Hungarian Second Army
Encyclopedia
The Hungarian Second Army (Második Magyar Hadsereg) was one of three field armies (hadsereg) raised by the Kingdom of Hungary
(Magyar Királyság) which saw action during World War II
. All three armies were formed on March 1, 1940. The Second Army was the best-equipped Hungarian formation at the beginning of the war, but was virtually eliminated as an effective fighting unit by overwhelming Soviet force during the Battle of Stalingrad
, suffering 84% casualties. Towards the end of the war, a reformed Second Army fought more successfully at the Battle of Debrecen
, but, during the ensuing Siege of Budapest, it was destroyed completely and absorbed into the Hungarian Third Army.
at the beginning of the Europe
an conflict. Hungary's head of state was Regent
Admiral Miklós Horthy
and the government was led by Prime Minister
Pál Teleki
. On April 3, 1941, Teleki committed suicide when it became clear that Hungary was to take part in the invasion of Yugoslavia
, its erstwhile ally.
The comparatively small Hungarian Army had a peacetime strength of only 80,000 men. Militarily, the nation was divided into seven corps commands. Each army corps consisted of three infantry divisions, each of which comprised three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment. Each corps also included two cavalry brigades, two motorized infantry brigades, an anti-aircraft battery, a signals company, and a cavalry reconnaissance troop. On March 11, 1940, the Hungarian Army was expanded to three field armies, each with three corps. All three of these field armies were to see action against the Red Army
before the end of the war.
Hungary did not immediately participate in Operation Barbarossa
, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler
did not directly ask for, nor necessarily want, Hungarian assistance at that time. Most of the Hungarian forces, including the three field armies, were initially relegated to duties within the newly enlarged Hungarian state. Hungary regained substantial portions of its territories that had been ceded following the loss of World War I
and the resultant Treaty of Trianon
.
At the end of June, 1941, Germany summoned Hungary to join in the attack on the Soviet Union. Hungary continued to resist joining in the war. The matter was settled on June 26, 1941, when the Soviet air force bombed Košice
(Kassa) -- possibly a "false-flag" attack instigated by Germany to give Hungary a casus belli
.
The Kingdom of Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union
the next day, June 27, 1941. At first, only Hungary's "Karpat Group" with its integral "Rapid Corps" (Gyorshadtest
) was sent to the Eastern Front
, in support of the German 17th Army. Towards the end of 1941, only the exhausted and battle weary "Rapid Corps" was left. But, before Horthy would gain Hitler's consent to withdraw the "Rapid Corps," he had to agree to deploy an even larger Hungarian force.
. In June, 1942, the Second Army became part of Army Group B
in Operation Blue
(or "Case Blue," Fall Blau).
, the Hungarian Second Army was involved in the Battle of Voronezh
as part of Army Group B. Fighting in and around the city of Voronezh
on the Don River
, the Hungarian troops supported the German 4th Panzer Army against the defending Soviet Voronezh Front
. Though technically an Axis success, this pyrrhic victory fatally delayed the arrival of the 4th Panzer Army in the Caucasus
.
In 1942, the Hungarian Second Army was given the task of protecting the 8th Italian Army's
northern flank between Novaya Pokrovka
on the Don river
and Rossosh
. This allowed the German Sixth Army to continue to attack Soviet General Vasily Chuikov
's 62nd Army
defending Stalingrad.
The Hungarian Second Army, as almost all of the armies protecting the flanks of the Sixth Army, was annihilated when the Soviets launched Operation Uranus
, Operation Saturn
, and Operation Little Saturn. As part of these operations, two Soviet pincers drove through the Romanian Third Army to the north of Stalingrad and the Romanian Fourth Army
to the south, cutting off the Sixth Army.
On December 12, 1942, as a counter move, the Germans launched Operation Winter Storm
to relieve their Sixth Army by attacking through the pincers of the Soviet armies participating in Operation Uranus
. The Soviets counter-attacked on December 16, 1942, and launched Operation Little Saturn, penetrating between the Italian Eighth Army
and the Hungarian Second Army at the junction held by the Italian Alpine Army Corps and threatening the flank of German forces attempting to relieve the Sixth Army by cutting the would-be relievers off at the Donets river
.
