1939 brought a lots of changes not only in Hungary, but in the whole world.
After solving the problems in the balkans, the government decided not to make military actions until 1940 spring. So Hungary had more than one year to prepare the showdwn with Romania. In the meantime it appeared, that the CCCP resigned their guarantee of independence towards Romania. Hmm this means we can strike them down right after the bad weather ends in 1939...
But unseen things happened. The military intelligence said, that Romania has about 30 divisions -one of them was a panzer equipped with French tanks - against our 23 Hungarian, 6 Croatian, and 2 Abanian divisions. The forces was approximately the same, but due the lots of mountains in Transylvania they'll have and edge over us. So it was decided that we don't attack until the end of '39. Training of 3 mountain divisions, and 3 motorized divisions began at February. However the training was delayed until the beggining of 1940, because the navy building project got a priority before anything else.
So the army began its large scale upgrading and training project. The 'Hunyadi' panzer division's strenght was restocked, and equipped, with the newly researched panzer, the Toldi 40M. The main difference between the 38M and the 40M was their turret, witch was upgraded from 20mm to 37mm, and the armor thickness. The infantry was also equipped with some new heavy and light weaponary, and general equipment
The troops learned to use the new equipment like this 40mm AA gun
In 1939 august 1. Hitler personally came to visit Horty, and said "Now its time for Hugary to repay her debt for the support from the german volk" He told his plan against Poland, and demanded hungarian support attacks from the south, to tie down polish reinforements. Horthy didn't had a chance, and signed the contact, witch could lead hungary in a great glory, or either a large despair. From this point Hungary's and Germany's fate was tied together. In August 30. germany gave an ultimatum to polland, witch was rejected, and in sept 1. german troops crossed the border. England and France Decleared war on us, but except for some air sorties - witch was beaten by our and germany's air force - they didn't took any offensive actions. The french was entrenching themselves in their rat holes, the maginot lines, and the brittish... well their army was everything but battleready. On 4th of Sept the hungarian army had its first encounter with the poles. The 'Balkan' Corps - witch was consisting mainly yugoslavian volunteers - and 'Hunyadi' panzer division managed to flank the poles's 'Cracow' army - consisting 7 divisions - defending against the invading german troops. The poles was crushed under the pressure of the two sided attack. After this there was some smaller firefights between the hungarian and the polish border guards, but no more major engagements happened.
the germans crushed the whole polish army by the end of september.
Then the soviet army began its advance, and everyone thougt that it will attack the germans but its not what happened. the two armies stopped at Brest litovsk, and didnt advanced any further. They said there was a german-soviet agreement in secret to partition polland, but this was not proved.
So germany had total control over Poland by Oktober. Hungary now had a chance to take control of Transylvania and the romanian oil fields.
Meanwhile in asia the Japan's stance wasnt so bright.
the chineese army - nevertheless their great losses in numbers - pushed back the imperial army to the Korean peninsula. the chineese had incredible number of sacrifiable manpower at their disposal. The japans made a terrible mistake to attack them.
The spanish civil war endend with Nationalist victory. Succesfully, our 432 surviving soldiers returned to hungary. They had been honored with a large military parade.
The parade held in the honour of the 'spanish heroes'
It was decided - because they had training in the condor legion to make paradrops - they'll be the core of hungarys first airbone unit, the 'Géza Fejedelem' paratrooper division. but this had to wait, because the air transports was very expensive, and the building of the hungarian navy - witch would finish in '40 feb - took away the warproduction's large percent.
It was december at this point, and Hungary was almost ready for her showdown with Romania.
End of Year 1939
After solving the problems in the balkans, the government decided not to make military actions until 1940 spring. So Hungary had more than one year to prepare the showdwn with Romania. In the meantime it appeared, that the CCCP resigned their guarantee of independence towards Romania. Hmm this means we can strike them down right after the bad weather ends in 1939...
But unseen things happened. The military intelligence said, that Romania has about 30 divisions -one of them was a panzer equipped with French tanks - against our 23 Hungarian, 6 Croatian, and 2 Abanian divisions. The forces was approximately the same, but due the lots of mountains in Transylvania they'll have and edge over us. So it was decided that we don't attack until the end of '39. Training of 3 mountain divisions, and 3 motorized divisions began at February. However the training was delayed until the beggining of 1940, because the navy building project got a priority before anything else.
So the army began its large scale upgrading and training project. The 'Hunyadi' panzer division's strenght was restocked, and equipped, with the newly researched panzer, the Toldi 40M. The main difference between the 38M and the 40M was their turret, witch was upgraded from 20mm to 37mm, and the armor thickness. The infantry was also equipped with some new heavy and light weaponary, and general equipment
The troops learned to use the new equipment like this 40mm AA gun
In 1939 august 1. Hitler personally came to visit Horty, and said "Now its time for Hugary to repay her debt for the support from the german volk" He told his plan against Poland, and demanded hungarian support attacks from the south, to tie down polish reinforements. Horthy didn't had a chance, and signed the contact, witch could lead hungary in a great glory, or either a large despair. From this point Hungary's and Germany's fate was tied together. In August 30. germany gave an ultimatum to polland, witch was rejected, and in sept 1. german troops crossed the border. England and France Decleared war on us, but except for some air sorties - witch was beaten by our and germany's air force - they didn't took any offensive actions. The french was entrenching themselves in their rat holes, the maginot lines, and the brittish... well their army was everything but battleready. On 4th of Sept the hungarian army had its first encounter with the poles. The 'Balkan' Corps - witch was consisting mainly yugoslavian volunteers - and 'Hunyadi' panzer division managed to flank the poles's 'Cracow' army - consisting 7 divisions - defending against the invading german troops. The poles was crushed under the pressure of the two sided attack. After this there was some smaller firefights between the hungarian and the polish border guards, but no more major engagements happened.
the germans crushed the whole polish army by the end of september.
Then the soviet army began its advance, and everyone thougt that it will attack the germans but its not what happened. the two armies stopped at Brest litovsk, and didnt advanced any further. They said there was a german-soviet agreement in secret to partition polland, but this was not proved.
So germany had total control over Poland by Oktober. Hungary now had a chance to take control of Transylvania and the romanian oil fields.
Meanwhile in asia the Japan's stance wasnt so bright.
the chineese army - nevertheless their great losses in numbers - pushed back the imperial army to the Korean peninsula. the chineese had incredible number of sacrifiable manpower at their disposal. The japans made a terrible mistake to attack them.
The spanish civil war endend with Nationalist victory. Succesfully, our 432 surviving soldiers returned to hungary. They had been honored with a large military parade.
The parade held in the honour of the 'spanish heroes'
It was decided - because they had training in the condor legion to make paradrops - they'll be the core of hungarys first airbone unit, the 'Géza Fejedelem' paratrooper division. but this had to wait, because the air transports was very expensive, and the building of the hungarian navy - witch would finish in '40 feb - took away the warproduction's large percent.
It was december at this point, and Hungary was almost ready for her showdown with Romania.
End of Year 1939
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