Slovak–Hungarian War
| Slovak-Hungarian Border War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 First Slovak Republic |
 Kingdom of Hungary | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Augustín Malár |
 András Littay | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
3 infantry regiments 2 artillery regiments 9 armoured cars 3 tanks |
5 infantry battalions 2 cavalry battalions 1 motorised battalion 3 armoured cars 70 tankettes 5 light tanks | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Slovak military: 22 killed, 360 Slovak and 311 Czech POW Slovak civilians: 36 killed |
Hungarian military: 8 killed, 30 wounded | ||||||||
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2009) |
The Slovak–Hungarian War or Little War (Hungarian: Kis háború, Slovak: Malá vojna), was a war fought from March 23 to March 31/April 4, 1939 between the First Slovak Republic and Hungary in eastern Slovakia.
Prelude
After the Munich Pact, which weakened Czech lands rapidly from west, the Hungarians had remained poised threateningly on the Slovak border. They reportedly had artillery ammunition for only 36 hours of operations, and were clearly engaged in a bluff, but it was a bluff the Germans had encouraged, and one that they would have been obliged to support militarily if the much larger and better equipped Czechoslovak Army chose to fight. The Czechoslovak army had built 2,000 small concrete emplacements along the border wherever there was no major river obstacle.
The Hungarian Minister of the Interior, Miklós Kozma, had been born in Carpathian Ruthenia, and in mid-1938 his ministry armed the Rongyos Gárda ('Ragged Guard'), which began to infiltrate guerillas into southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine. The situation was now verging on open war, which might set the whole of Europe ablaze. From the German and Italian point of view, this would be premature, so they pressured the Czechoslovak government to accept their joint Arbitration of Vienna. On November 2, 1938, this found largely in favour of the Hungarians and obliged the Prague government to cede 11,833 km² of the mostly Hungarian populated (according to not very realistic 1910 census[2]) South-Eastern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine to Hungary. The partition cost Slovakia also its second biggest city Košice, and left the capital, Bratislava, vulnerable to further Hungarian pressure.
The First Vienna Award did not fully satisfied Hungarians, and there followed twenty-two border clashes between November 2, 1938 and January 12, 1939 alone, during which the Czechoslovaks lost five dead and six wounded.
On the evening of March 13, Tiso (The Slovak leader) and Ďurčanský met Hitler, Ribbentrop and Generals Brauchitsch and Keitel in Berlin. Hitler, made it absolutely clear that either Slovakia declared independence immediately and associated itself with the Reich, or he would let the Hungarians, who were reported by Ribbentrop to be massing on the border, take the country over. In fact, encouraged by the Germans, the Hungarians were largely massing on the adjacent Ruthenian border.
During the afternoon and night of March 14, the Slovak people proclaimed their independence from Czecho-Slovakia, and at 5:00 am on March 15, 1939, Hitler declared that the unrest in Czecho-Slovakia was a threat to the German security, and sent his troops into Bohemia and Moravia, meeting virtually no resistance.
The Slovaks were surprised when the Hungarians recognised their new state as early as March 15. However, as showed up soon, Hungarians were not satisfied with their frontier with Slovakia and, according to Slovak sources weak elements of their 20th Infantry Regiment and frontier Guards had to repulse a Hungarian attempt to seize Hill 212.9 opposite Uzhhorod. In this, and the subsequent shelling and bombing of the border villages of Nižné Nemecké and Vyšné Nemecké, the Slovaks claimed to have suffered 13 dead and they promptly complained to the Germans, invoking Hitler's promise of protection.
On March 17, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry told the Germans that Hungary wanted to negotiate with the Slovaks over the east Slovak boundary on the pretext that the existing line was only an internal Czechoslovak administrative division, not a recognised international boundary, and therefore needed defining now that Carpatho-Ukraine had passed into Hungarian hands. They enclosed a map of their proposal that shifted the frontier some 10 kilometres west of Uzhhorod, beyond Sobrance, and then ran almost due north to the Polish border.