On January 13, 1943, Russian forces, overwhelming in numbers and equipment, began the Voronezh-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation on the Bryansk
, Voronezh
, and Southwestern Front
s simultaneously . The Russians rapidly destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda
on the Don River
. An attack on the German Second Army further north threatened to bring about an encirclement of that army as well, though it managed to withdraw and was forced to retreat. By February 5, 1943, troops of the Russian Voronezh Front
were approaching Kharkov.
During its twelve months of activity on the Russian front, the Second Hungarian Army's losses were enormous. Of an initial force of about 200,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 Jewish forced-laborers, about 100,000 were dead, 35,000 wounded, and 60,000 taken prisoners of war. Only about 40,000 men returned to Hungary, scapegoated by Hitler for the catastrophic Axis defeat. "No nation lost as much blood during World War II in such a short period of time."
The Hungarian Second Army, as most other Axis armies in the Army Group B, ceased to represent a meaningful fighting force. The German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, surrendered on February 2, 1943. The remnants of the Hungarian Second Army returned to Hungary on May 24, 1943.
Most of the field divisions sent to the Eastern Front as part of the Second Army in 1942 were light field divisions (Hungarian infantry divisions typically were composed of three infantry regiments; "light" divisions typically had but two regiments).
In addition to the three infantry corps, the Hungarian Second Army included the First Armored Field Division. Most of the armor in this division was included in the 30th Tank Regiment. At the time of the Siege of Stalingrad, the primary battle tank in this unit was the Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t)
. These were augmented by Hungarian Toldi
tanks for scouting duties, Hungarian Nimrod armoured self-propelled anti-aircraft guns
, and Hungarian Csaba armored cars
. The tank regiment also had about ten German Panzer IV
/F2 tanks and a few German Panzer III
tanks in its heavy tank battalion. Unfortunately there were far too few of these better German tanks to make much difference.
surrounded himself with anti-fascists. Relations between Hungary and Germany became more and more difficult. Horthy met Hitler on April 16 and 17 at German headquarters, where he told Hitler, "We Hungarians have already lost one hundred thousand men in this bloody war, counting dead, wounded and missing. Those we have left have but few arms with which to fight. We cannot help you one bit more. We are through. We are doing our best to stave off the Bolshevik menace and we won't be able to spare a single man for the Balkans." The German dictator arranged to keep Horthy busy by conducting negotiations while Hungary was quietly and efficiently overrun by German ground forces in a quick and bloodless invasion, Operation Margarethe
.
Soon all of Hungary was to become a battlefield. By mid-August 1944, German Colonel-General (Generaloberst) Johannes Friessner
's Army Group South
was on the brink of collapse. To the north, the Soviet's Operation Bagration was completing the destruction of the Axis Army Group Centre
.
To the south, Germany's former ally, Romania, declared war on Germany on August 25, 1944, as a result of the Yassi-Kishinev strategic offensive (August 20 - 29, 1944). On the eve of the Soviet East Carpathian strategic offensive (September 8 - 28, 1944), as Soviet forces crossed the Hungarian border, Bulgaria, too, declared war on Germany. The subsequent Budapest strategic offensive (October 29, 1944 - February 13, 1945) attack by the Ukrainian Second and Third Front
s far into Hungary destroyed any semblance of an organised German defensive line. By this time, Fyodor Tolbukhin
's Ukrainian Third Front, aided by the Ukrainian Second Front under Marshal of the Soviet Union
Rodion Malinovsky
, had annihilated thirteen Axis divisions, capturing over 100,000 men.
. Both armies were primarily composed of weak, undermanned, and underequipped reserve divisions.
General of Artillery Maximilian Fretter-Pico
's recently reformed German Sixth Army represented the nucleus of what remained of Friessner's force. By October, 1944, seeing that his Hungarian allies were suffering from low morale, Friessner attached the recently reformed Hungarian Second Army under the command of Lieutenant-General Lajos Veress von Dalnoki to Fretter-Pico's army. The combination of German and Hungarian armies was designated Army Group Fretter-Pico (Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico).
The desertions of Bulgaria and Romania had opened a 650-kilometer gap in Friessner's Army Group South. As Friessner desperately struggled to reform a defensive line, news filtered through to Berlin that the Hungarian leader, Admiral Miklós Horthy
was preparing to sign a separate peace with the Soviet Union. If this happened, the entire front of Army Group South Ukraine
would collapse.
