Author: Péter Mujzer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472845633
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
On 26 June 1941, unidentified bombers attacked the Hungarian town of Kassa, prompting Hungary to join its Axis partners in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Hungary's contribution to Barbarossa was designated the Carpathian Group, its most powerful component being the Mobile Corps, which fielded motorized rifle, cavalry, bicycle and light armoured troops. The Hungarians faced Soviet forces belonging to the Kiev Military District, deployed in four armies along a 940km-long front. On the defeated side in World War I, Hungary had seen its borders redrawn and its armed forces constrained by treaty, but was determined to recover territories lost to adjoining countries. When Hungary decided to participate in Operation Barbarossa, however, the Royal Hungarian Army was deployed in the Soviet Union and not against its neighbours. Meanwhile, the Red Army, while remaining among the most formidable armies of the era, had been seriously weakened by successive purges, its shortcomings exposed by the Winter War against Finland in 1939–40. During the opening battles (4–13 July), the Hungarian motorized rifle and armoured units clashed with the withdrawing Red Army forces. In the battle for Uman (15 July–8 August) the Hungarians blocked the Soviet troops' efforts to break out from encirclement. During the Hungarian defensive operation at the River Dniepr (30 August–6 October), counter-attacking Soviet units exerted heavy pressure on the defending Hungarians. Both sides would seek to draw lessons from these opening battles as the war in the East continued to rage into 1942. Fully illustrated, this book investigates the Hungarian and Soviet soldiers who fought in three battles of the Barbarossa campaign, casting new light on the role played by the forces of Nazi Germany's allies on the Eastern Front.
Author: Evgenii D. Moniushko
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134270038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
This new book is a chronological narrative of the experiences of Evgenii Moniushko, who lived through and survived the first year of the siege of Leningrad and who served as a junior officer in the Red Army during the last eighteen months of war and the first year of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. This volume presents an intensely human view of daily army life both in combat and garrison duty and unique perspectives on the conditions he and other junior officers and common soldiers endured while in army service.
Author: Jenő Györkei
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
This first detailed account of Soviet military operations is based on access to unpublished material in Soviet archives, which have recently been reclassified. The major contribution made by the book is its source material, which reveals new information on the organization, command, strategy, and tactics of the Soviet armed forces which invaded Hungary in 1956. Particularly interesting is the precise documentation of the irrationally large size of the forces. The volume is based on research in Soviet archives, and this alone makes it of unique scholarly importance. The book opens with a substantial introductory essay by the editors, and includes a major study by the Russian military historian Alexandr Kirov, based on research in Soviet military archives. One of the real strengths of the book is that it also includes the memoirs of General Yevgeny Malashenko, in 1956 a colonel in the Soviet Army and acting Chief of Staff of the Special Corps in Budapest. He provides unparalleled insights into Soviet military procedures, politico-military co-operation, and the actual fighting strengths and weaknesses of the Red Army. Very few other high-ranking Soviet officers have ever published their memoirs in the West.
Author: Csaba Bekes
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 963386075X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
This book compares the various aspects ? political, military economic ? of Soviet occupation in Austria, Hungary and Romania. Using documents found in Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian and Russian archives the authors argue that the nature of Soviet foreign policy has been misunderstood. Existing literature has focused on the Soviet foreign policy from a political perspective; when and why Stalin made the decision to introduce Bolshevik political systems in the Soviet sphere of influence. This book will show that the Soviet conquest of East-Central Europe had an imperial dimension as well and allowed the Soviet Union to use the territory it occupied as military and economic space. The final dimension of the book details the tragically human experiences of Soviet occupation: atrocities, rape, plundering and deportations.
Author: Krisztián Ungváry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Budapest (Hungary)
Languages : en
Pages : 392
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Book Description
The battle of Budapest (December 1944 to February 1945) was one of the longest and bloodiest city sieges of World War II. From the appearance of the first Soviet tanks on the outskirts of the capital to the capture of Buda castle 102 days elapsed. In terms of human trauma, it comes second only to Stalingrad, comparisons to which were even being made by soldiers, both German and Soviet, fighting at the time. The battle for Budapest raged over the heads of 800,000 non-combatants, and this history covers their experiences and those of the military personnel involved in the struggle.
