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Excellent AAR
You fought well, and Hungary is going to emerge in about as good a condition anyone on teh losing side can be. Perhaps a bit like Finland in our timeline.
You fought well, and Hungary is going to emerge in about as good a condition anyone on teh losing side can be. Perhaps a bit like Finland in our timeline.
Epilogue: The peace to end all peace
Throughout Eastern Europe, the boots of Soviet soldiers were marching again; in Moscow, they formed a grand parade headed by Sergej Vlasov riding a white stallion, invoking the jealousy of even Stalin himself. In several other capitals, they heralded and guarded the dawn of a new order, a future behind an iron curtain: In Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Rome, Bucharest, and, indeed, in Budapest too.
For the Hungarian civilians lining the streets, the triumphal entry of the Red Army was bewildering; the only Russian troops who had previously entered Hungary had been a handful of PoWs and downed pilots. They had been convinced they were safe from Communist rule, protected by Hungary's unbeaten army and her secret deals with the allies. But, as it turned out, the game had been rigged from the start: At Yalta, Europe had been divided between the two new power blocks, with little regard for the eventual situation on the ground when the war ended. After the Honvéd had laid down its arms, the country had been delivered into the hands of the Soviet Union. What was worse, everything they had gained was made undone: The whole of Transylvania was returned to Romania, the renewed Czechoslovak state got all its prewar territory back and even the Vojvodina and Serbian Banat, which had been peacefully handed over by Yugoslavia, were turned into a semi-autonommous provinde ruled from Moscow. To lose all this in a lost war would've been humiliation enough, but for Hungary, which had managed to keep the Red Army out alltogether and only surrendered to the Allies at the very end, it was unreal. This betrayal, as it was felt by the Hungarian populace, was worse that even Trianon had been, inflicting further scars and resentment on them.
Hungary also joined Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy and Romania in falling under the shadow of Communist dominance; Horthy and his family were exiled -- first to Portugal, then, on the initiative of his son István, to the United States, where the latter would become a famed military aircraft engineer -- and was replaced as leader by Mátyás Rákosi, an ardent Stalinist with a remarkable resemblance to a sentient egg. Rákosi, one of the few Hungarian communists to survive Stalin's Great Purge, which had also claimed the life of the great Hungarian Communist leader Béla Kun, immediately initiated a policy of harsh repression, purging the ranks of the military and government with a zeal that matched any other postwar Stalinist leader. Generals like Jány and Nagy were dishonorably discharged, and the ones most close to Horthy, Miklós and Vattay, were imprisoned; the latter died in prison when his fragile health failed him again shortly after. Veress, another Horthyist who had built up a formidable reputation as a commander of and theorist on armored operations, was spared their fate, and was to become an authority on mobile operations later on, writing several books which were publised both in the eastern and western blocks. Several officers, chiefly among them the perpetrators of the Novi Sad massacre and any overtly right-wing and pro-German ones, were executed; General Beregfy cut a particulary pathetic figure among them. Also sentenced to death were Lajos Csatay, due to his intervention in the Bucharest revolt, and Ferenc Farkas, as an agent of the Vatican and anticommunism; Farkas survived, as he had already left the country, smuggling the Hungarian crown jewels out of Communist territory as well; he would later pop up in northeastern China, heading charitable initiatives after the Japanese had left. Ferenc Szombathelyi, the former chief of staff, was found repsonsible for the Novi Sad massacre by the Communist regime as well, and was extradited to Yugoslavia for punishment; he was saved by the intervention of Yugoslavia's new commander-in-chief, Dragoljub Mihailović, who recalled the military aid given to his Chetniks during the war.
Speaking of Yugoslavia, Hungary's southern neighbour was spared a Communist take-over, as it had been retaken by the Royalist Chetniks. However, many genocidal massacres and bloody retaliations had taken place on all sides, making an already instabile multiethnical state even more volatile. It seemed unlikely their young king Peter II, who was seen by the Croat and Bulgarian minorities as nothing but a British puppet, would be able to keep the country together.
To the east, Romania got Transylvania returned to her, but in return the Soviet Union took Bessarabia from her once again. Antonescu was executed as well, being replaced by a Communist regime that banned entry to the former Romanian royal house and would go on to increase her repression to levels rivalling Hungary and Stalinist Russia.
Germany was carved up between the two powers, but a portion was left free from foreign occupation, as a temporary "mini-Reich" governed by the German military.
Although Europe had suffered much, it was still left in a relatively good state; the Jewish populations of Hungary and Romania remained relatively intact, with the ones in occupied Poland, Yugoslavia and Russia having suffered the most, although the rather short duration of the war had prevented their total extinction. In comparison, China suffered far worse, being occupied for longer and by a regime as deadly and cruel as Germany had been. Their eventual liberation by the Allies and the Far Eastern Soviet Armies seemed less of a triumph than the overthrow of the Axis had been.
Notes:
-No wonder the game crashed, with three separate Germanies around! I reloaded the last autosave several times, but this peace deal kept on happening regardless of what I did, so blame the game I guess!