In August, Horthy replaced Prime Minister Döme Sztójay
with the anti-Fascist General Géza Lakatos
. Under Lakatos's regime, acting Interior Minister Béla Horváth ordered Hungarian gendarmes to protect any Hungarian citizen from being deported.
On October 15, 1944, Horthy announced that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. But most Hungarian army units ignored Horthy's orders, and the Germans reacted swiftly with Operation Panzerfaust
. Commando leader Otto Skorzeny
was sent to Hungary and, in another of his daring "snatch" operations, kidnapped Horthy's son, Miklós Horthy, Jr.
. The Germans insisted that Horthy abrogate the armistice
, depose Lakatos's government, and name the leader of the Arrow Cross
Party, Ferenc Szálasi
, as Prime Minister. Instead, Horthy agreed to abdicate. Szálasi was able take power in Hungary with Germany's backing.
, Army Group Fretter-Pico achieved a major success against the Debrecen Offensive Operation
. While avoiding encirclement, Army Group Fretter-Pico managed to encircle and destroy three Soviet tank corps of Mobile Group Pliyev under the command of Issa Pliyev
. The defeat of the Soviet mobile group by the combined German and Hungarian forces contrasted with Pliyev's earlier, easy victory over the untested Hungarian Third Army
. The victory ultimately proved too costly to the Hungarians. Unable to replace equipment and personnel lost in the Battle of Debrecen
, the Hungarian Second Army was disbanded on December 1, 1944. Surviving units of the Second Army were transferred to the Third Army.
In 1944, the main battle tank of the Second Armored Field Division was the Hungarian Turan
medium tank, a limited improvement over the Czech Panzer 38(t)
and the Hungarian Toldi
tanks used by the First Armored Field Division in 1942. However, the Turan I tank (with a 40 mm gun) and the Turan II tank (with a short 75 mm gun) were still no match for a standard Soviet T-34
tank, and, compared to the T-34
/76, the Soviets had many much-improved T-34/85 tanks by 1944. Manufacture of the potentially more effective Turan III tank (with a long 75 mm gun) never developed beyond prototypes. Doubly unfortunate for the Hungarians, the few better German Panzer IV
tanks, Panzer III
tanks, and Sturmgeschütz III
assault guns were never made available to them in numbers that would have made a difference.
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
The Kingdom of Hungary also known as the Regency, existed from 1920 to 1946 and was a de facto country under Regent Miklós Horthy. Horthy officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy of Charles IV, Apostolic King of Hungary...
(Magyar Királyság) which saw action during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. All three armies were formed on March 1, 1940. The Second Army was the best-equipped Hungarian formation at the beginning of the war, but was virtually eliminated as an effective fighting unit by overwhelming Soviet force during the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
, suffering 84% casualties. Towards the end of the war, a reformed Second Army fought more successfully at the Battle of Debrecen
Battle of Debrecen
The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
, but, during the ensuing Siege of Budapest, it was destroyed completely and absorbed into the Hungarian Third Army.
Commanders
The Hungarian Second Army had four commanders from March 1, 1940, to November 13, 1944:- Lieutenant General Gusztáv Vitéz JányGusztáv Vitéz Jány"Vitéz" is a Hungarian title given to members of the Knightly Order of Vitéz, not a first or middle name.Colonel General vitéz Gusztáv Jány was a Hungarian officer during World War II...
(vitéz Jány Gusztáv) - from March 1, 1940, to August 5, 1943 (awarded the German Knight's Cross on March 31, 1943) - Lieutenant General Géza LakatosGéza LakatosKnight Géza Lakatos de Csíkszentsimon was a general in Hungary during World War II who served briefly as Prime Minister of Hungary, under governor Miklós Horthy from August 29, 1944, until October 15,...
(Lakatos Géza) - from August 5, 1943, to April 1, 1944 (awarded the German Knight's Cross on May 24, 1944) - Lieutenant General Lajos Veress von DálnokiLajos VeressLajos Veress de Dálnok was a Hungarian military officer, who served as Commander of the Hungarian Second Army during the Second World War.-Military career:...
(Dálnoki Veres Lajos) - from April 1, 1944, to October 16, 1944 - Lieutenant General Jenő MajorJenő MajorJenő Major was a Hungarian military officer, who served as the last Commander of the Hungarian Second Army during the Second World War.-Works:*, Petit Real, Budapest, 2000.-References:*...