Author: David Campbell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472838289
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
In a bid to recapture territory conceded following the Winter War of 1939–40, Finnish forces cooperated with Nazi Germany and other Axis powers during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Rapid Finnish progress in reoccupying lost ground in Karelia during the first few months of the invasion gave way to a more static form of warfare from October 1941. The Finns resisted German pressure to participate fully in the Axis attack on the beleaguered Soviet-held city of Leningrad, and the Continuation War came to be characterized by trench warfare and unconventional operations conducted by both sides behind the front lines. In June 1944 the stalemate was abruptly ended by a massive Soviet offensive that pushed the Finns back; the two sides clashed in a series of major battles, including the battle of Tali-Ihantala, with the Finns halting the Soviet advance before agreeing to an armistice that September. The evolving military situation in this sector of the Eastern Front meant that the soldiers of the Soviet Union and Finland fought one another in a variety of challenging settings, prompting both sides to innovate as new technologies reached the front line. In this study, the doctrine, training, equipment and organization of both sides' fighting men are assessed and compared, followed by a detailed assessment of their combat records in three key battles of the Continuation War.
Author: Nigel Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1846037956
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
The Royal Hungarian Army was Germany's largest ally on the Eastern Front, but information about the Hungarian Army in English is rare. Deployed in Ukraine at the beginning of the war, the Hungarian Army was involved in a number of brutal encounters with the Red Army, including stubborn resistance in Transylvania in the summer of 1944, and the brave defense of Budapest in the face of overwhelming odds. The Hungarian Army was a varied and colourful force, ranging from mountain troops and tank units to horse cavalry and specialist infantry. All of these are illustrated in full-colour artwork, with full details about the Hungarian Army's own, quite distinct uniforms and insignia as well as many of its own weapons and tanks. This is an essential starter resource for wargamers, modelers, re-enactors and military historians.
Author: Alexander Hill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472825640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
The savage partisan war on the Eastern Front during World War II saw a wide variety of forces deployed by both sides. On the Soviet side, civilian partisans fought alongside and in co-operation with Red Army troops and Red Army and NKVD 'special forces'. On the German side, German Army security divisions, with indigenous components including cavalry, fought alongside SS police and Waffen-SS units and other front-line troops employed for short periods in the anti-partisan role. In addition to providing the background history of the forces of both sides, this study focuses upon three examples of German anti-partisan operations that show varied success in dealing with the Soviet partisan threat. Notably, it covers a major operation in north-west Russia during the spring of 1943 – Operation Spring Clean – that saw Wehrmacht security forces including local components fighting alongside troops under the SS umbrella against a number of Soviet partisan brigades. During the fighting, German forces even employed captured French tanks from earlier in the war against the partisans. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and drawing upon an array of sources, this is an absorbing account of the brutal fighting between German security forces and their Soviet partisan opponents during the long struggle for victory on World War II's Eastern Front.
Author: David R. Higgins
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472841727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
The Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939 saw mostly untested German troops face equally inexperienced Polish forces. With the Polish senior leadership endeavouring to hold the country's industrialized east, Hitler's forces unleashed what was essentially a large pincer operation intended to encircle and eliminate much of Poland's military strength. Harnessing this initial operational advantage, the Germans were able to attack Polish logistics, communications and command centres, thereby gaining and maintaining battlefield momentum. With the average infantry soldier on both sides comparatively well-led, equipped and transported, vital differences in battlefield support (especially air power and artillery), tactics, organization and technology would make all the difference in combat. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, archive photography and battle maps, this study focuses upon three actions that reveal the evolving nature of the 1939 campaign. The battle of Tuchola Forest (1–5 September) pitted fast-moving German forces against uncoordinated Polish resistance, while the battle of Wizna (7–10 September) saw outnumbered Polish forces impede the German push north-east of Warsaw. Finally, the battle of Bzura (9–19 September) demonstrated the Polish forces' ability to surprise the Germans operationally during a spirited counter-attack against the invaders. All three battles featured in this book cast light on the motivation, training, tactics and combat performance of the fighting men of both sides in the 1939 struggle for Poland.
Author: George E. Blau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
