What is this all about............?

The Honvéd

The Hungarian Armed Forces 1939-1945 (and a little later as the whim takes me!)



A place for me to make available material I wrote some time ago concerning the Honvéd, there will be other articles as and when I get them down on paper/Hardrive, there is a great deal on the go, however I'm not quick and my real life/job tends to get in the way of the interesting stuff, so updates may/will* be infrequent.

* Delete as required.

I've had an interest in the Hungarian armed forces for way too many years now; much of what I have collected is squirreled away in my random semi organised notes/files. It all started when I read a small article in the now defunct Wheels and Tracks magazine about the Hungarian use of the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E Sd. Kfz. 181, and it escalated from there.

I have some good friends in the Republic of Hungary as it is now – you know who you are, which makes visiting archives and acquiring documents/books easy, I have a Hungarian translator, so hopefully all the translations are correct – I’m sure she does a great job!

I’ve had a few articles published, the information that appears on this site is current as of April 2015, the magazine articles by their nature of 'magazine' articles are edited down and diluted - they are also not current anymore. (Don't waste your money ordering back issues!) I've also assisted a couple of authors (and I'm currently doing so) with their work and a decal manufacturer with a few correct sets of Honvéd decals.

There were a few more articles waiting to go into print; however they tend to be edited down versions of what I compiled originally; and despite numerous 'it's in the next magazine' they have yet to appear! So I have decided they will be on here in their full format at some point in time...Shhh).

It’s also difficult to include images that are freely available online in a published magazine, so they are included in these articles . I have used images that are in the public domain and credited their copyright/ownership where I have been able to find this out.

Over the last few years I have noticed an increase in interest in both wargaming and modelling circles, more so in the former in the operations and equipment’s of the Royal Hungarian Armed Forces – A Magyar Királyi Honvédség.

As there is very little available in the English language on this subject, I thought it would be a useful exercise to present some of this material in English on this site.  Research into this subject has been difficult when the Soviets were still in Hungary, since they have left it has become a little easier to access records and documents in Hungary.
Many veterans and their families have started coming forward with original photo albums and documentation now Hungary is again independent – The Soviets did not condone any activity concerning the Honvéd’s action in WW2 and as a result those with the photos/documents did not mention they had such documentation.
The massive growth of the internet and auction sites has made it fairly easy to purchase/find these documents…although at a premium.

With these postings I would like to present the reader with some information regarding the Honvéd, this will be an on going project and will eventually include details of their vehicles, both home produced and purchased, there will also be information concerning markings applied to Hungarian AFV’s during the period 1940 – 1945.

I do have an interest in some specific units and vehicles, so these may receive more attention than other topics.

If there are any questions, then please drop me a line……………….