- from October 16, 1944, to November 13, 1944
Occupation Duties
The Kingdom of Hungary was a reluctant member of the AxisAxis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
at the beginning of the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an conflict. Hungary's head of state was Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Admiral Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
and the government was led by Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Pál Teleki
Pál Teleki
Pál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July 1920 to 14 April 1921 and from 16 February 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
. On April 3, 1941, Teleki committed suicide when it became clear that Hungary was to take part in the invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
, its erstwhile ally.
The comparatively small Hungarian Army had a peacetime strength of only 80,000 men. Militarily, the nation was divided into seven corps commands. Each army corps consisted of three infantry divisions, each of which comprised three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment. Each corps also included two cavalry brigades, two motorized infantry brigades, an anti-aircraft battery, a signals company, and a cavalry reconnaissance troop. On March 11, 1940, the Hungarian Army was expanded to three field armies, each with three corps. All three of these field armies were to see action against the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
before the end of the war.
Hungary did not immediately participate in Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
did not directly ask for, nor necessarily want, Hungarian assistance at that time. Most of the Hungarian forces, including the three field armies, were initially relegated to duties within the newly enlarged Hungarian state. Hungary regained substantial portions of its territories that had been ceded following the loss of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the resultant Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
.
At the end of June, 1941, Germany summoned Hungary to join in the attack on the Soviet Union. Hungary continued to resist joining in the war. The matter was settled on June 26, 1941, when the Soviet air force bombed Košice
Košice attack
The Kassa attack was the June 26, 1941 aerial bombing of the city of Kassa, today Košice , then a part of Hungary. This attack became the pretext for the government of Hungary to declare war on the Soviet Union, on 27 June 1941....
(Kassa) -- possibly a "false-flag" attack instigated by Germany to give Hungary a casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
.
The Kingdom of Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
the next day, June 27, 1941. At first, only Hungary's "Karpat Group" with its integral "Rapid Corps" (Gyorshadtest
Gyorshadtest
The Gyorshadtest was the most modern and best-equipped mechanized unit of the Royal Hungarian Army at the beginning of World War II. However, the "Rapid Corps" name was something of a misnomer as it was only "mechanized" compared to other Hungarian units...
) was sent to the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, in support of the German 17th Army. Towards the end of 1941, only the exhausted and battle weary "Rapid Corps" was left. But, before Horthy would gain Hitler's consent to withdraw the "Rapid Corps," he had to agree to deploy an even larger Hungarian force.
Stalingrad
By April 11, 1942, the 209,000-man-strong Second Army joined the German Army Group South in southern RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. In June, 1942, the Second Army became part of Army Group B
Army Group B
Army Group B was the name of three different German Army Groups that saw action during World War II.-Battle for France:The first was involved in the Western Campaign in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands which was to be aimed to conquer the Maas bridges after the German airborne actions in Rotterdam...
in Operation Blue
Operation Blue
Case Blue , later renamed Operation Braunschweig, was the German Armed Forces name for its plan for a 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and November 1942....
(or "Case Blue," Fall Blau).
Voronezh
In June and July 1942, prior to the Battle of StalingradBattle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
, the Hungarian Second Army was involved in the Battle of Voronezh
Battle of Voronezh (1942)
The Battle of Voronezh was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, south of Moscow, from 28 June-24 July 1942, as opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942....
as part of Army Group B. Fighting in and around the city of Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
on the Don River
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
, the Hungarian troops supported the German 4th Panzer Army against the defending Soviet Voronezh Front
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
. Though technically an Axis success, this pyrrhic victory fatally delayed the arrival of the 4th Panzer Army in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
.