The Hungarian claim partly relied on the 1910 census, which stated that Hungarians and Ruthenians, not Slovaks, formed the majority in north-eastern Slovakia. In addition to the demographic issue, Hungarians also had another excuse in mind, that they were trying to protect Uzhhorod and the key railway to Poland up the Uzh River, which was well within view of the current Slovak border. They therefore resolved to push the frontier back a safe distance beyond the western watershed of the Uzh Valley.
Berlin let the Hungarians know that it would acquiesce to such a border revision, and told Bratislava so. On March 18, the Slovak leaders in Vienna for the signing of the "Treaty of Protection" had grudgingly to accept this, and Bratislava ordered to Slovak civil and military authorities to move back. All others potential Hungarian requests were supposed to be illegal in Slovakia.
The Hungarians were aware that Slovakia had signed a treaty guaranteeing Slovakia's borders on March 18 and that it would come into force when Germany countersigned it. They therefore decided to act immediately, not to embarrass their German ally later, and to use the situation, that Slovak army was not consolidated yet. Thus their forces in western Carpatho-Ukraine began to advance from the River Uzh into eastern Slovakia at dawn on March 23, some six hours before Joachim von Ribbentrop countersigned the "Treaty of Protection" in Berlin.
Order of battle
War
At dawn on March 23, 1939, Hungary suddenly attacked Slovakia from Carpatho-Ukraine with instructions being to "proceed as far to the west as possible"[citation needed]. Hungary attacked Slovakia without any declaration of war, catching the Slovak army unprepared, because many Slovak soldiers were in transit from the Czech region and had not reached their Slovakian units yet. Czech soldiers were leaving newly-established Slovakia, but after the Hungarian attack, many of them decided to support their former units in Slovakia.
In the north, opposite Stakčín, Major Matjka assembled an infantry battalion and two artillery batteries. In the south, around Michalovce, Štefan Haššik, a reserve officer and a local Slovak People's Party secretary, gathered a group of about four infantry battalions and several artillery batteries. Further west, opposite the passive, but threatening Košice-Prešov front, where the Hungarians maintained an infantry brigade, Major Šivica assembled a third Slovak concentration. To the rear, a cavalry group and some tanks were thrown together at Martin, and artillery detachments readied at Banská Bystrica, Trenčin and Bratislava. However, German interference disrupted or paralysed their movement, especially in the V Corps. The defence was tied down defensively, as the Hungarian annexations the last autumn had delivered the only railway line to Michalovce and Humenné into their hands, thereby delaying all Slovak reinforcements.
The Hungarian troops advanced quickly into eastern Slovakia, which surprised both the Slovaks and the Germans. Despite the awful confusion caused by the hurried mobilization and desperate shortage of officers, the Slovak force in Michalovce had coalesced sufficiently to attempt a counterattack by the following day. This was largely due to Major Kubícek, who had taken over command from Haššik and had begun to get a better grip on the situation. Because they were based on a widely-available civilian truck, spares were soon found to repair five of the sabotaged OA vz. 30 armoured cars in Prešov and they reached Michalovce at 05:30 AM on March 24. Their Czech crews had been replaced by scratch teams of Slovak signallers from other technical armed forces. They were immediately sent on a reconnaissance mission to Budkovce, some 15 km south of Michalovce, but could not find any trace of the Hungarians.
It was therefore decided to counterattack eastwards, where the most advanced Hungarian outpost was known to be some 10 km away at Závadka. The road-bound armoured cars engaged the Hungarian pocket from the front whilst Slovak infantry worked round their flanks. Soon they forced the heavily-outnumbered Hungarians to fall back from Závadka towards their main line on the River Okna / Akna, just in front of Nižná Rybnica.
The armoured cars continued down the road a little past Závadka whilst the Slovak infantry fanned out and began to deploy on a front of some 4 km on either side of them, between the villages of Úbrež and Vyšné Revištia. The infantry first came under Hungarian artillery fire during the occupation of Ubrež, north of the road. At 11 PM a general attack was launced on the main Hungarian line at Nižná Rybnica. The Hungarian response was fierce and effective. The Slovaks had advanced across open ground to within a kilometre of the Akna River when they began taking fire by Hungarian field and anti-tank artillery.
