romanians in hungarian army during the ww2

[Dan Po]

After 1940 the young romanian men from NW of Transilvania was incorporated in hungarian army. In my childhood I talk with a few of them and the majority was very proud about their military service.

For eg. My grandpa - romanian - from Bihor county - fought in WW2 as hungarian soldier becouse after Wien, 1940 he was under hungarian jurisdiction.

Maybe mr Denes can help us with some informations (statistics, etc) about those - in fact - romanian soldiers.

[Victor]

Apparently about 70,000 Romanian soldiers were drafted in the Hungarian army in WWII, most in work companies.

After WWII, over 13,000 Romanian POWs (from the Hungarian army) returned to Romania from Soviet captivity.

[Carol I]

See also Romanians inside the Hungarian Army and Romanians in the Hungarian army...

[Dénes]

I found info on a highly decorated Hungarian soldier, whose name and place of birth might indicate that he was a Rumanian ethnic:
Gábor Krisán, tizedes (Corporal), born on Jan. 21, 1919 at Gyula, Hungary.
He was the 10th recipient of the prestigious 'Magyar Arany Vitézségi Érem' (Hungarian Gold Medal for Bravery).


On August 13, 1941, as an NCO in the 2nd Company of the 3rd Mechanized Battalion, he single handedly destroyed a Soviet artillery position and spotter near River Bug, with rifle fire and hand grenades, being killed during the action. He was burried at Suhoj Yelanetz.

Copy of his decoration proposal:

[Dan Po]

Here s a photo of my grandfather, Pontos Gavril, (or Pontos Gabor in his hungarian official papers) from Sarsig, Bihor. I don t know too much about him becouse he died in the '50s in an accident. He fought in a hungarian regiment based on Debrecen. I don t know wich one.

Unfortunately its a low quality photo, without too much details (eg - the decoration).

This post has been edited by Dan Po on February 25, 2005 10:07 am

Attached Image

[Dan Po]

I wonder whether my grandpa s uniform is a cavalery one .... maybe somebody will give me an answer.

This post has been edited by Dan Po on February 27, 2005 05:49 pm