The Don River, Operation Saturn, and disaster
The Hungarian Second Army is probably the best known Hungarian wartime army because of the part it played in the Battle of Stalingrad. Before being sent to Russia, the rank-and-file of the Second Army had received but eight weeks of training. The only tactical experience for many of these soldiers were the maneuvers held just prior to the departure for the front. This lack of preparation badly affected the soldiers' morale.In 1942, the Hungarian Second Army was given the task of protecting the 8th Italian Army's
Italian Army in Russia
The Italian Army in Russia was an army-sized unit of the Italian Royal Army which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II...
northern flank between Novaya Pokrovka
Liski
Liski is a town in Voronezh Oblast, Russia. Population: Liski was founded as Novaya Pokrovka in 1571 and renamed Svoboda in 1943, and after a period again as Liski, the city was renamed Georgiu-Dezh in 1965 for the Romanian communist leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, before returning to Liski again...
on the Don river
Don River
- Australia :* Don River , a tributary of the Fitzroy River * Don River in North Queensland* Don River - United Kingdom :* River Don, South Yorkshire, England...
and Rossosh
Rossosh
Rossosh is a town and the administrative center of Rossoshansky District of Voronezh Oblast, Russia. Population:...
. This allowed the German Sixth Army to continue to attack Soviet General Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...
's 62nd Army
62nd Army (Soviet Union)
The 62nd Order of Lenin Army was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. Formed as the 7th Reserve Army as part of the Stavka Reserve in May 1942, the formation was designated as the 62nd Rifle Army the following month...
defending Stalingrad.
The Hungarian Second Army, as almost all of the armies protecting the flanks of the Sixth Army, was annihilated when the Soviets launched Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The operation formed part of the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, and was...
, Operation Saturn
Operation Saturn
Operation Saturn, revised as Operation Little Saturn, was a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front of World War II that led to battles in the northern Caucasus and Donets Basin regions of the Soviet Union from December 1942 to February 1943....
, and Operation Little Saturn. As part of these operations, two Soviet pincers drove through the Romanian Third Army to the north of Stalingrad and the Romanian Fourth Army
Fourth Army (Romania)
The Fourth Army was a field army of the Romanian Land Forces active from the 19th century to the 1990s.-History:The Fourth Army fought in the Romanian Campaign of World War I, under the command of General Prezan...
to the south, cutting off the Sixth Army.
On December 12, 1942, as a counter move, the Germans launched Operation Winter Storm
Operation Wintergewitter
Operation Winter Storm was a German offensive in World War II, undertaken between 12–23 December 1942, in which the German 4th Panzer-Armee failed to break the encirclement of Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad....
to relieve their Sixth Army by attacking through the pincers of the Soviet armies participating in Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The operation formed part of the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, and was...
. The Soviets counter-attacked on December 16, 1942, and launched Operation Little Saturn, penetrating between the Italian Eighth Army
Italian war in Soviet Union, 1941-1943
The Italian participation in the Eastern Front during World War II began after the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941. Barbarossa was the German war against the Soviet Union...
and the Hungarian Second Army at the junction held by the Italian Alpine Army Corps and threatening the flank of German forces attempting to relieve the Sixth Army by cutting the would-be relievers off at the Donets river
Seversky Donets
Seversky Donets is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine and then again through Russia to join the Don River, about from the Sea of Azov...
.
On January 13, 1943, Russian forces, overwhelming in numbers and equipment, began the Voronezh-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation on the Bryansk
Bryansk Front
The Bryansk Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first formed in mid-late August 1941, comprising, in Erickson's words, 'on paper two armies, 50th and 13th, with eight rifle divisions each, three...
, Voronezh
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
, and Southwestern Front
Southwestern Front
Southwestern front may refer to one of the following.*A Southwestern front, a particular geographical area where armies are engaged in conflict* The Soviet Southwestern Front, one of the Soviet Fronts in World War Two...
s simultaneously . The Russians rapidly destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda
Svoboda
Svoboda, a word in Slavic languages meaning "freedom". It may refer to:* Radio Svoboda, operated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty* Svoboda , a daily Ukrainian language newspaper published in New Jersey by Ukrainian National Association...
on the Don River
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
. An attack on the German Second Army further north threatened to bring about an encirclement of that army as well, though it managed to withdraw and was forced to retreat. By February 5, 1943, troops of the Russian Voronezh Front
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
were approaching Kharkov.
During its twelve months of activity on the Russian front, the Second Hungarian Army's losses were enormous. Of an initial force of about 200,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 Jewish forced-laborers, about 100,000 were dead, 35,000 wounded, and 60,000 taken prisoners of war. Only about 40,000 men returned to Hungary, scapegoated by Hitler for the catastrophic Axis defeat. "No nation lost as much blood during World War II in such a short period of time."