One armoured car was hit in the engine and had to be withdrawn, while a second was knocked out in the middle of the road by a 37 mm anti-tank cannon. The raw infantry, unfamiliar with their new officers, first went to ground and then began to retreat, which soon turned into a panic that for some could not be stopped before Michalovce, 15 km to the rear. The armoured cars covered the retreating infantry with their machineguns, in order to forestall any possible Hungarian pursuit.
Late on March 24, four more OA vz. 30 armoured cars and 3 LT vz. 35 light tanks and a 37 mm anti-tank cannon arrived in Michalovce from Martin to find total confusion. Early on March 25, they headed eastwards, sometimes steadying the retreating infantry by firing over their heads, thereby ensuring the reoccupation of everything up to the old Úbrež – Vyšné Revištia line, which the Hungarians had not occupied. However, the anti-tank section mistakenly drove past the knocked-out armoured car and ran straight into the Hungarian line, where it was captured.
By now, elements of the 41st Infantry Regiment and a battery of 202nd Mountain Artillery Regiment had begun to reach Michalovce , and Kubícek planned a major counterattack for noon, to be spearheaded by the newly-arrived tanks and armoured cars. However, German pressure brought about a ceasefire before it could go in. On March 26, the rest of 202nd Mountain Artillery Regiment and parts of the 7th and 17th Infantry Regiments began to arrive. There were now some 15,000 Slovak troops milling around Michalovce but, even with these reinforcements, a second counterattack had little better prospect of success than the first, because the more numerous and cohesive Hungarians were well dug-in, and had more than enough 37 mm anti-tank cannons to deal effectively with the 3 modern light tanks that represented the only, slight, advantage possessed by the Slovaks.
Air war
Slovak Air Force
After the splitting of Czechoslovakia, the former Czechoslovak Air Force was also disintegrated. Former Czechoslovak Air Force had six regiments. The core of this Air Force on Slovak territory was The 3rd air regiment of Milan Rastislav Štefánik, which came under Slovak Ministry of defense control. But most of the officers, experienced pilots and aviation experts were Czechs. Before 14 March the Slovak Air Force (Slovenské vzdušné zbrane) had about 1400 members. After the split Czechoslovakia had only 824 left.[3] This occupation was only slowly complemented from Slovak crews returning from Czech lands. The most critical situation was especially in eastern Slovakia, at the airport of Spišská Nová Ves, which become the most eastern airport in Slovakia. Two fighter squadrons at the airport had only nine pilots, and there were only three officers at the airport headquarters. Additionally, the situation was becoming more and more critical as the Hungarian provocations were increasing.[4] Many pilots flying together in those days were collected from different parts of Slovakia and had no time to train together, whichput them at a marked disadvantage against prepared and complete Hungarian squadrons. The best Slovak air plane was Avia B-534 fighter.
Occupation of Spišská Nová Ves airport at 22 March 1938:[5]
| Squadron | Planes | Crew |
|---|---|---|
| 49. (fighters), part of II/3 wing | 10 x Avia B-534 | 5 pilots |
| 12. (patrols), part of II/3 wing | 5 x Aero Ap-32, 5 x Letov Š-328 | 9 pilots, 6 sentries |
| 13. (patrols), part of II/3 wing | 10 x Letov Š-328 | |
| 45. (fighters), part of III/3 wing | 10 x Avia B-534 | 7 pilots |
Another powers of the 3rd Air Regiment of Milan Rastislav Štefánik were located at airports in Vajnory, Piešťany, Nitra, Žilina and Tri Duby. However, there was also a great lack of pilots, so the powerful potential could not be used at full blast. Some crews from Piešťany and Žilina were sent to support Spišská Nová Ves. In this condition the Slovak Air Force had to depend on supporting ground units in fight and interfering Hungarian supplies. To do this, they had to fly low and, as they had no armour, they often become an easy target for Hungarian artillery or even ground unit soldiers[clarification needed].
