick and wounded were in the same conditions. There were no medicines or dressings available. The wounds of the patients festered, worms grew in them, gas gangrene developed, and there were often cases of tetanus. The camp regime was very cruel; the prisoners worked for 10-12 hours on earthworks. They were fed in the morning and in the evening with gruel - warm water and flour, a few spoons each. Occasionally, as a handout, they cooked rotten horse meat. The camp doctor Steinbach did not have the specialty of a surgeon, but he practiced operations on prisoners and killed many. When hungry soldiers on their way to work bent over to pick up beets or potatoes dropped from the wagon, Magyar guards shot them on the spot.
The 3rd rank military doctor Ivan Alekseevich Nochkin, who lived in captivity in this camp for six months, said that on September 17, 1942, when the prisoners of war were at work, the Nazis put explosives in the stove of the barrack, which housed 600 people. Returning from work in the evening, people lit the stove. A deafening explosion followed. Those who tried to escape through the doors were shot by Hungarian guards. Corpses filled the entrance. The acrid smoke choked the people, and they burned out. 447 people died.
The graves of Hungarian soldiers in the village of Polnikovo, Ukolovsky District, Voronezh Region (now Krasnensky District, Belgorod Region). Two soldiers were killed on July 21, 1942 in a nearby forest. By whom and how - it is not known, probably, the Red Army men leaving the encirclement, but local residents were accused of involvement in this. In the late 90s of the last century, the remains of the Hungarians were exhumed and reburied at the united Hungarian cemetery in the Voronezh region - "There is no place for indulgence ..." | Military history portal Warspot.ru
The graves of Hungarian soldiers in the village of Polnikovo, Ukolovsky District, Voronezh Region (now Krasnensky District, Belgorod Region). Two soldiers were killed on July 21, 1942 in a nearby forest. By whom and how - it is not known, probably, the Red Army men leaving the encirclement, but local residents were accused of involvement in this. In the late 90s of the last century, the remains of the Hungarians were exhumed and reburied at the united Hungarian cemetery in the Voronezh region
Maria Kaidannikova, a resident of the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh Region:
“There was a bright fire burning there. Two Magyars held the prisoner by the shoulders and legs and slowly roasted his belly and legs over the fire. They either raised him above the fire, then lowered him lower, and when he was quiet, the Magyars threw his body face down on the fire. Suddenly the prisoner twitched again. Then one of the Magyars thrust a bayonet into his back on a grand scale.
German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels made a very remarkable assessment of the actions of the Hungarian troops against the Soviet population in his diary. Describing the situation in the Bryansk region in May 1942, he noted:
“To the south of this region, Hungarian formations are fighting. They need to occupy and pacify one village after another. When Hungarians claim that they have pacified a particular village, it usually means that there is not a single inhabitant left there. This, in turn, means for us that we will hardly be able to carry out any agricultural work in such an area. "
It was necessary to be able to make Goebbels regret the excessive sacrifices among the "Untermensch". The Hungarians did it. It is not surprising that in our time the elderly residents of the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod regions, recalling the times of the occupation, say that the Hungarians were worse than the Germans.
The Hungarian government at the state level declared the soldiers of their state heroes, who fought in World War II on the side of the Nazis. However, Russian participants in the Great Patriotic War remember that Hungarian units were often no less cruel than the most inhuman Nazi executioners.
Ways and victims of bullying
In accordance with the report of the head of the Political Directorate of the Voronezh Front, Lieutenant General S. Shatilov, in the Voronezh region, Hungarian soldiers (Shatilov calls them "Magyars") in 1942 became famous for their inhuman cruelty towards the civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers.
For example, they cut a lieutenant who fell into their hands with a knife and then killed; the political instructor who received a serious wound was mutilated by carving stars on his body. Several cartridges of a civilian were found in the possession of a villager. The Hungarians violated the female population in the captured villages of the Voronezh region, and able-bodied residents, from 13-year-old children to 80-year-old elders, were taken to the rear for forced labor.
Magyars were noted for their cruelty in the Bryansk region. A villager A. Krutikhin testified that in his village the Hungarians killed everyone who did not have time to hide, and many women and girls were abused. The Magyars stole farm animals from the villages, looted, robbed homes, were engaged in robbery. A resident of one of the villages, V. Mazerkova, reported that in her settlement the Magyars burned alive about 70 people in a potato pit, mistaking them for people's avengers.
