Second Army (Hungary)

2th Army Második Magyar Hadsereg
A convoy of Hungarian troops in Russia in 1942
Active	1940–44
Country	Kingdom of Hungary
Branch	Royal Hungarian Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Anti-aircraft warfare Anti-tank warfare Armoured warfare Artillery observer Cavalry tactics Charge Cold-weather warfare Combined arms Direct fire Fire support Indirect fire Maneuver warfare Patrolling Raiding Reconnaissance Urban warfare
Size	Field army (209,000) (11 April 1942)
Engagements	World War II Case Blue Battle of Voronezh Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh offensive Battle of Debrecen Battle of Stalingrad
Commanders
Notable commanders	Gusztáv Jány Géza Lakatos

The Hungarian Second Army (Második Magyar Hadsereg) was one of three

.

Occupation duties

The

, 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.^[1] 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

.

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) .^[2]

The

. 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.

On the Eastern Front

Of the three Hungarian field armies, high command decided to send the Second Army. (The First Army was considered to be the "best" and the Third Army was still being organized). However the Armed Forces in general were so poorly equipped that practically all "modern" equipment (which was still dated by contemporary standards) was provided to the 2nd Army. Even after these desperate measures, the Second Army still lacked adequate motorized transport and especially anti-tank weapons. Germany had promised to provide the necessary equipment, but failed to deliver any meaningful quantities.

Practically all the armored troops Hungary had were re-organized into the 1st Hungarian Armored Division and attached to the Second Army. Similarly, almost all combat-worthy aircraft and supporting units were organized into the 1st Flight Group, also attached to the Second Army. For both the armored and air units, shortages in supplies and equipment caused significant delays, and they were deployed significantly later than infantry units.

On 11 April 1942, the 209,000-man-strong Second Army was assigned to the German Army Group South in Ukraine. Second Army moved to the front from 17 April 1942 to 27 June. During the movement, 19 of the total 822 railway trains were attacked by Soviet partisans, which caused 27 combat deaths and 83 wounded.

In June 1942, Army Group South was divided between Army Group B and Army Group A for Fall Blau, the Axis summer offensive. Second Army was assigned to Army Group B.

Voronezh

In June and July 1942, prior to the

. During these operations, the Hungarian Second Army suffered severe casualties in manpower, as without adequate air and armor support all assaults were carried out by infantry units only, against skillful and determined Soviet defense. Lack of transportation was so severe that some divisions marched over 1,000 km on foot from their disembarkation points to the first contact with the enemy. Artillery support during the offensive was also limited for the same reason, leading to even worse infantry losses.

The Don River, Operation Little Saturn, and disaster

Toldi I

tank during the 1941 invasion of USSR by the Hungarian Second Army

The Hungarian Second Army is probably the best known Hungarian wartime army due to the part it played in the Battle of Stalingrad. The rank-and-file of Second Army had received only eight weeks of training before being sent to the Eastern Front.^[1] 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' fighting abilities and morale when confronted with heavy^[vague] tank assaults. Also, a significant part of Second Army were reservists (officers and enlisted men alike) who were promised a "quick victory", and became demoralized as their prospects for getting home soon worsened.

In fall 1942, the Hungarian Second Army was deployed to protect the

.

As winter set in, and with the worsening German situation around Stalingrad, the Second Army's transportation collapsed, leaving front line units without basic necessities such as food, winter clothing, fuel, and building materials. The cold, hungry, and the demoralized Second Army had to defend even longer and longer stretches of the front line as more and more German units were sent into Stalingrad.

The Second Army, like other armies protecting the flanks of the Sixth Army, was annihilated in the Soviet counter-offensives of the winter of 1942-1943. In Operation Uranus (19 November) Soviet forces drove through the Romanian Third Army and Romanian Fourth Army, trapping the Sixth Army in Stalingrad.

The Germans launched

(16 December), the Soviets attacked between the Italian Eighth Army and the Hungarian Second Army, threatening the flank of the Wintergewitter forces.

On 13 January 1943, the Soviets began the

, who forbade any sort of withdrawal, even though the neighboring German and Italian forces had pulled back. Most units of the Second Army were encircled and either annihilated or succumbed to the extreme cold (-30 °C – -40 °C) while trying to escape. The 1st Armored Division was reduced to a single operational tank within a few days, and most of the personnel of the 1st Air Group died on the ground when their airfields were overrun by Soviet tanks.

During its twelve months of activity on the Eastern Front, the Second Army suffered extensive losses. Of an initial force of about 190,000 Hungarian soldiers and 17,000 Jewish forced laborers,[4] 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."^[5]

The Second Army, like most other Axis armies in Army Group B, thereafter ceased to exist as a meaningful fighting force. The German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, surrendered on 2 February 1943. The remnants of Second Army returned to Hungary on 24 May 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 1st Armored Field Division. Most of the armor in this division was included in the

tanks in its heavy tank battalion, though these were too few to have much impact on the regiment's quality.

Attached to Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico

Hungary becomes a battlefield

Until March 19, 1944, Hungarian Regent Admiral

Operation Margarethe

.

Soon all of Hungary was to become a battlefield. By mid-August 1944, German Colonel-General (Generaloberst)

.

To the south, Germany's former ally, Romania, declared war on Germany on August 25, 1944, as a result of the

, 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 Army

. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 - October 24, 1944, during the

]

By 1944, the main battle tank of the Second Armored Field Division was the Hungarian

]

See also

• Hungary
• History of Hungary
• Hungary during the Second World War
• Military of Hungary
  - 1940/45
• Battle of Voronezh - 1942
• Battle of Stalingrad - 1942/43
• Battle of Debrecen - 1944
• Eastern Front (World War II)
• Hungarian First Army
• Hungarian Third Army
• Gyorshadtest
• Szent László Infantry Division
• Gusztáv Jány

Commanders

The Hungarian Second Army had four commanders from March 1, 1940 - November 13, 1944:

No.	Portrait	Commander	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Jány, GusztávColonel General Gusztáv Jány (1883–1947)	1 March 1940	5 August 1943	3 years, 157 days
2		Lakatos, GézaColonel General Géza Lakatos (1890–1967)	5 August 1943	1 April 1944	240 days
3		Veress, LajosLieutenant General Lajos Veress (1889–1976)	1 April 1944	16 October 1944	198 days
4		Major, JenőLieutenant General Jenő Major (1888–1962)	16 October 1944 -	13 November 1944	28 days

References

Sources

• Mollo, Andrew (1987). The Armed Forces of World War II: Uniforms, Insignia, and Organization. New York: Crown Publishers. p. 312.
  ISBN 0-517-54478-4
  .
• Thomas, Dr. Nigel, and, Szabo, Laszlo Pal (2008). The Royal Hungarian Army in World war II. New York: Osprey Publishing. p. 48.
  ISBN 978-1-84603-324-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Hungarian-language Wikipedia page on the 2nd Army

External links

• The Hungarian 2. Army in Russia (Structure and Equipment, Summer 1942), by Jason Long.