Reunion - Hungarian AAR

[Zaku]

Hi! This is my first AAR, hope you’ll enjoy it
sorry for my english, i’m not quite good (I always slept at the class… )

1936 jan.
It was a harsh winter in Budapest. The nation was still stunned by the losses of The Great War, and the indrustry was still recovering from the Economical crisis of the 30'
The Government discussed that, we need those territories back, that the Entente stole from us, if we want to become such a large power again then the Ausrich-Hungaian Monarch was. But this time Hungary will take the lead...

First of all „We need a stable war industry”. So Horty Miklos the head of state ordered the ICN, to equip the Hungarian factories with the most modern equipment.

The Láng machine factory was equipped with the modern equipment along with other factories

To get the money for the development, he sent Kálmán Kánya, the foreign minister to Germany with an offer. Hungary will sell them some war supplies for money, and military training.
Adolf Hitler personally looked into this issue, and after several hours of argue the contract has been signed. They sent several of their generals to the Budapest Military Academy, to train our officers.
Good! Now we have all we need for development… development for war.
The Chief of army made a proposal, that we need 3 more cavarly divisions, if we want to wage an offensive war. The recruitment begun, thousands of young men drafted in the 1st Hungarian Hussiar Corps. The advisors said the training, and the gearing end in ’36 nov.-dec.

Hungarian cavalry in training

Meanwhile in western europe… we got some serius news that the Wehrmacht marched in the Rhineland… maybe there will be an other war… so this means, France and English don’t interfere in our affairs, so we can get back our territories. Good, very good.
Germany confirmed, that they will support us with volunteers, and equipment in a conflict with the Czehs. So after the Cavarly was equipped, the hungarian army started its first operation in a while.

More then 210.000 men 950 howitzers 300at guns, and 50 armored cars, and in addititon the German Volunteer Division with 250 Pzkf Is, and 50 Pzkf IIs, and 12.000 men marched to the Chezckoslovak border in order to take slovakia, witch was hungarian in the past. Their government was first desperate to defend slovakia but when more than 56.000 slovakian soldiers with 50 of the newest 'Skoda 35(t)' panzer deserted to the hungarian army, they realized it would be a loosing battle for them. So they gave in to our demands, and slovakia joined Hungary. As Horty thought, the English, and the French didn’t move…

Hungarian AT cannon at the slovakian border waiting, for the order to open fire

After this he set his eyes to Romania. They had something that dont belong to them… Transylvania. This will be more difficult then Slovakia. The rumanians and The hungarians hate each other sience 1918, when they got Transylvania. In 1919-20 there was a war betveen the two natoins becouse they wanted the whole Hungalian Lowlands. At first they managed to occupy some territorry, but the hungarian army stopped their advance at the Tisza river, and went in a counter offensive, taking back the whole Transylvania… but then the France had interfered, so the two nations agreed in a status quo.

TO BE CONTINUED
sorry too tired for today to write more...

 

[Mettermrck]

Reunion...I wonder what that means. A Hungarian Anschluss with Austria? Or outright conquest? This could be interesting.

 

[Lt Hilsdorf]

Hooo rah, a Hungarian AAR!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my favorite countrys to play!! Good luck with this!!!!!

 

[Phoenix Dace]

Good luck. I will watch this one progress eagerly.

 

[Zaku]

But it was clear, that the Romanians wont cave in as the Czehs did. They had some powerful friends, like the Soviet Union. The germans declared, that they can't help us this time. the SU was too strong for the Wehrmacht this time. Hitler assured, that later in the time it will be an opportunity to take our land bak, but we must wait a little, before the Reich's Armee will be ready for the sweep in the bolseviks land. Then hungary will be free to crush the romanians, take back Transylvania, or - if we provide the oil to the german army from Ploesti - take the whole country to the Black Sea...
Then the Kriegsmarine can give us some blueprints of larger ships, and maybe some naval research team in order to make sea superiority in the Black Sea against the russians if when the onslaught begins(I plan on modding this when reaching the Back Sea)

Hitler and Horthy at the Kiel shipyard

So Horthy resigned, to take on Romania... for this time. But then what? hmm.. Austria would be a good target, but the german goverment insisted it remain indipendent. Well then if the germans are in good relations with Austria maybe we shold too. So Kálmán Kánya was sent to negotiate a non agression pact, or maybe an alliance.
It was a great succes, and the two nations entered into an alliance pact.
Meanwhile in Spain field marshal Franco, and his army broke out a rebbellion. It was decided to send 10 Heinkel He-112, and several volunteer infantry companies - over 500 men and 25 howitzers, and cannons - among the german shipments to help the Nationalist Spain. It would be good to have an other fasist nation in the bac of France if they would interfere with our dominations.

