Notes of a Battalion Commander on the Fights in Transylvania, 1944

Egy zászlóaljparancsnok feljegyzései az erdélyi harcokról, 1944

Babucs, Zoltán

Egyesület Közép-Európa Kutatására, Szegedi Tudományegyetem Juhász Gyula Pedagógusképző Kar

2025-09-15

Magyarország védelme

naplók

személyes emlékek

2. Magyar Királyi 2. Kiegészítő Hadosztály

There are hardly any archival sources or specialised literature available on the establishment and active service of the Royal Hungarian supplementary field units in World War II. In the course of his research, the author attempted to use all the sources that could be found. He surveyed the personal material of the officers, the recommendations for decorations from 1944-1945 and the memoirs in the Military History Archives’ Collection of Essays. Moreover, he contacted several officers that saw service in the 2nd Supplementary Field Division between August 1944 and April 1945. Their diaries (for example memoires of First Lieutenant János Szádvári, who was company-, then battalion commander of the 3rd Supplementary Field Infantry Regiment), biographic recollections and letters also proved to be useful. The author tries to outline the active service of the division with the help of these source materials. When the Soviet troops reached the Carpathians, the Hungarian supreme command was forced to mobilise its reserve divisions. On 17 August1944, the Supplementary Army Headquarters were instituted to organise the supplementary units into divisions. In the majority of the cases, the supplementary units were set up of senior soldiers from the reserve and the secondary reserve, equipped with outdated infantry weapons and ammunitions. A supplementary field division generally comprised, 3 supplementary field infantry regiments that were small in number, 1 supplementary field horse artillery battalion and possibly some improvised subunits. They were mobilised on 24 August 1944. The supplementary units trooped out to the theatre of operations in the last days of August 1944, and were subordinated to the Royal Hungarian 2nd Army that was fighting in Transylvania and to the Royal Hungarian 3rd Army that was advancing in the southeast of the Great Plains. The following units belonged to the 2nd Supplementary Field Division: the 3rd Supplementary Field Infantry Regiment (Székesfehérvár), the 16th Supplementary Field Infantry Regiment (Győr), the 22nd Supplementary Field Infantry Regiment (Komárom), the 2nd Supplementary Field Artillery Division (Székesfehérvár, Győr, Komárom), the 2nd Supplementary Signal Battalion (Komárom) and the 6th Supplementary Reconnaissance Division (Érsekújvár). Amid the outstandingly severe rearguard fighting, the remains of several units were merged in the division, the casualties and war losses of which were increasing continuously. From the beginning of September 1944, the division took part in the fighting in Transylvania, near Gyergyószentmiklós and Csíkszereda (Szeklerland), in the Csíki Basin, in the Görgényi Alps, and then, having been forced westwards gradually, on their way to Szászrégen and Szatmárnémeti they fought near Nyíregyháza, in the course of the tank battle of Debrecen. While the other supplementary field divisions were destroyed, the 2nd Supplementary Field Division fought in Hungary until January 1945.

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https://ojs.bibl.u-szeged.hu/index.php/vikekkek/article/view/46582

10.14232/kek.2025.2.83-94

Közép-Európai Közlemények; Évf. 18 szám 1-2 (2025): Közép-Európai Közlemények No. 60-61; 83-94

2676-878X

1789-6339

https://ojs.bibl.u-szeged.hu/index.php/vikekkek/article/view/46582/45001

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