Hungarian soldiers take prisoners of the Red Army, 1941
The abandoned villages of the Bryansk region, from where the inhabitants fled into the thicket, were turned by the Hungarians into ashes. If there were still inhabitants, they were all killed mercilessly. According to the story of a peasant woman from the village. Svetlovo, she and her fellow villagers returned from the forest to the charred houses - the Magyars tore off even the things disguised by the villagers in the pits, and drove off the cattle. According to information from the archive, only in 3 villages of the Sevsky district of the Bryansk region the Magyars killed more than 400 peasants.
"Vogelsang": "Songbird" and other punitive operations
Hungarian cavalry on the street of one of the captured Soviet cities
In the process of carrying out this punitive action in the Bryansk region in 1942, Hungarian formations liquidated more than 1,000 people's avengers, over 1,500 were wounded, and 12,000 peasants were drained of blood. In addition, the Magyars took part in the punitive operations "The Gypsy Baron" ("Zigeunerbaron") and "Help in a Neighborhood" ("Nachbarhilfe"), during which in the Bryansk region and in the Kursk region in 1942 several were destroyed and brutally tortured. thousands of underground workers and civilians.
Retribution to the Hungarians According to the leadership of the Voronezh Front, in the winter of 1942 the 2nd Army of the Hungarians was completely defeated by the units of the Red Army. About 150,000 Hungarian soldiers were killed, injured or captured. The bulk of the tanks, horses and shells in the vicinity of Voronezh lost the Magyars.
This was the most serious defeat of the Hungarian units during their existence. According to historians, this defeat in scale can be compared with the Battle of Stalingrad - the Hungarians did not manage to recover their strength until the end of the Great Patriotic War. The Magyars no longer posed great danger as a national armed force within the Hitlerite army.
Hungarians in Soviet captivity
The cruelty, atrocities and crimes of the Magyars were clarified after the liberation of the Russian villages and villages by the Red Army. For example, according to the reports of the leadership of the Soviet troops, in the Chernyansky district of the Kursk region in 1943, the Hungarians burned alive 360 \u200b\u200bcaptured Russian soldiers and civilians. In the same region on the Kharyevka farm, the allies of the Germans mutilated 4 Red Army soldiers with bayonets and buried them alive in the soil. In the Voronezh region (in Ostogozhsk), a woman from the local population witnessed the blatant cruelty committed against a captured Soviet soldier: the Magyars burned him at the stake and then stabbed him with a bayonet.
Magyar cross near Voronezh
According to Russian archives, approximately 300,000 Hungarian soldiers died during World War II, and more than 500,000 were captured. In 1950, a secret order was issued on the return of Hungarians and Romanians to their homeland. In accordance with this order, the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs had to carefully check the prisoners of war for their participation in punitive actions during the Great Patriotic War. Several hundred Hungarians, after such checks, received prison terms and were sent to the camps, and many Magyars were sentenced to capital punishment.
Bartfoy Szabo Laszlo recalls:
“The mass of people was already spinning at the same level where we stood, where we stood about a minute ago. to make it easier to run in deep snow.
One officer on horseback with a whip in his hands waved over the soldiers and yelled in an abnormal voice: "Back to the car! Pigs, back to the car!" But all the threats, all the shouts were useless, no one stopped and no one went back to drag the car stuck in the snow. Among the horses that were dragging the sleigh, there were many wounded, blood flowed from them in a stream, one after another they fell, and those who were walking behind trampled them.
From the side of the dam, the flow of people did not stop. I didn’t think that there were so many groups in front of us, I went ahead so that all the soldiers could see me and, pointing to the road, shouted: “Look! Look! This is what the army looks like when it has lost its head, when order is disturbed. Are they soldiers? Look! Look! " My voice dropped. I turned away so that they would not see that I was crying. "
The military doctor of the 116th military hospital of the 2nd Hungarian army Shomoriai Lajos described the January events of 1943 in his diary:
"January 13. At night the air temperature dropped to -35 degrees, during the day it was about -25. We live quietly. I lost my last hope.
January 17. Warm clothes and felt boots are vital. I received bad news yesterday: a major Russian offensive has begun south of Voronezh. They wedged themselves into the Hungarian defense. I think this is about our corps. It is terrible to imagine a retreat in such a frost.
