On Sunday the 24 of May 1942, as Hungarian and German armies are preparing for the summer campaign a football game is held in the Russian city of Kursk. Officers from the German command and general Gusztáv Jány are sitting in the front row watching the football game played by soldiers from both nationalities.

 

General Gusztáv Jány, the commander of the 2. Hungarian army with has been arriving to the Russian front since a few weeks at this point. In total almost 250.000 Hungarian  soldiers will take part in the war in Russia. General Jány is photographed in profile by staff captain László Pünkösti. The traditional generals cap is clearly visible from behind.

 The very same field-cap that general Gusztáv Jány wore that day can be seen in a remote corner of a display at the Museum of Military History in Budapest.

I recently acquired a photo heritage with some quite unique photos from the 1944/45 retreat and end of WW2. I have never seen such emotional and detailed photos from the last days of the war and that intensive period in the history of Europe.

I will try to publish some of this material here on Tűzkereszt History as I proceed to scan this material.

This photograph above, was taken somewere in the mountains of Transylvania as a Hungarian border-guard regiment were retreating towards Hungary.

Hungarian Honvéd - private in the sunset.

Hungarian light mechanized infantry in the Carpathian mountains. The photograph is taken in the beginning the Soviet union campaign, sometimes in the end of the summer of 1941 .

Cadets from the Royal Ludovika Military Academy photographed during an exercise. The machine gun used by the cadets are the WW1 type, Austro-Hungarian Schwarzlose M. 7 machine-gun.  

More informations about the Schwarzlose M. 7 can be founde here;

The Schwarzlose M. 7

The 14 of August was a day of remembrance for the veterans in Kecskemét, Hungary. WW2 veteran Mr István Szeverényi (second from left) attended with his fellow veteran friend Ferenc Horváth (right) at the remembrance monument next to the military air-field in Kecskemét.

 At the remembrance gathering were also personnel from the Kecskemét Air Force garrison present, to pay their tribute to past generations.

The guard of honour placed the wreath at the foot of the monument.

 Mr István Szeverényi and Mr Ferenc Horváth pays tribute to their fallen comrades.

Afterwards the two friends and fellow WW2 veterans joins for a good beer to enjoy in the garden

Photographs and material kindly provided by my friend Ferenc Szeverényi