A Hungarian 15cm artillery piece shells the republican positions near Madrid

The experiences of the civil war shoved that the panzer is a quite decent weapon in the battlefield, if used properly. The hungarian Government decided that Hungary needs at least one panzer division. The industrial minister Tihamér Fabiny said "But we dont have the proper technology!"
So attemts made to get a blueprint from germany, who gave it to us for some money and oil. Good, the research began immediatly, for the "Toldi38M" Light tank based on the Germans PzkfII.
During this time we began to equip the 1st hussiar corps with more then 170 "Csaba" armored cars

"Csaba39M armored car in the 1st cavarly division"

End of 1936, im at 1937 feb in the game, when i do that year, i post what happened then

 

[Mettermrck]

So far, so good. An early against Romania and you'll be set for oil for the rest of the game.

 

[Zaku]

1937

The year began with good news. some hungarian spys managed to steal light armor blueprints from the France. It means the research, witch began in 1936 can process smoothly, and Hungary can have even better armor in the conflict for territorries.
the hungarian army went trough a modernization program suggested by the Armanents minister, e.g. the First Hussiar Corps has been equipped with trucks, the infantry divisions with new AT guns, artillery, and the germans finished training our officers.

'Botond' truck, the standardized troop carrier in the hungarian army

Meanwhile in asia war broke out. Japan has striked down the chineese army, and was marching straight to their capital, Nanjing. This was good for us, becouse the Britts now have to worry for their colonies in the far east, and maybe we can wage a war without their intervention.
but who can be the target? Well Horthy was an Admiral in The Great War, so his dream was an armada sailing under the hungarian banner. this left 2 options for us. The first one was Romania, but Hitler clearly decleared, that he won't support Hungary until later.
the other was Yugoslavia. Croatia was part of Hungary for a long time, she had same nice ports, for the hungarian navy. But we need a reason to wage war against them or else the great powers wont let us keep or gainings.
Horthy asked -again- help from the Reich. Himmler was told to look into the issue. He comfirmed, "Germany will help, the cause of hungarian people"
Brandenburg will assault hungarian border posts, in yugoslavian uniforms. The action's date was set in the early time of '38. Until then Hungary must prepare the army to strike the Yugoslavians down quickly.

The hungarian army had hard training, for the rest of the time until the war

A few months later Germany, Italy, and Japan Signed an anti commitern pact, so this means the japaneese and us are the same side. The war went good for them in China. They managed to pin down, and encircle a large horde of chinesee soldiers in sanghai, and after several weeks of siege they destroyed the whole army. According our military intelligence, more then 200.000 chineese died, or captured, in that battle.
We sent some officers to the east, to analise the informations regarding the battle. It should come handy in the conflict.

In budapest a major research breagrough happened. The first hungarian CAS, the 'WM 16 Budapest' was ready for serial producing, and the development of the 'Toldi38M' was finished too.
The armanent minister ordered 300 tanks, for a panzer division, and 100 WM for a bomber squadron. The "Weiss Manfred" works -hungarys greatest industrial center- began the work right on. They would finish with it in december of '37, so we can make use of that equipment in the war.

The "Weiss Manfred" works

When the first 'Toldis' completed, a German delegate came to hungary to examine the technology. Lt gen. Heintz Guderian - the leader of the delegate - said it is a fine panzer, and he would like to equip a german tank company with it.

In november, The chief of staff ordered to train 3 mountain divisions, due the hilly envoriment of yugoslavia.

Hungary's First panzer division, the 'Hunyadi Páncélos Hadosztály' was completed in 1937 dec 27. Mj. gen Veres has been apointed as leader of the unit, he learned the panzer warfare in the budapest military academy under german panzer experts

Toldi M38's on a mimic warfare in '37 dec - '38 jan

Hungary was ready for war...

end of year '37 will be back shortly.

 

[Zaku]

So far, so good. An early against Romania and you'll be set for oil for the rest of the game.

yea, thats the idea, but its not 100% that i will attack them... they have a lot of guarantee of ind, I hope they expire soon

 

[Mettermrck]

Are the Hungarian tanks any good?

 

[aussieboy]

Perhaps you should take on the Yugos after your little Romanian gambit.

 

[unmerged(44784)]

Why is everyone always beating up on Republican Spain?!