The Hungarian Second Army, as most other Axis armies in the Army Group B, ceased to represent a meaningful fighting force. The German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, surrendered on February 2, 1943. The remnants of the Hungarian Second Army returned to Hungary on May 24, 1943.
Most of the field divisions sent to the Eastern Front as part of the Second Army in 1942 were light field divisions (Hungarian infantry divisions typically were composed of three infantry regiments; "light" divisions typically had but two regiments).
In addition to the three infantry corps, the Hungarian Second Army included the First Armored Field Division. Most of the armor in this division was included in the 30th Tank Regiment. At the time of the Siege of Stalingrad, the primary battle tank in this unit was the Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t)
Panzer 38(t)
The Panzerkampfwagen 38 was originally a Czech tank of pre-World War II design. After Czechoslovakia was taken over by Germany, it was adopted by the German Army, seeing service in the invasions of Poland and Russia. Production ended in 1942, when its armament was deemed inadequate. In all, over...
. These were augmented by Hungarian Toldi
Toldi (tank)
The Toldi was the Hungarian light tank, based on the Swedish Landsverk L-60B tank. It was named after the 14th century Hungarian knight Miklós Toldi.-Production history:...
tanks for scouting duties, Hungarian Nimrod armoured self-propelled anti-aircraft guns
Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon
An anti-aircraft vehicle, also known as a self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon or self-propelled air defense system , is a mobile vehicle with a dedicated anti-aircraft capability...
, and Hungarian Csaba armored cars
39M Csaba
The 39M Csaba was an armoured scout car produced for the Royal Hungarian Army during World War II.Hungarian expatriate Nicholas Straussler designed several armoured cars for Britain while living there between the two world wars...
. The tank regiment also had about ten German Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
/F2 tanks and a few German Panzer III
Panzer III
Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and...
tanks in its heavy tank battalion. Unfortunately there were far too few of these better German tanks to make much difference.
Hungary becomes a battlefield
On March 19, 1944, Hungarian Regent Admiral Miklós HorthyMiklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
surrounded himself with anti-fascists. Relations between Hungary and Germany became more and more difficult. Horthy met Hitler on April 16 and 17 at German headquarters, where he told Hitler, "We Hungarians have already lost one hundred thousand men in this bloody war, counting dead, wounded and missing. Those we have left have but few arms with which to fight. We cannot help you one bit more. We are through. We are doing our best to stave off the Bolshevik menace and we won't be able to spare a single man for the Balkans." The German dictator arranged to keep Horthy busy by conducting negotiations while Hungary was quietly and efficiently overrun by German ground forces in a quick and bloodless invasion, Operation Margarethe
Operation Margarethe
During World War II, the Germans planned two discrete operations using the codename Margarethe.Operation Margarethe I was the occupation of Hungary by German forces on 19 March 1944. The Hungarian government was an ally of Nazi Germany, but had been discussing an armistice with the Allies...
.
Soon all of Hungary was to become a battlefield. By mid-August 1944, German Colonel-General (Generaloberst) Johannes Friessner
Johannes Friessner
Johannes Frießner was a German general during World War II.Born in Chemnitz, Kingdom of Saxony, Frießner enlisted in the German Army in 1911 and, after seeing extensive duty during World War I, served in the Reichswehr following the war.After his promotion to Generalmajor on 1 August 1940, during...
's Army Group South
Army Group South
Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...
was on the brink of collapse. To the north, the Soviet's Operation Bagration was completing the destruction of the Axis Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
.
To the south, Germany's former ally, Romania, declared war on Germany on August 25, 1944, as a result of the Yassi-Kishinev strategic offensive (August 20 - 29, 1944). On the eve of the Soviet East Carpathian strategic offensive (September 8 - 28, 1944), as Soviet forces crossed the Hungarian border, Bulgaria, too, declared war on Germany. The subsequent Budapest strategic offensive (October 29, 1944 - February 13, 1945) attack by the Ukrainian Second and Third Front
3rd Ukrainian Front
3rd Ukrainian Front was a Front of the Red Army during World War II.It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southwestern Front. It included 1st Guards Army, 8th Guards Army, 6th, 12th, and 46th Armies and 17th Air Army...
s far into Hungary destroyed any semblance of an organised German defensive line. By this time, Fyodor Tolbukhin
Fyodor Tolbukhin
Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin was a Soviet military commander.-Biography:Tolbukhin was born into a peasant family in the province of Yaroslavl, north-east of Moscow. He volunteered for the Imperial Army in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. He was steadily promoted, advancing from private to...