Royal Hungarian Air Force
Hungarians concentrated these air forces against eastern Slovakia:[6]
| Unit | Planes | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1/1 vadászszázad (fighters) | 9 x CR.32 | Uzhhorod |
| 1/2 vadászszázad (fighters) | 9 x CR.32 | Miskolc |
| 1/3 vadászszázad (fighters) | 9 x CR.32 | Chop |
| 3/3 bombazoszazad (bombers) | 6 x Ju-86K-2 | Debrecen |
| 3/4 bombazoszazad (bombers) | 6 x Ju-86K-2 | Debrecen |
| 3/5 bombazoszazad (bombers) | 6 x Ju-86K-2 | Debrecen |
| VII felderítőszazad (patrols) | 9 x WM-21 | Miskolc |
| VI felderítőszazad (patrols) | 9 x WM-21 | Debrecen |
The best plane of Royal Hungarian Air Force was the Fiat CR.32 fighter. It did not have as powerful an engine as Slovak Avia, so Hungarian pilots were trying to fight at horizontal levels, while Slovaks tried to take the combat into vertical plains. But Fiat could be better handled, especially if Slovaks were flying with bombs under wings, which made them more clumsy. Fiat CR.32 had also better machine guns.
Combat
On March 15 the Royal Hungarian Air Force was doing a thorough geographic exploration of eastern Slovakia and one day later Hungarian squadrons were moved to airports closer to the borders of Slovakia and put on alert.
On March 22 and 23 in the morning two Slovak patrol squadrons were operating from Spišská Nová Ves searching for the enemy, but ineffectually, because these missions were not yet coordinated with ground units. The same day, March 23, Slovak headquarters ordered to make a thorough examination of all areas. Patrols recovered wide actions of Hungarians on Slovak territory. At 1:00 pm a 3-member squadron of Š-328s was sent to attack the enemy at Ulič, Ubľa, and Veľký Bereznyj area. The mission failed when pilots could not identify their enemy because of fog. It later turned out, that they were Hungarians moving from Ubľa to Kolonica.
After that another two fighter squadrons of three B-534 were sent for missions. The first one discovered Hungarian troops at railway station in Ulič and destroyed some cannons and material in attack. The second, sent on the same place, has also made a successful mission, destroying few Hungarian vehicles and damaging cannons, but one of the plane was shot down. Pilot, Ján Svetlík, died. Another Slovak squadron were sent to the area, this time to support slovak units. They got into Hungarian machine gun fire and one of the B-534s was shot down. The pilot managed to land, but after few minutes he died. The plane was than destroyed by Slovak soldiers. Two other B-534s were attacking Hungarian and after spending ammunition, heavily damaged, they returned to Spišská Nová Ves. The last Slovak mission of 23 March consisted of one Š-328, which destroyed unknown number of Hungarian tanks and vehicles near Sobrance. Its pilot was injured and so had to land near Sekčovice. Slovak pilots have not met with Hungarian Air Force that day.
For the first day the situation was not very successful for Slovak Air Force. Two B-534s destroyed, another four heavily damaged, two pilots dead. However, Slovak Air Forces helped ground units to slow down Hungarian movement and sometimes even to attack them. The next day the situation rapidly changed.
On the morning of March 24 one squadron of three B-534 started to support Slovak units at Vyšné Remety. After reaching the area they were surprised by three Hungarian Fiat CR.32 and two Slovak planes were shot down. One pilot died. At 7:00 am six B-534s from Piešťany landed in Spišská Nová Ves. Three of them took off to support infantry near Sobrance. Two Avias were shot down, one Slovak pilot captured.
Another three Slovak B-534 were shot down by nine Hungarian fighters near Michalovce, who were ordered to cover three Š-328s bombing Hungarian infantry. But also one Letov Š-328 was shot down and its pilot died. Another Letov had to land because of technical problems and from a six-membered squadron only one plane returned to Spišská Nová Ves.
On that day the bombing of Spišská Nová Ves was also planned by the Royal Hungarian Air Force.
Bombing of Spišská Nová Ves
When Hungarians found out that the base of all Slovak Air operations was located in Spišská Nová Ves, they planned a big mission against the airport on March 24 in order to put it out of service. There were 36 bombers supported by 27 fighters supposed to attack the air base. But because of bad organization, several changes made in the last moments, and bad navigation and technical problems, only about 10 bombers participated on the bombing. Because a warning system was still missing in Slovakia, Hungarians found the airport unprepared. There was also no crew at the anti-aircraft artillery and ammunition was missing. Hungarian bombers dropped bombs, mostly missing the base, but several bombs dropped down on the airport, wood storage, part of a hangar, brickworks and barrack´s yard.[7] Many of the bombs also failed to explode, as they felt into mud.