-Speaking about blame! I am partly to blame for my own defeat here, since my decision to attack Romania, while fun and logical (even in a historical perspective), did severely weaken the Axis by crippling one of their strongest armies besides Germany! Who knows, if I had just waited till after Barbarossa, I might've walked away victoriously in the end...
-But in my opinion the biggest reason of the Axis defeat was out of my hands; if we're talking Turning Points in History, I'd say 28 August 1936 rather than 16 January 1940 would be THE turning point: Republican Spain breaking the Nationalists, turning the Civil War in their favor. Communist Spain was a very big gap in the western defences of the Axis and gave the Allies an ideal springboard for their invasion of the west, and indeed, the Spanish took out Italy and it was from the west, rather than from the east, that the majority of Europe was liberated. Still, I am sure my Romanian campaign played a big part too.
-In other reflections: My story lacked focus, it was a bit all over the place. It doesn't help that I'm not that good of a writer, for which I try to compensate with research, obscure references and drawings. I'm not sure that sufficed though, so I will try to change my approach to AAR-writing accordingly in future efforts.
-Speaking about the drawings, I found that they acted too much as a brake on my updating schedule due to the time and effort that went in them, for (in my opinion) too little an overall gain. For the sake of consistency I tried to keep with one new drawing per chapter in this AAR, but I probably won't in any future AARs I'm going to make; Besides by highly irregular updating schedule, I also found I had no time left at all to work on my mods, of which at least one is in dire need of expansion portrait-wise.
-And yes, I already have concrete plans for my next AAR for HoI4 already, which I've been considering for some time now. I'll have to wait to start in earnest with it until the game is in a remotely balanced state again, but I've already done quite some research in preparation for this project (for which I also bought a new book for my upcoming birthday).
-And last, but certainly not least, thanks a lot for reading and commenting!
-Speaking about blame! I am partly to blame for my own defeat here, since my decision to attack Romania, while fun and logical (even in a historical perspective), did severely weaken the Axis by crippling one of their strongest armies besides Germany! Who knows, if I had just waited till after Barbarossa, I might've walked away victoriously in the end...
-But in my opinion the biggest reason of the Axis defeat was out of my hands; if we're talking Turning Points in History, I'd say 28 August 1936 rather than 16 January 1940 would be THE turning point: Republican Spain breaking the Nationalists, turning the Civil War in their favor. Communist Spain was a very big gap in the western defences of the Axis and gave the Allies an ideal springboard for their invasion of the west, and indeed, the Spanish took out Italy and it was from the west, rather than from the east, that the majority of Europe was liberated. Still, I am sure my Romanian campaign played a big part too.
-In other reflections: My story lacked focus, it was a bit all over the place. It doesn't help that I'm not that good of a writer, for which I try to compensate with research, obscure references and drawings. I'm not sure that sufficed though, so I will try to change my approach to AAR-writing accordingly in future efforts.
-Speaking about the drawings, I found that they acted too much as a brake on my updating schedule due to the time and effort that went in them, for (in my opinion) too little an overall gain. For the sake of consistency I tried to keep with one new drawing per chapter in this AAR, but I probably won't in any future AARs I'm going to make; Besides by highly irregular updating schedule, I also found I had no time left at all to work on my mods, of which at least one is in dire need of expansion portrait-wise.
-And yes, I already have concrete plans for my next AAR for HoI4 already, which I've been considering for some time now. I'll have to wait to start in earnest with it until the game is in a remotely balanced state again, but I've already done quite some research in preparation for this project (for which I also bought a new book for my upcoming birthday).
-And last, but certainly not least, thanks a lot for reading and commenting!
A fitting epilogue.
You know this AAR has made me want to give Hungary a try, but whether or not I will manage it is entirely debateable.
You know this AAR has made me want to give Hungary a try, but whether or not I will manage it is entirely debateable.
Thanks!
They are a bit of a niche nation, especially when you don't intend to restore Austria-Hungary; they can be interesting to play, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really into Hungarian wartime history, like me. If you're going for a World Conquest though, Romania is a far better candidate!
They are a bit of a niche nation, especially when you don't intend to restore Austria-Hungary; they can be interesting to play, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really into Hungarian wartime history, like me. If you're going for a World Conquest though, Romania is a far better candidate!
Excellent epilogue for this AAR. Good luck with next. I not play any game because of personal reasons and my presence diminishes on AARland as a result. I thinks about I want start a new novel because IRL I am a writter. I wish to writtes a bit niche novel, subject matter is Queen, one of my favourite rock bands
Applause I have enjoyed Hungary in HOI 3 and 4 and especitally enjoyed your AAR with credible and engaging narrative and authentic knowledge of the country and its war.
Never Iose sight of the main enemy - Romania!
Never Iose sight of the main enemy - Romania!
Thanks!
Romania is indeed the power to keep an eye on, they have great potential!
And oil, of course.
Romania is indeed the power to keep an eye on, they have great potential!
And oil, of course.
Awesome read, looking forward to future endeavours.
For me the drawing were really a nice bonus.
For me the drawing were really a nice bonus.
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