January 19. Finally, we all know. According to the retreating stories, 80,000 Russians, supported by 300 tanks, attacked the Hungarians on an 8-kilometer front. The 7th Corps was the intended victim.
The Hungarians, exhausted by the year of the war, could not hold the defense, and the front line spread like butter, and everyone fled wherever they looked. The panic was terrible. The wounded died from the cold.
For several days retreating went without food or water in a 40-degree frost. Those who lagged behind the columns became related to death. Russian tanks and infantry pursued the Hungarians at a shot distance. The 7th corps was destroyed, 60% of the personnel were killed. The discipline is completely lost. I was saved from certain death, as I was not on the front line, but in the rear hospital.
January 26. The traffic is poorly organized. No horse feed. In this cold, 1000 of our horses stand out in the open all night. The rank and file have not received food for 3 days. How do they live? Riddle. I eat canned food, which I have kept in reserve for six months. Now they are useful. I bought 10 potatoes for 2 marks. Gypsy life is boring, but this is life.
January 27. Yesterday we received an order: "The 2nd Hungarian Army has lost its pride! The enemy has crushed our battle formations. It's not a shame. It's a shame, the shameful flight of the maddened soldiers, who turned into rabble ...".
This is what we got, our soldiers, who were on full combat readiness for 10 months against a superior in numbers, better armed and trained enemy, fanatically fighting to the last patron of Russian soldiers.
We are forced to fight without faith, with poor supplies and weapons, on foreign territory and not defending our homeland. This is gratitude to those who passed through the pitch hell, a handful of surviving soldiers.
This is a funeral speech for the dead Hungarians who fought for other people's interests far from their homeland and for the most part are lying unburied in the endless Russian snow-covered steppes. "
Colonel Hunyadwari reported in his report:
“The Soviet partisans, having captured and disarmed the retreating Hungarian soldiers, talked to them and released them, shaking hands in a friendly manner and saying:“ ... We will not touch you, go home to Hungary. ”According to the Moscow radio, as well as according to witnesses , the partisans supplied lard and bread to the exhausted and hungry Hungarians detained by them.
I want to note the ruthless, rude, violent behavior of the German soldiers, which played an important role in the difficulties of retreat. They drove our people (commanders and privates alike) who were looking for a place to warm up from their homes, attics, etc., so that even in the most severe frosts our people could not find a roof over their heads. "
The Chief of Staff of the 2nd Hungarian Army, Major General Kovacs, in his report:
"The combat morale of the army has dropped quite enough. In the material sense, we are finished. Only 6 guns have been saved. Everything else, probably, remained on the battlefield ...
Most of the anti-aircraft guns, like the rest of the weapons, have been lost. Numerous wounded were still saved, many of them, however, suffer from frostbite. The entire army is retreating. In the Oskol valley, 17,000 people have gathered so far, who still had weapons.
I can't talk about battalions because they no longer exist. We can only talk about a large crowd of people! Many soldiers are unarmed. What I have experienced here has been the greatest disappointment of my life. Before the Soviet offensive, everyone was a hero, operations were carried out, and then, after they succeeded in breaking through from the 4th Infantry Regiment, everything burst like a soap bubble ... "
The commander of the army, Colonel-General Gustav Jani, issued an order in which he accused his troops of cowardice, that on the battlefield they finally lost their honor:
“With a firm hand, if necessary - through execution on the spot, order and iron discipline must be restored, without exception, whether an officer or a common soldier is guilty.
Whoever does not obey my order is not worthy to continue dragging out his miserable life, and I will not tolerate if someone else increases our shame ...
Our sector of the front was taken over by the German troops, which deserve admiration. We do not deserve it and until then we can not count on it, until we become again fully capable of fighting the army ... ".
When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Hungary decided to take full-scale participation in hostilities.
After June 27, a northern Hungarian town was bombed from the air by an unknown plane, Hungary terminated diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and declared war on it. The Hungarian army elite expected a quick German victory. At the end of June, Hungarian units were sent to the Eastern Front. Some of them advanced deep into Soviet territory together with German shock groups, while others provided security in the rear of the German troops.
