Adam T

In Hungarian: Infantry: gyalogság Uniforms: egyenruhák

No real Csaba in the game? I hope a patch is coming soon! If I know right, the Tas has never been produced is series, only 1-2 wooden prototypes made. But it could be lethal with its Panther cannon, and, aaand it looked very evil... Gud: It's a shame, but I don't know nothing about the Arpad. What kind of weapon was that?

Yes, 'fausts are quite good under 25-30m distance. And one time I managed to knock out a Panther with a demo charge, by an engineer squad. They were hiding in a bush covered ditch, and they threw the charge to the incoming Panther's front armor. The distance was about 10-15m! It was like a movie scene I haven't got too much positive results with rifle-grenades.

Check the "WHOOOOHOOOO! I GOT IT!" topic. ParaBellum from Germany was kind to upload some screenies...

Thanks Parabellum, it looks awesome!

Have we got a nice Opel Blitz instead of the ugly generic CMBO-truck? If yes, would you post a pic about it? And some Hungarians please!

Here is a quite good page about Hungarian armor:http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/hun/Hungary.html What were the advantages of the Hungarians? Most of their weapons were obsolete, but not all of them. The 40mm Bofors AA gun was one of the best of its time. It was very accurate, and it was not too bad against tanks. It was also used mounted on tracked chassis, it was the Nimrod. The Zrinyi assault guns were also decent weapons, specially with the 105mm gun. The Hungarians achieved good results with German equipment. In '44 there was a Hungarian Tiger I platoon, and the german trainers surprised, how good are the Hungarians in aiming. (They had learn to aim good, to survive a battle in a 40mm Turan They were also well trained mechanics. There were a couple of Hungarian Panthers too. They also fought well, and the Hungarian tank crews proved to be equal to the Germans, if they used the same equipment. I haven't read too much about Hungarian Pz IVs, but I think most of them were obsolete E, F, F2 series in 43-44. But, sometimes good results could be achieved not only by the most modern technics. In the battle of Budapest a Hungarian unit borrowed an old, SdKfz 222 (its cannon was dismounted), and made a surprise attack on Russian mortars on the Margit Island. They towed an AT gun, and they carried 12 HE ammo for it. They reached the destination, and knocked out all of the russian mortars. It was took only 2-3 minutes. They not even fixed the "legs" (sorry I'dont know the proper English word of the gun! On the way back, the throwed hand grenades onto the Russian machinegunners from the car. The mission was so succesful, that they repeated it on the same day, without the gun, to make it more quick. So don't say that a turretless SdKfz 222 is useless in 1945!

At first I check what kinds of Hungarian units are in the game with the scenario editor. After that I setup a Hungarian vs. Allied Romanian attack scenario, with lots of Zrinyies in ambush position. Or maybe an Ansaldo armored shopping carts vs. T-34s in late '42?

Oh yeah, will units have long-coats in the winter, and in cold weather? It would require separate 3D-meshes for them, but it would add a lot to the east front feeling. And, IMHO there were more cold months in Russia than warm, so if the soldier had it, he spent the bigger part of the year in his long coat (specially in Army Group North). They even wear it more often, the they white winter-parkas. So, what-about a nice long coat bone?

MakJager it's interesting what you wrote. I continued to gather information about hungarian Tigers and Panthers, and I found an article about hungarian Panthers, by Norbert Számvéber. There were 5 of them, used by the 2nd. Armor Div. I./2. Company. (The same unit who used the Tigers in summer of '44.) The company commander was 1st lieutenant Ervin Tarczay. They received the Panthers on 5th of September 1944. (With 20 Panzer IVs.) The article describes lots of battles of the Panthers, they were even more effective then the Tigers, used in the summer. And the roster of the 2nd Arm. Div. mentioned 5 battle ready Panthers, aaaand... 3 Tigers. Here is the link, but I'm affraid Freeweb.hu addresses are working only in Hungary. http://www.freeweb.hu/worldwar2/index.cgi?pg=pz5hun&bg=hun There are a few pictures about the tanks: there is one, where the Hungarian crew is visible (grey uniform - germans wore black). It's a Panther Ausf. D (the one without the hull MG, with side-skirts). The camo seemes to be quite hasty. If you BTS guyz are interested in the article, I can translate it, or e-mail pictures about hungarian armor.