 

[Klavo Hunter]

Why is everyone always beating up on Republican Spain?!

Because it's fun and easy!

 

[Zaku]

Are the Hungarian tanks any good?

Yeah we had some quite good panzers like the Turan II, and the Toldi series
not as good as the pzkfwIV, or the T34, but better then the Italian tanks.
(well for a such small country as hungary I think it is a nice accomplishment, to make something like tanks, and aeroplane to begin with)

 

[Zaku]

Perhaps you should take on the Yugos after your little Romanian gambit.

wel yea. did that, the Romanians had a guarantte of independence from CCCP and I dont think i can kick the reds ass maybe when barabarossa starts I'll have my own blitzkrieg to get the Ploesti oil fields.

 

[Zaku]

1938

In the beginning of the year, Lt. Gen. Szombathelyi finished a new doctorine, based on small units witch can easily repel an enemy attack with suffice mobility. For this accoplishment he has been assigned to lead the 1st Motorized Hussiar Corps, hungary's only motorized unit in the present

Later in that year Germany annexed Austria. So they didn't wanted us to attack them for this. The bastards. well, there is nothing to do, anyways we have to prepare for war.
Our army marched to the border at march 20 in the name of 'mimic warfare'
More then 375.000 soldiers, 1500 howitzers, cannons and AT guns, 324 Panzers, 210 Armored cars, and 1200 other vehlices consisted The Hungarian Army, and 200 interceptors, and 230 bombers were in our air force
against this the -consisting our military intelligence- Yugoslavians had about 400.000 soldiers, 500 vehlices, 1200 guns of all kind 400-500 planes, and they havent got any armor, just some armored car battalions dispersed along the front.
Brandenbug's action began on the night of 1938 March 24.
Hungary decleared war on Yugoslavia on March 25 10:00am. The staff decided to have the main attack at osijek, and - encircling the 4 Yugoslavian divisions at Novi Sad - continuing the attak from Osijek to Zrenjanir.
the attack started at 11:00
The Yugoslavian army was shocked, and their defensive line has been breached on March 26 14:00.

Our victorius troops cross the Drava river in '38 march

Our 'Hunyadi' panzer division turned east afterward, and with infantry support from the north crushed the resistance in Zrenjanir. everithing was going as planned, the Novi Sad pocket was close at March 30 11:00am.
the Yugoslavians then tried a counterattack. With 3 divisions, they attacked the Panzer division in Zrenjanir, who was exahused, that unit fought sience march 26. the Yugoslavs assaulted the posts of the division, they were desperate to relive their comrades at Novi Sad. Our division managed to hold the pockets mouth with tactical withdraws, and some smaller counterattacks using all the advantages that a panzer has in manouverablity against infantry.
After the reinforcements arrived(2th 'Lowland' Corps, with 3 infantry divisions the 1st, 11th, and the 'Szent István' from the north the attack has been repelled, and with a counterattack they managed to get back all the land lost in the tactical withdraw.

The artillery had a great role in repelling the attacks

The Yugoslavians in the pocket were offered, if thely lay their arms down, no harm happens to them, but they refused.
so the attack began, and after 3 days of fighting the last posts were captured by the hungarian troops. more then 40.000 Yugoslavs was captured, and 10.000 were killed, or injured during their counterattack, and in the Novi Sad caldron.
After That the yugoslavians didn'had a chance, Belgrade fall quickly, only the garrison had to be defeated, and hungaian panzers marched trough the capital.
Our superior force supported by the hungarian air force - witch managed to destroy the enemy air force's large percent in dogfights - sweeped trough their land.

Motorised units advanced deep in Yugoslavia

At Sarajevo however they managed to repell our attack, and stall the attackers for 2 weeks. But then the 1st motorized hussiar corps arrived from the south - where it was pursuing fleeing units - and with its support, and concentrated air strikes we managed to route the enemy units.
Meanwhile in the north, the 1st 'Budapest' corps, and the 4th Heavy corps - equipped with te most modern artillery - managed to capture Zagrab.
After this the Yugoslavians had no chance but to surrender.

Hungary then made its first step for becoming a power to be reckoned with...
Croatia was liberated as a satelite nation to supress the partisans, and 3 garrison divisions were geared for this purpose too.
Horthy ordered to upgrade Podrogica port to be able to hold the hungarian armada in the future.
research begun immediatlay, the germans sent some blueprints and research teams for the hungarians, to build a navy.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Mettermrck]

Excellent, one puppet added, more to go!

