Hungarian role, part-1

On 9 August 1919, Admiral Miklós Horthy united various anti-communist military units into an 80,000-strong National Army (Nemzeti Hadsereg). On 1 January 1922, the National Army was once again redesignated the Royal Hungarian Army.

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Hungary was preoccupied with the regaining the vast territories and huge amount of population lost in the Trianon peace treaty at Versailles in 1920. 

This required strong armed forces to defeat the neighbouring states and this was something Hungary could not afford. Instead, the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, made an alliance with German dictator Adolf Hitler 's Third Reich. In exchange for this alliance and via the Vienna Awards, Hungary received back parts of its lost territories from Yugoslavia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. Hungary was to pay dearly during and after World War II for these temporary gains. 

On 5 March 1938, Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi announced a rearmament program (the so-called Győr Programme, named after the city where it was announced to the public). Starting 1 October, the armed forces established a five-year expansion plan with Huba I-III revised orders of battle. Conscription was introduced on a national basis in 1939. The peacetime strength of the Royal Hungarian Army grew to 80,000 men organized into seven corps commands. 

In March 1939, Hungary launched an invasion of the newly formed Slovak Republic . Both the Royal Hungarian Army and the Royal Hungarian Air Force fought in the brief Slovak-Hungarian War. This invasion was launched to reclaim a part of the Slovakian territory lost after World War I.

                    

On 1 March 1940, Hungary organized its ground forces into three field armies. The Royal Hungarian Army fielded the Hungarian First Army, the Hungarian Second Army, and the Hungarian Third Army. With the exception of the independent "Fast Moving Army Corps" (Gyorshadtest), all three Hungarian field armies were initially relegated to defensive and occupation duties within the regained Hungarian territories.

-------------------------
                   
The Hungarian First Army was a field army of the Royal Hungarian Army that saw action during World War II .

Under Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, Hungary was an Axis state at the beginning of the European conflict. On 1 March 1940, the small Hungarian Army formed three field armies. All three Hungarian armies saw action on the Eastern Front against the Red Army. 

Unlike the Hungarian Third Army which took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) and the Hungarian Second Army that fought at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942), the Hungarian First Army did not see much combat at the start of the war.

The troops of the Hungarian First Army, like all Hungarian troops, were part of the one-million-plus non-German Axis troops on the Eastern Front. 

While the majority of these Axis troops were Romanian, there were also significant contingents of Hungarians, Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Italians, Slovakians, Croatians, Frenchmen, Danes, Norwegians, Belgians, and Spaniard. 

The first commander of the Hungarian First Army was Lieutenant-General (or Altábornagy according to the Hungarian army rank) Vilmos Nagy. After 30 August 1940, under Nagy, the Hungarian First Army took part in Hungary's annexation and occupation of northern Transylvania. This region of Romania was awarded to Hungary as a condition of the Second Vienna Award .
------------------------------

The Hungarian Second Army ( Második Magyar Hadsereg ) was one of three field armies ( hadsereg ) raised by the Kingdom of Hungary ( Magyar Királyság ) which saw action during World War II. All three armies were formed on March 1, 1940. The Second Army was the best-equipped Hungarian formation at the beginning of the war, but was virtually eliminated as an effective fighting unit by overwhelming Soviet force during the Battle of Stalingrad, suffering 84% casualties. Towards the end of the war, a reformed Second Army fought more successfully at the Battle of Debrecen , but, during the ensuing Siege of Budapest , it was destroyed completely and absorbed into the Hungarian Third Army.
-----------------------------------

Hungarian Third Army was a field army of the Royal Hungarian Army that saw action during World War II.

On 5 April 1941 the Hungarian Third Army was mobilized invasion of Yugoslavia. Attack began the bombing of Belgrade and the crossing of the border Germans on 6 April.

Third Army faced the Yugoslav First Army. By the time the Hungarians crossed the border and finally attacked, the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia more than a week. As a result, the Yugoslavs put up little resistance to the Hungarians. Units Hungarian army advanced into the third will be a triangle-shaped area known as the triangle of Baranya, Danube and Drava River. The Hungarians suffered a few casualties in this attack. As a result of participating in the attack on Yugoslavia, Hungary back Bácska and Baranya.
------------------------

In November 1940, Hungary signed the Tripartite Pact and became a member of the Axis with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

In April 1941, in order to regain territory, Hungary joined the Germans in the invasion of Yugoslavia.

After the controversial Kassa attack , elements of the Royal Hungarian Army joined the German invasion of the Soviet Union , Operation Barbarossa . In the late summer of 1941, the Hungarian "Rapid Corps" ( Gyorshadtest ), alongside German and Romanian army groups, scored a huge success against the Soviets at the Battle of Uman. A little more than a year later and contrasting sharply with the success at Uman, was the near total devastation of the Hungarian Second Army on banks of the Don River in December 1942 during the Battle for Stalingrad.

                   

   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
During 1943, the Hungarian Second Army was re-built. In late 1944, as part of Panzerarmee Fretter-Pico, it participated in the destruction of a Soviet mechanized group at the Battle of Debrecen. But this proved to be a Pyrrhic victory...