Subsequently, to its chagrin, Hungary found itself at war with Great Britain and the United States. The United States declared war on Hungary on June 5, 1942. In January 1942, under strong German pressure, Bardoshi promised to send additional troops to the Eastern Front. On March 9, 1942, primarily due to Germany's inability to quickly defeat the Soviet Union, Horthy dismisses Bardoshi. He appoints Miklos Kallai as prime minister, who continues his policy of open support for Germany, but at the same time holds secret negotiations with Anglo-Saxon forces in the hope of pulling Hungary out of the war. Meanwhile, in the period from April to June 1942, the 2nd Hungarian army of more than 200 thousand people is sent to the Eastern Front to strengthen the German group.
The Hungarian forces in the Soviet Union were insufficiently armed, and the available weapons were outdated, and poorly organized supplies led to a shortage of ammunition. The catastrophic defeat of the 2nd Hungarian Army in the Voronezh region during the winter of 1943 led to more than 120 thousand casualties alone, and was perceived in Hungary as a national tragedy. Captured Hungarian Soldiers After such a blow, Kallai, more convinced than ever, tried to pull Hungary out of the war. His secret diplomatic activities intensified, and his participation in military operations was sharply limited. This infuriated Hitler, who wanted Hungary's full participation in the war. Hitler was also upset by the secret negotiations between the Hungarian government and Western allies aimed at the withdrawal of Hungary from the war. He was well informed of these negotiations from pro-German sources in the Budapest government.
Alarmed by the attempts of the Hungarian government to withdraw from the war, on March 19, 1944, Hitler sent German troops to occupy Hungary and force it to further participate in the war on the side of Germany. Under German pressure, Horthy was forced to appoint Deme Stoyai, a former Hungarian ambassador to Berlin known for his pro-German sentiments, as prime minister. Anti-fascist parties were banned and politicians who were hostile to Germany were arrested. The Hungarian government was also forced to send additional forces to the Eastern Front to fight the Red Army. But the occupation also led to a weakening of the economic importance of Hungary to the Reich, due to significant costs of maintaining troops, mass arrests and deportation of Jews, as well as increased bombing by the Allies. In an attempt to weaken German influence, on August 29, 1944, Horthy appoints a new prime minister, Gez Lakatos, who ordered units of the Hungarian army to launch an offensive in southern Transylvania in order to delay the Soviet-Romanian invasion.
Realizing that the end of the war was near, Horthy sent a delegation to Moscow to negotiate an armistice with the Soviet Union, which was signed on October 11, 1944. On October 15, 1944, Horthy announces over the radio Hungary's unconditional surrender. But due to a lack of coordination with the chief of staff of the Hungarian army, Janos Vorosh, the army continued to fight, and Horthy's attempt to surrender failed. German units entered Budapest and forced Horthy to cede power to Ferenc Salashi, the leader of the pro-German fascist Arrow Cross Party. Horthy was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Germany with his family.
During the short reign of Salash, a kingdom of terror was established in Hungary. Thousands of people, including many Jews who took refuge in Budapest, were arrested and executed, or sent to concentration camps. Meanwhile, the Soviet army continued to advance, and in December 1944 they laid siege to Budapest. Two and a half months later, the remnants of the German forces in Buda surrendered, and on January 20, 1945 in Moscow, representatives of the Hungarian government signed an armistice. Most of the hostilities in the country ended in February 1945, but the last German units were driven off Hungarian soil only in April 1945. The country got rid of German military control and came under Soviet control.
Fans of rewriting history should familiarize themselves with the dry numbers of a brief description of the Hungarian army and its actions during the Second World War. Which, almost in full force, until the last day fought with the anti-Hitler coalition.
The main goal of Hungary's foreign policy was to return the territories lost after the First World War. In 1939, Hungary began to reform its Armed Forces (Honvédség). The brigades were deployed into army corps, a mechanized corps and an air force were created, prohibited by the Trianon Treaty of 1920.
In August 1940, in accordance with the decision of the Vienna Arbitration, Romania returned Northern Transylvania to Hungary. The eastern Hungarian border passed along a strategically important line - the Carpathians. Hungary concentrated the 9th ("Carpathian") corps on it.