I'm sure that's a good magazine, but foreign magazines are too expensive for me here in Hungary. I stay with "Haditechnika". It costs 240Ft (less then 1 USD), and it's not that bad.

One more thought about the 3 additional Tigers. I've got a theory: you wrote General Hollós-Kuthy got them for his birthday. Imagine that birthday party... I would drink for a week, if I would got a Tiger as a birthday present. Maybe Hollós-Kuthy and his men were also drunk, and they crashed their funky Tiger rides on their way back to home from a ukranian discotheque. So the memoires doesn't mention them.

The article what I have read also mentioned additional Tigers: the germans promised two more Tigers, and 15 tons of supply (spare parts, tools), but it hadn't arrived by the end of the operations (24-25th of July). About Panthers: "A small number of Panthers, probably five, and probably G models, was sold to Hungary in 1944." -from achtungpanzer.com. That's not too much information.

I wrote earlier about Hungarian Tigers in the modelling contest topic. Now I can prove that they existed, and fought on the East Front! I've found an article in the 1997/2 issue of the hungarian military magazine "Haditechnika". I try to translate the most important parts of the story. So KwazyDog and BTS guyz read on, and include that Hungarian Tigers in CMBB! In early 1944 the East Front was moving to the Northeast-Carpatians, endangering the borders of Hungary. So the Hungarian supreme command ordered the mobilization of the 2nd Armor Division (2. Páncéloshadosztály). The strongest unit of the division was the 3rd Tank Regiment, equipped with Turán-75 (75mm cannon), and Turán-40 (40mm cannon) tanks. It was planned to use the division within the borders of Hungary, but the Germans occupied the country on 19th of March, 1944. The german influence become stronger and stronger in the controlling the units of the Hungarian Royal Defence Force. So on 29th of March, 1944 the 2nd Armor Division was ordered to fill the gap between the german North- and Sout-Ukranian Army Group, in control of the 1. Hungarian Army, outside the Carpatians, in Galícia. The transports of the 2nd Armor Div. arrived to ther deployment area, near to Stryj, between 5th and 11th of April. From here, they moved 250-300kms on their own wheels to Bolechow-Dolina, in melting snow, and mud. As soon as they arrived, they got tasks, because the germans hadn't got forces in the area, about 60-70km in the frontline. The first part of the operation was to take the Stanislau - Delatyn road, and secure bridgeheads on river Bistrice, needed to the further advance. The 2nd Armor Div. successfully was done the task by 19th of April. They take city of Nadworna, and made two bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Bistrica. It was the first mission of the Turáns. Although they managed to knock out two T-34s, but it become clear, that they not good enough both in firepower and armor. The T-34 could destroy the Turáns form 1500-2000m. The Turán-75 could destroy the T-34 from 600, the Turán-40 from 400m. The second part of the operations was advancing from the eastern Carpatian forests, and take Kolomea. The trucks and cars stucked in the muddy forest terrain. The Turáns also had problems because of their narrow tracks. The Turáns had to tow the trucks, and transport the supplies, so they broke down more frequently. So the Soviets stopped the Hungarian advance. The attack (launched on 20th of April 1944) broke down 2km west from Sloboda Lesna and Pocharnyk. The units of the 2nd Armor Div. were removed from the frontline since 4th of May. They received their first maintenance since the beginning of the operations. The division suffered heavy losses. The frontline operations temporarly paused. The commanders of the 2nd Armor Div. were greatly satisfied with the performance of the division. General Model, the commander of Army Group North-Ukraina also admitted, that the standstill of the russians was because the hungarians. He said that the hungarian armor troops achieved wonderful results, and they could do even more with more modern tanks. So Model ordered the strengthening of the 2nd Armor Div. (and to replace