Hungary and Romania had a history of "bad blood" between them dating to the end of WWI. After the armistice and Hungary's disarming, Romania siezed additional Hungarian land, and Hungary was not even allowed to rearm to defend itself. When it became obvious in the mid-'30s that another war was becoming imminent, Hungary began a program to modernize its forces, including purchasing "training" tanks from Italy (the Ansaldo tankettes were about the equivalent of riding-mowers with armor-plate and machineguns, and just as useless), and began making arrangements to license-build a Swedish designed tank.
When hostilities arrived, Hungary was still badly lacking in basic infantry equipment, including rifles and machineguns. The engineering and scientific sectors were adequate to the task, but the lack of industry made it impossible to produce anywhere near enough equipment in such a short span of time. The tension between them and Romania only intensified, with Hungary demanding the return of its former lands (owned by Hungary since 1000 AD, until 1918, most of which is not granted "core" status in the game) and especially its ethnic Magyar population, until Hitler forced Romania to return a small wedge of formerly Hungarian land, much of it largely Slavic in ethnicity, which satisfied neither party. Throughout the war, more than 50% of the Hungarian army was stationed on the Romanian border, expecting trouble at any moment. German commanders quickly learned not to station Hungarian and Romanian units too close to each other, due to the frequent "friendly-fire accidents" and numerous other problems.
During the encirclement battles around Umann, Hungarian forces spearheaded the southern pincer, while the German Panzer units made the wide sweep around the North. When the Soviets launched their offensive to encircle the German army at Stalingrad, the attack fell mainly on the Romanian sector. The Hungarian forces, despite minimal anti-tank capability, held their own outflanked adjacent portion of the line until the German units beside them began withdrawing. As the German general Melenthin put it in his book about his experiences with germany's allies in WWII, the Hungarians were the "best of a sorry lot", limited mainly due to equipment shortages.
Germany sold a fair number of tanks to Hungary, including over 100 of the Czech-built PzKw.38(t), armed with a 37mm main gun. Its performance against the Soviet T-34 would have been abysmal, although they were rarely used in an anti-tank role. They were still better armed than Hungary's license-built Toldi (similar in armament and armor to a PzKw.II), with its 20mm gun, eventually up-armored slightly and upgunned to a 40mm weapon. The later Turan tank, also license-built from a Swedish design and "upgraded" by the Hungarians (along with the Nimrod, a Hungarian-designed "spinoff", as a 40mm dual-role AA/AT SPG similar in concept to the German "Ostwind"), began with a 40mm high-velocity gun and eventually was armed with a 75mm short-barrel weapon, similar to that on the early-war PzKw.IV, only suitable against tanks at short range by lobbing shaped-charge shells. Work on a long-barrel high-velocity 75mm version was started, and a prototype constructed, shortly before Germany occupied the country to prevent its defection to the Allies. The relative handful of Zrinyi SPGs with 100mm guns were about the only suitable domestically produced armored vehicles in Hungary's arsenal for use against the T-34. Germany also sold a number of early versions of the PzKw.III (37mm and a few 50mm medium-length barrel) and PzKw.IV (75mm short-barrel) to Hungary, but those were also badly undergunned by that stage of the war. A number of German-supplied Hetzer tank destroyers (75mm long-barrel), based on the chassis of the Czech-designed PzKw.38(t), served in the final defense of the country when the Soviets over-ran it. There are records indicating that 12 PzKw.VI "Tiger" tanks were purchased from Germany before the end of the war, but there is apparently no evidence that these were ever received.
Near the end of the war, Hungary depended heavily on the ring of the highly defensible Carpathian mountain range to hold the Soviets at bay for a while, but the rapid fall of Romania to the Soviets left that end of the mountain chain unprotected. The flood of Russian troops through Romania into the Carpathian basin could not be stopped on the open plains with the limited anti-tank capabilities of the Hungarian army, and Germany was too busy fighting for its own life to send more than token support. The country surrendered only after the Soviets had driven the remains of the Hungarian army completely off of Hungarian soil, after over 6 months of heavy fighting against a significant portion of the Soviet army.
When hostilities arrived, Hungary was still badly lacking in basic infantry equipment, including rifles and machineguns. The engineering and scientific sectors were adequate to the task, but the lack of industry made it impossible to produce anywhere near enough equipment in such a short span of time. The tension between them and Romania only intensified, with Hungary demanding the return of its former lands (owned by Hungary since 1000 AD, until 1918, most of which is not granted "core" status in the game) and especially its ethnic Magyar population, until Hitler forced Romania to return a small wedge of formerly Hungarian land, much of it largely Slavic in ethnicity, which satisfied neither party. Throughout the war, more than 50% of the Hungarian army was stationed on the Romanian border, expecting trouble at any moment. German commanders quickly learned not to station Hungarian and Romanian units too close to each other, due to the frequent "friendly-fire accidents" and numerous other problems.
During the encirclement battles around Umann, Hungarian forces spearheaded the southern pincer, while the German Panzer units made the wide sweep around the North. When the Soviets launched their offensive to encircle the German army at Stalingrad, the attack fell mainly on the Romanian sector. The Hungarian forces, despite minimal anti-tank capability, held their own outflanked adjacent portion of the line until the German units beside them began withdrawing. As the German general Melenthin put it in his book about his experiences with germany's allies in WWII, the Hungarians were the "best of a sorry lot", limited mainly due to equipment shortages.
Germany sold a fair number of tanks to Hungary, including over 100 of the Czech-built PzKw.38(t), armed with a 37mm main gun. Its performance against the Soviet T-34 would have been abysmal, although they were rarely used in an anti-tank role. They were still better armed than Hungary's license-built Toldi (similar in armament and armor to a PzKw.II), with its 20mm gun, eventually up-armored slightly and upgunned to a 40mm weapon. The later Turan tank, also license-built from a Swedish design and "upgraded" by the Hungarians (along with the Nimrod, a Hungarian-designed "spinoff", as a 40mm dual-role AA/AT SPG similar in concept to the German "Ostwind"), began with a 40mm high-velocity gun and eventually was armed with a 75mm short-barrel weapon, similar to that on the early-war PzKw.IV, only suitable against tanks at short range by lobbing shaped-charge shells. Work on a long-barrel high-velocity 75mm version was started, and a prototype constructed, shortly before Germany occupied the country to prevent its defection to the Allies. The relative handful of Zrinyi SPGs with 100mm guns were about the only suitable domestically produced armored vehicles in Hungary's arsenal for use against the T-34. Germany also sold a number of early versions of the PzKw.III (37mm and a few 50mm medium-length barrel) and PzKw.IV (75mm short-barrel) to Hungary, but those were also badly undergunned by that stage of the war. A number of German-supplied Hetzer tank destroyers (75mm long-barrel), based on the chassis of the Czech-designed PzKw.38(t), served in the final defense of the country when the Soviets over-ran it. There are records indicating that 12 PzKw.VI "Tiger" tanks were purchased from Germany before the end of the war, but there is apparently no evidence that these were ever received.
Near the end of the war, Hungary depended heavily on the ring of the highly defensible Carpathian mountain range to hold the Soviets at bay for a while, but the rapid fall of Romania to the Soviets left that end of the mountain chain unprotected. The flood of Russian troops through Romania into the Carpathian basin could not be stopped on the open plains with the limited anti-tank capabilities of the Hungarian army, and Germany was too busy fighting for its own life to send more than token support. The country surrendered only after the Soviets had driven the remains of the Hungarian army completely off of Hungarian soil, after over 6 months of heavy fighting against a significant portion of the Soviet army.
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