On April 11, 1941, Hungarian troops occupied a number of areas in northern Yugoslavia. Thus, Hungary returned part of its lost in 1918 - 1920. territories, but became completely dependent on the support of Germany. The Hungarian army met almost no resistance from the Yugoslav troops (except for the April 8 raid of Yugoslav aircraft on German military bases in Hungary) and occupied the main city of the Yugoslav left bank of the Danube, Novi Sad, where mass Jewish pogroms took place.
The armed forces of Hungary by mid-1941 totaled 216 thousand people. They were led by the head of state with the help of the Supreme Military Council, the General Staff and the War Ministry.
Military parade in Budapest.
The ground forces had three field armies with three army corps each (the country was divided into nine districts according to the zones of responsibility of the army corps) and a separate mobile corps. The state army corps consisted of three infantry brigades (Dandar), a cavalry squadron, a mechanized howitzer battery, an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, a reconnaissance aircraft link, a sapper battalion, a communications battalion, and rear units.
The infantry brigade, modeled after the Italian two-regimental division, according to the peacetime state had one infantry regiment of the first stage and one reserve infantry regiment (both of three battalion composition), two field artillery divisions (24 guns), a cavalry detachment, air defense companies and communications, 139 light and heavy machine guns. Regimental platoons and heavy weapons companies each had 38 anti-tank rifles and 40 anti-tank guns (mainly 37 mm caliber).
Standard infantry armament consisted of a modernized 8mm Mannlicher rifle and Solothurn and Schwarzlose assault rifles. In 1943, during the unification of the weapons of Germany's allies, the caliber was changed to the standard German 7.92 mm. In the course of hostilities, 37 mm German-made anti-tank guns and Belgian-made 47 mm anti-tank guns gave way to heavier German guns. The artillery used Czech-made mountain and field guns of the Skoda system, howitzers of the Skoda, Beaufort and Rheinmetall systems.
The mechanized corps consisted of Italian CV 3/35 tankettes, Hungarian armored vehicles of the Csaba system and light tanks of the Toldi system.
Each corps had an infantry battalion equipped with trucks (in practice, a bicycle battalion), as well as an anti-aircraft and engineering battalion, and a communications battalion.
In addition, the Hungarian Armed Forces included two mountain rifle brigades and 11 border brigades; numerous labor battalions (formed, as a rule, from representatives of national minorities); small units of the Life Guards, Royal Guards and Parliamentary Guards in the capital of the country - Budapest.
By the summer of 1941, the battalions were equipped with tanks by about 50%.
In total, the Hungarian ground forces had 27 infantry (mostly framed) brigades, as well as two motorized, two border chasseurs, two cavalry, and one mountain rifle brigade.
The Hungarian Air Force consisted of five air regiments, one long-range reconnaissance battalion and one parachute battalion. The number of aircraft fleet of the Hungarian Air Force was 536 aircraft, of which 363 were combat ones.
1st stage of the war against the USSR
On June 26, 1941, unidentified aircraft raided the Hungarian city of Kassa (now Kosice in Slovakia). Hungary declared these planes Soviet. It is currently believed that this raid was a German provocation.
June 27, 1941 Hungary declared war on the USSR. The so-called "Carpathian Group" was sent to the Eastern Front:
First Mountain Rifle Brigade;
- the eighth border brigade;
- mechanized corps (without a second cavalry brigade).
On July 1, these forces invaded the Ukrainian Carpathian region and, engaging in battles with the Soviet 12th Army, crossed the Dniester. Hungarian troops occupied Kolomyia. Then the mechanized corps (40 thousand people) entered the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine and continued military operations as part of the 17th German army. In the Uman region, as a result of joint actions with German troops, 20 Soviet divisions were captured or destroyed.
Hungarian soldier with an anti-tank gun. Eastern front.
In October 1941 the corps, after a rapid 950-kilometer throw, reached Donetsk, losing 80% of its equipment. In November, the corps was recalled to Hungary, where it was disbanded.
From October 1941, the first mountain rifle and eighth border brigades in the Ukrainian Precarpathian region were replaced by newly formed security forces brigades numbered 102, 105, 108, 121 and 124. These brigades included two reserve infantry regiments armed with light weapons, an artillery battery and a squadron cavalry (only 6 thousand people).
In February 1942, the Germans moved the 108th Brigade of the Security Forces to the front line in the Kharkov region, where they suffered significant losses.
