To the Last Huszar: Hungarian General's Handbook 1939-1945: A Panzer Korps Module

By Alexander Bagosy

The complete General's handbook for Hungarian forces in World War II for use with Panzer Korps divisional rules system. Covers all of the Hungarian forces from 1939 thru 1945 including artillery, vehicles, aircraft, and organization of forces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257607952

Book preview

TO THE LAST HUSZÁR

HUNGARIAN GENERAL’S HANDBOOK, 1939-1945

By

Alex T. Bagosy

Photos by Marc Rebhun & Manny Granillo

Save us, Oh Lord, from the arrows of the Magyar!

– Medieval Prayer

This supplement is respectfully dedicated to the Hungarian heroes in my life – my father, John Alexander, and my grandfather, Andrew August.

A PANZER KORPS Module

©2009 Hoplite Research,LLC All rights reserved. To The Last Huszar is a trademark of Hoplite Research, LLC Any other trademarks copyright their respective authors. The material contained herein is for historical and entertainment purposes only and no part of this work shall be copied or reproduced in any manner without the expressed written consent of Hoplite Research, LLC Certain images are copyright the United States National Archives.

Further Dedications and Acknowledgements

This was an extremely difficult book to research and construct, with numerous hurdles to overcome along the way, the difficulties of finding appropriate sources in the English language notwithstanding. I am particularly indebted to my wife Jennifer, and my good friends Tim, Mike, Rob, and Brian for their continual support, encouragement, and good nature. Without their encouragement, this would not be possible.

I would also be remiss if I failed to thank that great source of inspiration from which all things are possible. As such, in fulfillment of a childhood promise, a heartfelt thanks to the Man Upstairs for making it possible for me to see my own writing in publication.

Finally, my deep and everlasting gratitude is extended to Hungary’s soldiers, living and dead, particularly the veterans of 1956. May the flame you ignited in Eastern Europe during that bloody October continue to burn for all eternity.

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Hungarian soldiers on the march!

Introduction

On 26th June, 1941, bombers marked with red stars and identified as belonging to the Soviet Union attacked the Hungarian city of Kassa, in what is today the Czech Republic.

This was not the first Soviet violation of Hungarian airspace in recent years; Soviet aircraft had repeatedly been warned away from Hungarian airspace in prior incidents, and at least one report has circulated of Soviet aircraft strafing Hungarian trains. This attack, however, was particularly ominous and strangely timed.

Hungarian relations with the Soviets had recently begun to improve, if for no other reason than Hungary saw herself increasingly surrounded by a sea of enemies. Poland, her traditional ally, had been gobbled up by Germany. Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were gone, not entirely without Hungarian assistance. Romania, Italy and Germany were at this point firmly allied. And in Hungary, political opinion was strongly against Nazism. Russia’s foreign minister had even secretly proposed to the Hungarians that the Soviets would assert their territorial claims in Romania for them, if the Hungarians agreed to remain neutral in the recently declared war with Germany. The very fact that Hungary’s traditional enemies in Romania had aligned themselves with the Nazis had effectively extinguished most of any remaining sympathy for Germany.

And so it was that the air attack came as quite a surprise. Even now there is genuine debate about whether the bombers were truly Soviet. But the damage had been done. Civilians were killed. Territory was damaged. And the Hungarian population, which had largely agitated for a neutral and/or pro-Allied stance prior to this, was hot with war fever. Protests erupted across the country. Mass demonstrations broke out. Within 24 hours, the country was at war.

By 1945, Hungary was Germany’s last European ally.

This supplement for the Panzer Korps rules system covers the armed forces of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1939, beginning with an undeclared war with Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the year and the so-called Little War with Slovakia in March, continuing with Hungary’s participation in the invasion of Yugoslavia in early 1941, and culminating in Hungary’s long and bloody involvement on the Eastern Front from June 1941 until the spring of 1945.

The primary focus of this supplement will be the Royal Hungarian Army, but the notorious Arrow Cross militias and Hungarian forces fighting alongside the Red Army have also been briefly considered. Because they were never a part of any official Hungarian military organization, and because their actions were universally reviled by the Hungarian military, the various SS Divisions formed using Hungarian and ethnic German Hungarian recruits are not covered here. This last group can easily be approximated using the upcoming SS Supplement for Panzer Korps.

It should be noted that information regarding Hungary’s role in the Second World War, and indeed the Interwar Period that preceded it, is incredibly difficult to come by, particularly in the English language. Despite the Hungarian Army’s growing popularity among many wargamers as a new army for the period, there are still very few reliable sources on the subject, and translations in many cases are inconsistent at best. To compound the difficulties of speaking a language as rare as Hungarian, there are also the more concrete historical reasons for the lack of source material – such as the destruction of many important Hungarian records during the Soviet occupation.

Because of these difficulties, there is a great deal of misunderstanding and genuine lack of comprehension. The most common errors range from the misidentification of vehicles, to the misinterpretation or outright falsification of Hungarian fighting abilities. For example, some Romanian tanks are identified as Hungarian vehicles (something my Romanian friends find very amusing), while certain units are classified as being worthless or elite when said units clearly fit neither of these categories.

This is, first and foremost, intended as a layman’s guide to the Hungarian forces of the period. It is not an exhaustive history, nor is it an attempt to whitewash or ignore the controversial issues regarding Hungarian participation in the war. Because of the difficulties in language for non-native Magyar speakers, not the least of which being that sources tend to use various native terms interchangeably, I have used American English terminology wherever possible, rather than using the traditional Hungarian names for formations. I have used a few appropriately ethnic items (such as the appropriate Hungarian spelling of the word Huszár but for the most part, the terminology here will be familiar to any student of military history.

The information herein was designed primarily for use with the excellent Panzer Korps miniatures system as written by Manny Granillo; it could just as easily prove useful for wargamers using other rules systems, and to those with a casual interest in the subject of the Hungarian military