the losses) with germans tanks. These tanks previously used by that german forces, that helped the hungarian advance. The hungarian 3rd Armor Regiment recieved the german equipment in Nadworna. They got 12 Pz.IV.Hs, 10 Stug.III.Gs and 10 Pz.VI.E Tigers. The vehicles were worn, and they included only the most important tools. The whole workshop equipment, and spare parts were completely missing. There is no written evidence about that the Hungarians received the tanks temporarly for the time of the operations, or permanently. Anyway, the vehicles continued to wear their original german paint schemes, turret numbers, and national signs. The Tigers originally belonged to the 503. Schwerpanzer Abteilung, and seen many battles between the Bug and Dnester rivers. The german vehicles now belonged to the 3/I. Tank Batallion. The Tigers divided between the 2nd and the 3rd companies. The other two company got the PzIVs and the Stugs. The hungarian crews ordered to re-training began their work enthusiastly. The thick armor (covered with zimmerit) of the Tiger, and the mighty 88mm cannon gave back their self-confidence, that lost in the Turáns in the earlier battles. Their battle-morale become even better, because they thought that these Tigers previously belonged to Rommel's legendary Afrika Korps. Anyway, the german trainers surprised how well-trained were the hungarian crews. The new Tiger crews reached the level of their trainers in very short time. The aimers, who previously got used to the inaccurate cannon of the Turán, made a great job with the 88. They could hit a tree in the middle from 2000m (!). The debut of the hungarian Tigers was the guarding of Tlumaczky. They were divided to to platoons (2-3 tanks), and were ordered to the batallion HQ area. At the first line, at the companies was only one "hard skinned" spotter. They reported the new bushes suddenly growing form the ground, new trees, and engines noises they had heard. Then, in the late afternoon the panzers attacked. (In late afternoon the sun glared to the eyes of the enemy.) In one week they detsroyed 3 T-34s, at least a dozen bunkers, a lot of anti-tank guns, and an ammo-storage area. The next mission was the defending of Stanislau. A soviet attack was threatening the city, so the 3rd Regiment transfered to the area. A Tiger group take Cziczow north from Stanislau. The danger to Stanislau paused for a while. But the russians broke the hungarian lines between Nadworna and Stanislau. The group tried to stop them at Czuczylow, but they couldn't stop the enemy advance. The retreating of the 1st Hungarian Army began tothe Carpatians. The Tigers covered the retreating. At Saturnia, two Tigers secured Hill 514. They knocked out 14 enemy tanks in 30 minutes! But, on the retreating, most of the Tigers were lost. When they broke down, there were no towing vehicles to rescue them. And, because there were not enough fuel trucks, they often run out of fuel, and had been left behind. Others stuck in the mud, others were flanked by soviets in the forest. Until 25th of July, 7 of the 10 Tigers lost. The 3 remaining Tigers (out of order) were transported back to Germany. The soldiers of the 3rd Armor Regiment hadn't seen them anymore. The short "guest appearance" proved, that the hungarian tank crews wasn't worse than the germans in terms of skill, professional knowledge. And they become mighty opponents of the soviets with the adequate weapons.

It works, it shows two small logos on the top left corner.

I've uploaded some pictures about Hungarian AFVs. There are a couple colour shots of a Zrínyi, maker of the model unknown. I hope you can use them. http://photos.lycos.com/AUTH/PhotoCenter/PhotoAlbum.asp?CG=kh0i24lg94mkdfpbka80mhgs0s&AID=296732

Next week I send e-mail the pictures of my PzIVD and Opel Blitz models. Both of them is panzer gray. And here is two link about Hungarian AFVs, maybe they are useful. http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/hun/Hungary.html http://www.activevr.com/afv/muzzle.html And please include Tiger I tanks for the Hungarian Armores Forces. They were extremely rare, but they were existed. They wore the standard german camouflage and markings.