2nd stage of the war against the USSR
In the spring of 1942, Germany's need for more soldiers on the Soviet-German front forced the Hungarians to mobilize their second army of 200,000 men. It consisted of:
3rd Corps: 6th Brigade (22nd, 52nd Infantry Regiments), 7th Brigade (4th, 35th Infantry Regiments), 9th Brigade (17th, 47th Infantry shelves);
4th corps: 10th brigade (6th, 36th infantry regiments), 12th brigade (18th, 48th infantry regiments), 13th brigade (7th, 37th infantry shelves); 7th Corps: 19th Brigade (13th, 43rd Infantry Regiments), 20th Brigade (14th, 23rd Infantry Regiments), 23rd Brigade (21st, 51st Infantry shelves).
In addition, the following were subordinated to the army headquarters: 1st armored brigade (30th tank and 1st motorized infantry regiments, 1st reconnaissance and 51st anti-tank battalions), 101st heavy artillery division, 150th motorized artillery division, 101st motorized anti-aircraft battalion and 151st engineer battalion.
Each brigade had an artillery regiment and support units, the number of which was identical to that of the brigade. After October 1942, a reconnaissance battalion was added to each of the brigades, formed from newly created mobile units (which united cavalry, motorized riflemen, cyclists and armored units). The armored brigade was formed in the spring of 1942 from two existing mechanized brigades and is equipped with tanks 38 (t) (formerly Czechoslovak LT-38), T-III and T-IV, as well as Hungarian light tanks Toldi, armored personnel carriers "Chaba" ( Csaba) and self-propelled guns "Nimrod" (Nimrod).
Germany proposed rewarding Hungarian soldiers who distinguished themselves on the Eastern Front with large allotments of land in Russia.
Under the command of Colonel General Gustav Yani, the second army arrived in June 1942 in the Kursk region and moved to forward positions along the Don south of Voronezh. She was supposed to defend this direction in case of a possible counteroffensive by Soviet troops. In the period from August to December 1942, the Hungarian army fought long and exhausting battles with Soviet troops in the Uryva and Korotoyak area (near Voronezh). The Hungarians did not succeed in eliminating the Soviet bridgehead on the right bank of the Don and developing an offensive on Serafimovichi. At the end of December 1942, the Hungarian Second Army went over to a passive defense.
During this period, the territory of Hungary began to be subjected to air raids. On September 5 and 10, Soviet long-range aviation struck Budapest.
Hungarian troops in the Don steppes. Summer 1942
At the beginning of the winter of 1942, the Hungarian command repeatedly turned to the German command with a request to provide the Hungarian troops with modern anti-tank guns - the shells of the obsolete 20-mm and 37-mm guns did not penetrate the armor of Soviet T-34 tanks.
On January 12, 1943, Soviet troops crossed the Don River across the ice and broke through the defenses at the junction of the 7th and 12th brigades. The 1st Armored Brigade, which was subordinate to the German command, was pulled back and received no order to counterattack the enemy. The indiscriminate retreat of the Hungarian army was covered by units of the 3rd corps. The losses of the 2nd army amounted to about 30 thousand soldiers and officers killed, and the army lost almost all tanks and heavy weapons. Among the dead was the eldest son of the Regent of the Kingdom - Miklos Horthy. The remaining 50 thousand soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. This was the largest defeat of the Hungarian army in the entire history of its existence.
Hungarian soldiers killed at Stalingrad. Winter 1942 - 1943
3rd stage of the war against the USSR
In March 1943, Admiral Horthy, seeking to reinforce the troops inside the country, withdrew the second army back to Hungary. Most of the reserve regiments of the army were transferred to the "Dead Army", which turned out to be the only association of Hungarian troops that actively fought on the Soviet-German front. Its military units were reorganized and received new numbers, although this process was more likely designed for the German ally than for the Russians. Now the Hungarian army included the 8th corps stationed in Belarus (5th, 9th, 12th and 23rd brigades) and the 7th corps (1st, 18th, 19- I, 21st and 201st brigades).
This army, first of all, had to fight the partisans. In 1943, artillery and reconnaissance units were deployed to battalions. Subsequently, these Hungarian units were combined into the 8th Corps (which soon became known at home as the "Dead Army"). The corps was formed in Kiev, and was tasked with protecting communications from Polish, Soviet and Ukrainian partisans in the north-east of Ukraine and in the Bryansk forests.