's Ukrainian Third Front, aided by the Ukrainian Second Front under Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ....
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest...
, had annihilated thirteen Axis divisions, capturing over 100,000 men.
Wartime Mobilization
On August 30, 1944, Hungary mobilized a reformed Hungarian Second Army and the Hungarian Third ArmyHungarian Third Army
The Hungarian Third Army was a Hungarian field army which saw action during World War II.-Commanders:* Lieutenant General Elemér Gorondy-Novák from 1 March 1940 to 1 November 1941* Lieutenant General Zoltán Decleva from 1 November 1941 to 1 December 1942...
. Both armies were primarily composed of weak, undermanned, and underequipped reserve divisions.
General of Artillery Maximilian Fretter-Pico
Maximilian Fretter-Pico
Maximilian Fretter-Pico was a German general during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
's recently reformed German Sixth Army represented the nucleus of what remained of Friessner's force. By October, 1944, seeing that his Hungarian allies were suffering from low morale, Friessner attached the recently reformed Hungarian Second Army under the command of Lieutenant-General Lajos Veress von Dalnoki to Fretter-Pico's army. The combination of German and Hungarian armies was designated Army Group Fretter-Pico (Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico).
The desertions of Bulgaria and Romania had opened a 650-kilometer gap in Friessner's Army Group South. As Friessner desperately struggled to reform a defensive line, news filtered through to Berlin that the Hungarian leader, Admiral Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
was preparing to sign a separate peace with the Soviet Union. If this happened, the entire front of Army Group South Ukraine
Army Group South Ukraine
Army Group South Ukraine was a German army group on the Eastern Front during World War II.Army Group South Ukraine was created on 31 March 1944...
would collapse.
In August, Horthy replaced Prime Minister Döme Sztójay
Döme Sztójay
Döme Sztójay born Demeter Sztojakovich was a Hungarian soldier and diplomat of Serb origin, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary during World War II.- Biography :...
with the anti-Fascist General Géza Lakatos
Géza Lakatos
Knight Géza Lakatos de Csíkszentsimon was a general in Hungary during World War II who served briefly as Prime Minister of Hungary, under governor Miklós Horthy from August 29, 1944, until October 15,...
. Under Lakatos's regime, acting Interior Minister Béla Horváth ordered Hungarian gendarmes to protect any Hungarian citizen from being deported.
On October 15, 1944, Horthy announced that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. But most Hungarian army units ignored Horthy's orders, and the Germans reacted swiftly with Operation Panzerfaust
Operation Panzerfaust
Operation Panzerfaust, known as Unternehmen Eisenfaust in Germany, was a military operation to keep the Kingdom of Hungary at Germany's side in the war, conducted in October 1944 by the German military...
. Commando leader Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
was sent to Hungary and, in another of his daring "snatch" operations, kidnapped Horthy's son, Miklós Horthy, Jr.
Miklós Horthy, Jr.
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II was the younger son of Hungarian regent Admiral Miklós Horthy and, until the end of World War II, a politician.-Biography:...
. The Germans insisted that Horthy abrogate the armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
, depose Lakatos's government, and name the leader of the Arrow Cross
Arrow Cross
A cross whose arms end in arrowheads is called a "cross barby" or "cross barbee" in the traditional terminology of heraldry. In Christian use, the ends of this cross resemble the barbs of fish hooks, or fish spears...
Party, Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , being both Head of State and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary's "Government of National Unity" for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...
, as Prime Minister. Instead, Horthy agreed to abdicate. Szálasi was able take power in Hungary with Germany's backing.
Success at the Battle of Debrecen and the end
Late in 1944, a reformed Hungarian Second Army enjoyed a modest level of combat success as an integral part of German General Maximilian Fretter-Pico's Army Group Fretter-Pico. From September 16 to October 24, 1944, during the Battle of DebrecenBattle of Debrecen
The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
, Army Group Fretter-Pico achieved a major success against the Debrecen Offensive Operation
Battle of Debrecen
The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
. While avoiding encirclement, Army Group Fretter-Pico managed to encircle and destroy three Soviet tank corps of Mobile Group Pliyev under the command of Issa Pliyev
Issa Pliyev
Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev was a Soviet military commander, Army General , twice Hero of the Soviet Union , Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic . Member of the CPSU since 1926. He was an ethnic Ossetian....
