Hungarian Army in Winter Dress Stalingrad

1940 - 1945

By April 11, 1942, the 209,000-man-strong Second Army joined the German Army Group South in southern Russia. In June, 1942, the Second Army became part of Army Group B in Operation Bleu. In June and July 1942, prior to the Battle of Stalingrad, the Hungarian Second Army was involved in the Battel of Voronezh as part of Army Group B. Fighting in and around the city of Voronezh on the Don River, the Hungarian troops supported the German 4th Panzer Army against the defending Soviet Voronezh Front. Though technically an Axis success, this pyrrhic victory fatally delayed the arrival of the 4th Panzer Army in the Caucasus.

[The Hungarian Second Army is probably the best known Hungarian wartime army because of the part it played in the Battle of Stalingrad. Before being sent to Russia, the rank-and-file of the Second Army had received but eight weeks of training. 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' morale.

In 1942, the Hungarian Second Army was given the task of protecting the 8th Italian Army`s northern flank between  Noavaya Pokrovska on the Don River  and Rossosh. This allowed the German Sixth Army to continue to attack Soviet General Vasily Chuikov's 62nd armydefending Stalingrad.

The Hungarian Second Army, as almost all of the armies protecting the flanks of the Sixth Army, was annihilated when the Soviets launched Operation Uranus, Operation Saturnus, and Operation Little Saturn. As part of these operations, two Soviet pincers drove through the Romanian Third Army to the north of Stalingrad and the Romanian Fourth Army to the south, cutting off the Sixth Army.

On December 12, 1942, as a counter move, the Germans launched Operaton Winter Storm to relieve their Sixth Army by attacking through the pincers of the Soviet armies participating in Operation Uranus. The Soviets counter-attacked on December 16, 1942, and launched Operation Little Saturn, penetrating between the Italian Eight Army and the Hungarian Second Army near the junction held by the Italian Alpini and threatening the flank of German forces attempting to relieve the Sixth Army by cutting the would-be relievers off at the Donets river. With heavy losses the Soviets conquered some areas west of the Don river, but were temporarily stopped and delayed in their advance.

But on January 13, 1943, Russian forces, overwhelming in numbers and equipment, began the Voronezh-Kharkov Strategic Offensive Operation on the Bryansk, Voronezh, and Southwestern Fronts simultaneously. The Soviet Red Army was totally successful this time: during this offensive the Russians rapidly destroyed the Hungarian Second Army near Svoboda on the Don River. An attack on the German Second Army urther north threatened to bring about an encirclement of that army as well, though it managed to withdraw and was forced to retreat. By February 5, 1943, troops of the Russian Voronezh Front were approaching Kharkov.

During its twelve months of activity on the Russian front, the Second Hungarian Army's losses were enormous. Of an initial force of about 200,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 Jewish forced-laborers, 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."

The Hungarian Second Army, as most other Axis armies in the Army Group B, ceased to represent a meaningful fighting force. The German Sixth Army, encircled in Stalingrad, surrendered on February 2, 1943. The remnants of the Hungarian Second Army returned to Hungary on May 24, 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 First Armored Field Division. Most of the armor in this division was included in the 30th Tank Regiment. At the time of the siege of Stalingrad, the primary battle tank in this unit was the Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t). These were augmented by Hungarian Toldi tanks for scouting duties, Hungarian Nimrod armoured self propelled anti arcraft guns, and Hungarian Csaba armored cars. The tank regiment also had about ten German Panzer IV/F2 tanks and a few German Panzer III tanks in its heavy tank battalion. Unfortunately there were far too few of these better German tanks to make much difference.

Eén uitvoering mogelijk;

• 56 Hongaarse soldaten.

Schaal 1:72

Strelets*R M083