 

[Zaku]

The casualties was avarage on the Hungarian Army. According to the military report 12334 men was injured, 4395 men died, and 127 men was MIA. The 'Hunyadi' division lost 54 Panzers, mainly in the battle of Sarajevo, where the 1/II. panzer battalion ran into a well camoflouged AT battery, and was wiped out almost completly. The air force had almost no losses, 12 fighter, and 20 bomber.
On the other side the yugoslavian army's casualties was about 12.000 dead, 21.000 injured, 150.000 captured soldiers. They lost the entire air force, and most of their vehicles. some men managed to flee to the south, to Albania(about 50.000) the other survivors laid down their weapons and headed home. The POWs were released too a few weeks after the hungarian victory.
The yugoslavian navy sank their ships. Damn them, we could used them in a good starting point for the bulding of our navy.

It was a great victory indeed, but then problems happened... Two months after the conquest some yugoslavian partisans attacked a hungarian border watch near the borders of Albania. They killed 2 of the patrol and injured an other. the remaining 7 soldiers fired back the partisans, and took some of them down. After a short firefight the rebels retreated, and the hungarians pursued them. They fleed in albanian territories, and - on everybody's suprise-the albanian border guards didn't stopped them. Lt. Kaszás - the leader of the patrol - knew he can't follow the infidels who killed one of his best friend in here, becouse it would be an act of war, so he rushed back to their border post, and reported the firefight, and the partisans escape to Albania. After a few hours the news arrived to Horthy. He saw the opportunity in the incident.
Albania had some nice Oil fields, and the future navy would need a larger produce of petrol to operate 100% efficiency in wartime. But the albans had their guarantee of independence from Italy. The germans decleared political support against Mussolini, but not military. Well Horthy thought the oil can worth a war against the italians, who didn't prove to be a military power in the Etiopian war. so the hungarian army prepared for war... again. Most of the troops lined up on the italian border, 3 mountain divisions invaded Albania, and the Croatian army(6 divisions) was digging in at the Yugoslavian coastline, against italian landings there. albania fell quickly, they almost didn't had any army. At the northen borders the two army was ready to jump against each other's throat. In the end diplomacy was able to solve the probelms. Hitler decleared his support for us, and Mussolini cooled down a little and he let Horthy go with his conquests. Albania was made a puppet like croatia, becouse hungary needed it only for her oil.
Meanwhile the research for ships finished. The govnerment discussed, that we dont need battleships, we need somathing faster then that. Faster but still strong enough to have superiority on the Adriaic Sea. Battlecruiser was a good decision. The building of 4 battlecruisers - the 'Magyarország'(Hungary), 'Zrínyi Miklós'(a famous hungarian general from the 1600s), 'Újraegyesülés'(Reunion) and the 'Szent István' (our first christian king, a hungarian dreadnouhght was named like this in WWI.) - and 4 flottillas of destroyers began immediatly.

The 'Magyarország's' first sail. Theese BCs was the same class as the german Scharnhorst

At this point the hungarian army consisted 15 inf divisions(ten '36, and five '39, 3 with artillery, and some of them are heavy div.), 1 light armor div(Toldi38M), 3 motorized cavarly divisions(all with AC brig), 3 mountain divs('36, all of them are heavy div) and a HQ36(with AA brig).

the air force: 2 fighter squadrons(WM23 'Ezüstnyíl'), and 2 CAS squadrons(WM 16 'Budapest').

end of year 1938.

 

[Zaku]

ohh I didn't said this but I'm playing this with slightly modified(mainly graphical) HSR mod, hard/agressive.

 

[Mettermrck]

HSR is a tough mod at the harder levels, though if you're using mainly graphical stuff....anyhow, another nice update. I'm enjoying this.

 

[Zaku]

HSR is a tough mod at the harder levels, though if you're using mainly graphical stuff....anyhow, another nice update. I'm enjoying this.

----

I' m using the original HSR, the only modifications I made are: some new icons for units, I didn't like the new look of the fortifications, and the province AA so I made them look like in orignal HOI2,

thhese are the mods I made for this hungarian campaign: increased the IC from occupied, and non national province(from 0,2 to 0,3) increased the manpower growth from non national prov(from 0.0 to 0.002) theese was needed becouse Hungary starts with such a small amount of IC and MP.
Oh and modfied Hungary's national provinces.
added some in more in yugoslavia, and the whole Romanian mountains.(it was hungary's to begin with)

anyways thx for the laudative worlds