. The defeat of the Soviet mobile group by the combined German and Hungarian forces contrasted with Pliyev's earlier, easy victory over the untested Hungarian Third Army
Hungarian Third Army
The Hungarian Third Army was a Hungarian field army which saw action during World War II.-Commanders:* Lieutenant General Elemér Gorondy-Novák from 1 March 1940 to 1 November 1941* Lieutenant General Zoltán Decleva from 1 November 1941 to 1 December 1942...
. The victory ultimately proved too costly to the Hungarians. Unable to replace equipment and personnel lost in the Battle of Debrecen
Battle of Debrecen
The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
, the Hungarian Second Army was disbanded on December 1, 1944. Surviving units of the Second Army were transferred to the Third Army.
In 1944, the main battle tank of the Second Armored Field Division was the Hungarian Turan
40 M Turan I
40M Turán I was a Hungarian tank of World War II - a total of 424 were made in two variants: Turan I with a 40 mm gun and Turan II with a 75 mm gun. It was based on the design of the Czechoslovak Škoda T-21 medium tank prototype.-History:...
medium tank, a limited improvement over the Czech Panzer 38(t)
Panzer 38(t)
The Panzerkampfwagen 38 was originally a Czech tank of pre-World War II design. After Czechoslovakia was taken over by Germany, it was adopted by the German Army, seeing service in the invasions of Poland and Russia. Production ended in 1942, when its armament was deemed inadequate. In all, over...
and the Hungarian Toldi
Toldi (tank)
The Toldi was the Hungarian light tank, based on the Swedish Landsverk L-60B tank. It was named after the 14th century Hungarian knight Miklós Toldi.-Production history:...
tanks used by the First Armored Field Division in 1942. However, the Turan I tank (with a 40 mm gun) and the Turan II tank (with a short 75 mm gun) were still no match for a standard Soviet T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
tank, and, compared to the T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
/76, the Soviets had many much-improved T-34/85 tanks by 1944. Manufacture of the potentially more effective Turan III tank (with a long 75 mm gun) never developed beyond prototypes. Doubly unfortunate for the Hungarians, the few better German Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
tanks, Panzer III
Panzer III
Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and...
tanks, and Sturmgeschütz III
Sturmgeschütz III
The Sturmgeschütz III assault gun was Germany's most produced armoured fighting vehicle during World War II. It was built on the chassis of the proven Panzer III tank...
assault guns were never made available to them in numbers that would have made a difference.
See also
- Hungary
- History of Hungary
- Hungary during the Second World War
- Military of Hungary - 1940/45
- Battle of VoronezhBattle of Voronezh (1942)The Battle of Voronezh was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, south of Moscow, from 28 June-24 July 1942, as opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942....
- 1942 - Battle of StalingradBattle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
- 1942/43 - Battle of DebrecenBattle of DebrecenThe Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
- 1944 - Eastern Front (World War II)Eastern Front (World War II)The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
- Hungarian First ArmyHungarian First ArmyThe Hungarian First Army was a Hungarian field army which saw action during World War II.-Commanders:* Lieutenant-General Vilmos Nagy - March 1, 1940 – February 1, 1941* Lieutenant-General István Schweitzer - February 1, 1941 – August 1, 1942...
- Hungarian Third ArmyHungarian Third ArmyThe Hungarian Third Army was a Hungarian field army which saw action during World War II.-Commanders:* Lieutenant General Elemér Gorondy-Novák from 1 March 1940 to 1 November 1941* Lieutenant General Zoltán Decleva from 1 November 1941 to 1 December 1942...
- GyorshadtestGyorshadtestThe Gyorshadtest was the most modern and best-equipped mechanized unit of the Royal Hungarian Army at the beginning of World War II. However, the "Rapid Corps" name was something of a misnomer as it was only "mechanized" compared to other Hungarian units...
- Szent László Infantry DivisionSzent László Infantry DivisionThe Szent László Infantry Division was an elite Hungarian infantry unit formed in the final year of World War II. It was made up of a mix of army and air force personnel. The division saw action at Budapest, in western Hungary, and in southeastern Austria....