Eastern Front Enforcers | Panzer IV Ausf.F in Hungarian Service

by Panzer
During the Second World War, the Germans could not do much to improve the heavy industries of
their allies. In Europe, besides the Italians, only the Hungarians managed to put resources
and time into actual tank production, albeit in limited scope. They did so under the leadership
of Admiral Miklós Horthy, who aligned Hungary with Nazi Germany, partially motivated by Hungary's
territorial ambitions. Despite having a limited pool of armored vehicles, the Hungarians managed
to achieve success against neighbouring nations such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Things
turned out differently after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. As the invasion progressed,
the Hungarian armored units suffered extremely heavy losses and, by the end of the year, nearly
all AFVs were lost. As the Germans desperately needed more men for the upcoming 1942 offensive,
they supplied the Hungarians with over 100 tanks. These included 22 Panzer IV Ausf.Fs and, in 1942,
these were by far the best tanks that the Hungarian Army operated.
Following the end of the First World War, Hungary was stripped of most of its border territories in
favor of Entente allies and newly formed nations. It was left a shattered country that began a slow
path of rebuilding its economy and army. The Honvéd (Hungarian Army) was particularly keen to
one day being able to take back some of those lost territories. However, for that, it would need to
rebuild and rearm its military forces, including the creation of their first armored formation.
Hungary was actually prohibited by the Treaty of Trianon, signed on the 4th of June, 1920,
from developing and using tanks and other armored vehicles. Nevertheless, during the mid-1930s,
they purchased over 100 Italian CV.33 fast tanks, known in Hungarian service as the 35M Ansaldo. In
addition, the Hungarians obtained a license from Sweden for the production of the L-60 light tank,
which would be known in Hungary as the Toldi. The Hungarian armored formations would see limited
action in minor skirmishes with Czechoslovakia in 1938 and during the occupation of Yugoslavia
in April of 1941. The first proper combat test for the Hungarian armored formations occurred
during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941. While the Hungarians were
not eager to wage war with the Soviets, they nevertheless joined the Axis forces during
Operation Barbarossa. The Hungarians officially declared war on the USSR on the 27th of June,
after Soviet air raids into Hungary occurred the previous day. For the Invasion of the
Soviet Union, the Hungarians could muster 81 Toldis and 60 35M Ansaldos. By the end of 1941,
nearly all of these were lost either in combat or due to mechanical breakdowns.
To rebuild its shattered force, the Hungarian High Command reorganized its armored formations
into the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions. Given the raging war in Europe, purchasing new equipment was
impossible. To make matters even worse, the Hungarian High Command was hard-pressed by
the Germans to send additional forces to the Eastern Front. Thus, the 2nd Army was chosen
to support the German operation with the aim of capturing the crucial city of Stalingrad
and the oil-rich Caucasus. This army consisted of nine light divisions supported by the 1st Armored
Division. The major problem for the Hungarians was finding tanks to outfit this division.
The formation of the Hungarian 1st Armored Division was done on a rather ad hoc basis,
with any available mobile units allocated to the formation of this division. The unit was also in
short supply of other equipment and weapons, not only tanks. For this reason, in December of 1941,