Even when the bombers damaged six planes and several buildings, their mission was not accomplished, because the airport operated until the end of the conflict.
On March 27, thirteen victims (some of them civilians) of the bombing were buried in Slovakia. These Hungarian air raids on the Slovak Air Force station at Spišská Nová Ves started intense anti-Hungarian movement arose among the local population.
Hungarian losts during whole conflict was only one Fiat fighter, who was accidentally shot down by Hungarian artillery. However, during the operation Hungarian Air Force did not managed to take control over eastern Slovakia. After bombing of Spišská Nová Ves, major Ján Ambruš arrived to Spišská Nová Ves on 25. March in the morning, to organize revenge air strike on Budapešť. This plan was not materialized, because truce finished the conflict.
Total losses of the Little war
- Hungarians: 8 military, 15 civilian dead, 55 injured, no POW's
- Slovaks: 22 military and 36 civilian dead, unknown injured, 360 military POWs + 211 POWs of Czech and moravian origin.
By that time however, a truce had been concluded (March 24), although fighting continued until March 31.
Aftermath
Although Slovakia had signed a "Protection Treaty" with Nazi Germany, Germany refused to help the country (in direct violation of that treaty) and did not support Slovakia during the Slovak-Hungarian negotiations in early April. As a result, by a treaty signed on April 4 in Budapest, Slovakia was forced to cede to Hungary a strip of eastern Slovak territory (1697 km², 69930 inhabitants, 78 municipalities), corresponding today to the area around the towns of Stakčín and Sobrance. 36 Slovak citizens died in the war.
The claims on both sides were contradictory. At the time the Hungarians announced the capture of four light tanks and an armoured car. However, no Slovak light tanks had ever entered action and a medal was awarded to the man who recovered the one knocked-out armoured car from no man's land during the night. On the other hand there is no doubt that the Hungarians did come into possession of at least one LT vz. 35 light tank and one OA vz. 27 armoured car during March. The contradictions are attributable to a combination of the fog of war, propaganda and confusion between Hungarian captures in Carpatho-Ukraine and eastern Slovakia.
The Slovak casualties are officially recorded as 22 dead – all were named and so this total is probably accurate. On March 25 the Hungarians announced their own losses as 8 dead and 30 wounded. Two days later they gave out a figure of 23 dead and 55 wounded – a total that may include their earlier losses occupying Carpatho-Ukraine. They also reported they were holding 360 Slovak and 311 Czech prisoners. Many of the Slovaks presumably belonged to the two companies reportedly surprised asleep in the barracks in the first minutes of the invasion. The Czechs were stragglers from the garrison of Carpatho-Ukraine.
Notes
- ^ A truce had been concluded on March 24, but fighting continued until March 31.
- ^ Deák, L.: Viedenská arbitráž 2. november 1938. Dokumenty I. Matica slovenská, Martin. 2002
- ^ http://www.valka.cz/newdesign/v900/clanek_12028.html
- ^ http://www.valka.cz/newdesign/v900/clanek_12028.html
- ^ http://www.valka.cz/newdesign/v900/clanek_12028.html
- ^ http://www.druhasvetova.sk/view.php?cisloclanku=2007030011
- ^ http://www.valka.cz/newdesign/v900/clanek_12030.html
Bibliography
- Axworthy, Mark W.A. Axis Slovakia – Hitler's Slavic Wedge, 1938–1945, Bayside, N.Y. : Axis Europa Books, 2002, ISBN 1-891227-41-6
- Niehorster, Dr. Leo W.G. The Royal Hungarian Army 1920–1945 Volume 1, New York : Axis Europa Books, 1998, ISBN 1-891227-19-X
- Ladislav Deák: Malá vojna (The Little War), Bratislava 1993, ISBN 80-88750-02-4.
External links
- Short overview of the historical context
- Military details of the conflict: 1, 2 (in Slovak)