First Army (Hungary)

Last updated September 30, 2019

The Hungarian First Army was a field army of the Royal Hungarian Army that saw action during World War II.

The Royal Hungarian Army was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Honvéd which went under the same Hungarian title of Magyar Királyi Honvédség from 1867 to 1918. Initially restricted by the Treaty of Trianon to 35,000 men, the army was steadily upgraded during the 1930s and fought on the side of the Axis powers in the Second World War.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Commanders

Lieutenant-General Vilmos Nagy - March 1, 1940 – February 1, 1941
Lieutenant-General István Schweitzer - February 1, 1941 – August 1, 1942
Lieutenant-General István Náday - August 1, 1942 – April 1, 1944
Lieutenant-General Géza Lakatos - April 1, 1944 – May 15, 1944
Lieutenant-General Károly Beregfy - May 15, 1944 – August 1, 1944
Lieutenant-General Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak - July 25, 1944 – August 1, 1944 (acting)
Lieutenant-General Béla Miklós von Dalnoki - August 1, 1944 – October 16, 1944
Lieutenant-General Dezső László - October 16, 1944 – May 8, 1945

István Schweitzer (1887–1981) was a Hungarian military officer, who served as Commander of the Hungarian First Army during the Second World War.

István Náday was a Hungarian military officer, who served as Commander of the Hungarian First Army during the Second World War. He was appointed a pedestrian lieutenant at the Ludovika Academy in 1908, and served in the Red Army in the First World War. After the war, he was a military academy professor, and worked his way up to General, then eventually Commander-in-Chief.

Géza Lakatos de Csíkszentsimon was a colonel general in the Hungarian Army during World War II who served briefly as Prime Minister of Hungary, under governor Miklós Horthy from 29 August 1944, until 15 October 1944.

Background

Under Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, Hungary was an Axis state at the beginning of the European conflict. On 1 March 1940, the Hungarian Army formed three field armies. All three Hungarian armies saw action on the Eastern Front against the Red Army. Unlike the Hungarian Third Army which took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) and the Hungarian Second Army that fought at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942), the Hungarian First Army did not see much combat at the start of the war.

The Regent of Hungary was a position established in 1446 and renewed in 1920. It was held by Admiral Miklós Horthy until 1944. Under Hungary's Constitution there were two regents, one a regent of the ruling house, called the Nádor, and another called "Kormányzó" As the Entente had banned the legitimate Nádor from taking his place, the choice fell on electing a governor-regent. He was regent of the post World War I state called the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–46) and served as the head of state in the absence of a monarch, while a prime minister served as head of government. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary".

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was a Hungarian admiral and statesman, who became the Regent of Hungary. He served as Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary between World Wars I and II and throughout most of World War II, from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. He was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary".

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world, and among the few non-Indo-European languages to be widely spoken in Europe. Hungary's capital and largest city is Budapest; other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.

The troops of the Hungarian First Army, like all Hungarian troops, were part of the one-million-plus non-German Axis troops on the Eastern Front. While the majority of these Axis troops were Romanian, there were also significant contingents of Hungarians, Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Italians, Slovaks, Croatians, Frenchmen, Danes, Norwegians, Belgians, and Spaniards.

Eastern Front (World War II) theatre of World War II - war between Germany and USSR 1941-1945

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patriotic War in the former Soviet Union and modern Russia, while in Germany it was called the Eastern Front, or the German-Soviet War by outside parties.

Occupation duties

The first commander of the Hungarian First Army was Lieutenant-General (or Altábornagy according to the Hungarian army rank) Vilmos Nagy. After 30 August 1940, under Nagy, the Hungarian First Army took part in Hungary's annexation and occupation of northern Transylvania. This region of Romania was awarded to Hungary as a condition of the Second Vienna Award.

Transylvania is a historical region which is located in central Romania. Bound on the east and south by its natural borders, the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended westward to the Apuseni Mountains. The term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also parts of the historical regions of Crișana and Maramureș, and occasionally the Romanian part of Banat.

From 1940 to mid-1944, the Hungarian First Army saw little action other than occupation duties.

Action

By 30 April 1944, the Hungarian First Army was used to bolster Army Group South Ukraine. This army group was pushed back during the Battle of Târgul Frumos in May 1944. The Hungarians were placed in defensive positions north of the Romanian Fourth Army and south of Army Group North Ukraine.

The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos, part of the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, was a military engagement primarily between the Wehrmacht and Red Army forces in May 1944, near Iași, Romania.

From 13 July to 29 July 1944, the Hungarian First Army fought against the Soviet Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive. At this time the Hungarians were attached to the German First Panzer Army commanded by Colonel-General ( Generaloberst ) Gotthard Heinrici, which, in turn, was part of Army Group North Ukraine.

Later in 1944, Soviet troops entered Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The Romanians capitulated. The Bulgarians capitulated. The Hungarians tried to capitulate twice, but unsuccessfully. In the end, the Hungarian First Army continued its precarious existence.

On 28 December, a newly formed Hungarian government, under acting Prime Minister Béla Miklós, officially declared war against Nazi Germany. But the Germans and the pro-German Hungarians in Hungary fought on against the Soviets. However, there are indications that some elements of the Hungarian First Army went over to the Soviets at about this time. Béla Miklós had been the commander of the Hungarian First Army from 1 August 1944 to 16 October 1944.

Between 1 January and 16 February 1945, most of what remained of the Hungarian First Army was overrun, bypassed, or destroyed about 200 kilometers north of Budapest when the Soviet 40th Army advanced through the area. But, even after this, the Hungarian First Army did not cease to exist. The remnants fought on as an attachment to Heinrici's German First Panzer Army. Fighting as they went, they moved progressively westward into Slovakia. The army was not officially disbanded until 8 May 1945, the end of the war. That is when the last commander of the Hungarian First Army, Lieutenant-General László Dezső, surrendered.

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References

Abbott, Peter; Thomas, Nigel (1982). Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45. New York: Osprey. ISBN 978-0-85045-475-8.
Mollo, Andrew (1981). The Armed Forces of World War II. New York: Crown. ISBN 0-517-54478-4.
Thomas, Dr. Nigel; Szabo, Laszlo Pal (2008). The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II. New York: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-324-7.

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