In mid-1943, the Hungarians decided to reorganize their infantry brigades according to the German model: three infantry regiments, 3-4 artillery battalions, as well as an engineer and reconnaissance battalion. Regular infantry regiments of each of the corps were combined into "mixed divisions", reserve regiments - into "reserve divisions"; All mechanized units were reassigned to the first corps; it was based on the recreated 1st Armored Division, the newly formed 2nd Armored Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, formed in 1942 from the former cavalry brigades.
The border guard group of the 27th Light Division acted as the third regiment throughout the 1944 campaign. Mountain and border battalions were not reorganized, but in Transylvania they were reinforced by 27 Szekler militia battalions. A shortage of weapons seriously delayed this reorganization, but eight mixed divisions were ready by the end of 1943, and reserve divisions by the spring of 1944. Most of them were transferred to the "Dead Army", which the German command refused to send to Hungary and which now consisted from the 2nd reserve corps (former 8th, 5th, 9th, 12th and 23rd reserve divisions) and 7th corps (18th and 19th reserve divisions).
Armored divisions were stationed at the forefront of the Soviet-German front. The tank battalions were equipped with the Hungarian medium tanks Turan I and II. The combat readiness of the crews after several years of the war was at a high level.
In addition, eight battalions of assault guns were added to them. At first it was supposed to equip them with new assault guns of the Zrinyi system, but the guns were only enough for two battalions, while the rest were armed with 50 German StuG IIIs. Initially, the divisions were numbered from 1 to 8, but later they were assigned the numbers of the corresponding mixed divisions, to which they were supposed to be attached.
4th stage of the war against the USSR
In March - April 1944, German troops entered the territory of Hungary to guarantee its continued loyalty. The Hungarian army was ordered not to resist.
After that, the first full mobilization was carried out. In May 1944, the 1st Army (2nd Armored, 7th, 16th, 20th, 24th and 25th mixed and 27th Light Divisions, 1st and 2nd Mountain Rifle brigade) was sent to the Ukrainian Carpathian region. It was also transferred to the 7th corps of the "Dead Army", which was already fighting in this direction.
The 1st Hungarian Panzer Division tried to counterattack the Soviet tank corps near Kolomyia - this attempt ended with the death of 38 Turan (Turan) tanks and the rapid retreat of the 2nd Hungarian Armored Division to the state border.
By August 1944, the army was reinforced with the remaining regular divisions (6th, 10th and 13th mixed). However, the army soon had to retreat to the Hunyadi line in the north of the Carpathian section of the border, where it took up defensive positions. Meanwhile, the elite 1st Cavalry Division linked up with the 2nd Reserve Corps in the Pripyat area. The division distinguished itself during the retreat to Warsaw and was awarded the right to be called the 1st Hussar Division. The entire corps was repatriated shortly thereafter.
Romania's transition to the side of the USSR in August 1944 laid bare the southern borders of Hungary. On September 4, the Hungarian government declared war on Romania. To obtain new formations, training units of infantry, armored, cavalry divisions and mountain rifle brigades were united in depot divisions or "Scythian" divisions (Scythian). Despite the loud name "division", they usually consisted of no more than a couple of battalions and batteries of artillery and soon, together with some formations from the 1st Army, were transferred to the 2nd Army (2nd Armored, 25th Mixed, 27th light, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th and 9th "Scythian" divisions; 1st and 2nd mountain rifle brigades, divisions of the Tsekler militia), which quickly advanced into Eastern Transylvania ...
The newly created 3rd army (1st armored, "Scythian" cavalry, 20th mixed, 23rd reserve, 4th, 5th and 8th "Scythian" divisions) was transferred to Western Transylvania. She had to stop the Romanian and Soviet troops, which began to cross the South Carpathian passes. The 3rd Army managed to create a defense line along the Hungarian-Romanian border. In the Arad region, the 7th Assault Artillery Division destroyed 67 Soviet T-34 tanks.
The Soviet command tried to convince the commander of the 1st Army, Colonel-General Bela Miklys von Dalnoky, to oppose the Germans, but he eventually decided to retreat to the west. Having fallen into a stalemate, the 2nd Army also retreated.
On September 23, 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of Hungary in the Battony region. On October 14, 1944, a Soviet ultimatum to Hungary followed, demanding a ceasefire within 48 hours, breaking all relations with Germany, starting active military operations against German troops, and also starting to withdraw its troops from the pre-war territories of Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
On October 15, 1944, M. Horthy accepted the terms of the ultimatum, but the Hungarian troops did not stop fighting. The Germans immediately arrested him and put the leader of the ultranationalist Arrow Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi, at the head of the country, vowing to continue the war to a victorious end. The Hungarian army more and more came under the control of German generals. The corps structure of the army was destroyed, and the three active armies were reinforced by German military formations.
Otto Skorzeny (1st from right) in Budapest after the completion of Operation Faustpatron. October 20, 1944
The German command agreed to the creation of several Hungarian SS infantry divisions: the 22nd SS Volunteer Division Maria Theresa, the 25th Hunyadi, the 26th Gombos and two others (which never were formed). During the Second World War, Hungary gave the largest number of volunteers to the SS troops. In March 1945, the 17th SS Army Corps was created, called "Hungarian", as it included most of the Hungarian SS formations. The last battle (with American troops) of the corps took place on May 3, 1945.
Campaign poster "In spite of everything!"
In addition, the Germans decided to equip four new Hungarian divisions with modern weapons: Kossuth, Görgey, Petofi and Klapka, of which only Kossuth was formed. The most effective new military formation was the elite Szent Laszlo paratrooper division, based on the paratrooper battalion.
The composition of the formed divisions was as follows:
"Kossuth": 101st, 102nd, 103rd Infantry, 101st Artillery Regiments.
"Saint Laszlo": 1st parachute battalion, 1st, 2nd elite infantry regiments, 1st, 2nd armored regiments, 1st, 2nd reconnaissance battalions, two river guard battalions, anti-aircraft battalion.
Modern German tanks and self-propelled artillery units were transferred to the Hungarian armored forces: 13 Tigers, 5 Panthers, 74 T-IVs and 75 Hetzer tank destroyers.
5th stage of the war against the USSR
On November 4, 1944, Soviet troops approached Budapest, but already on November 11, their offensive collapsed as a result of fierce resistance from German and Hungarian troops.
At the end of December 1944, the 1st Hungarian Army retreated to Slovakia, the 2nd Army was disbanded, and its units were transferred to the 3rd Army, stationed south of Lake Balaton, and the 6th and 8th German armies, occupied positions in Northern Hungary.
On December 26, Soviet troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts completed the encirclement of the Budapest grouping of German and Hungarian troops. Budapest was cut off, it was defended by a mixed German-Hungarian garrison, which consisted of the 1st armored, 10th mixed and 12th reserve divisions, assault artillery group "Bilnitser" (1st armored car, 6th, 8th , 9th and 10th artillery assault divisions), anti-aircraft units and volunteers of the "Iron Guard".
On January 2 - 26, 1945, counterattacks by German and Hungarian troops followed, trying to unblock the encircled grouping in Budapest. In particular, on January 18, Hungarian troops launched an offensive between Lakes Balaton and Velence and on January 22 occupied the city of Szekesfehervar.
February 13, 1945 Budapest capitulated. Meanwhile, the bloodless 1st Army retreated to Moravia, where it occupied a defensive line that lasted until the end of the war.
On March 6, 1945, Hungarian and German troops launched an offensive in the area of \u200b\u200bLake Balaton, but on March 15, Soviet troops stopped it.
In mid-March 1945, after the failure of the German counteroffensive in the area of \u200b\u200bLake Balaton, the remnants of the 3rd Army turned west, and the 1st Hussar Division was destroyed near Budapest. By March 25, most of the remnants of the 3rd Hungarian Army had been destroyed 50 kilometers west of Budapest. The remnants of the 2nd armored, 27th light, 9th and 23rd reserve divisions, as well as the 7th and 8th "Scythian" divisions surrendered to the Americans in North Austria, while the rest of the units (including the " St. Laszlo ”) fought on the Austrian-Yugoslav border and only in May 1945 surrendered to British troops.
During the fighting for Budapest in the winter of 1945, Hungarian formations appeared in the Soviet army.
During the Second World War, Hungary lost about 300 thousand soldiers killed, 513 766 people were captured.