Captured Hungarian assault gun

[paul panzer]

I read in this blue book in English about the history of the Romanian army in WWII (Axworthy) that a Hungarian Zrinyi assault gun was captured 1944 in Transylvannia and then used in Romania.

The Zrinyi assault gun was armed with a (short) 105mm howitzer and weighted 21 t

Questions:

-Are there any information / pictures available ?
-Does anybody have details about the history/faith of this assault gun in Romania?
-Are we aware of other Zrinyi assault guns knocked out/captured in Romania?

This post has been edited by paul panzer on July 30, 2008 03:01 pm

[Avvoltoio]

In the Battle of Turda 6 Zrinyi II under the command of Bozsoki János knocked out 18 t34, in other operation at torda an other group 5 zrinyi lost, but Bozsoki János towed the the injured assault guns, wich are later repaired. He got the Magyar Tiszti Arany Vitézségi medal.


I found this about the captured Hungarian tanks:
"ZRINYI II ASSAULT GUN
weight 21.5 tons ; crew 4 ; armour 13-75mm ; speed 43 km/hr ; armament one 10.5cm cannon

One Zrinyi was reported captured during the fighting inTransylvania in the fall of 1944 and pressed into service locally by theRomanians; final disposition uncertain but may have been confiscated by theSoviets at the end of the war.

"TOLDI I (II) TANK
weight 9.3 tons ; crew 3 ; armour 6-13mm (6-20mm) ; speed 47 km/hrarmament one 2cm cannon (one 4cm cannon) and one 8mm machinegun.

A license-built version of the Swedish Landsverk L60.B produed in Hungary from 1939 onwards, several Toldi's -- whether Mk I or II models is not clear -- were captured in an unserviceable condition by Romanian forces in September 1944. While these tanks were reportedly impressed into service, they were probably not used for long due to both maintenance demands as well as a standing practice on the part of Romania's new Soviet ally to confiscate all captured Axis military equipment. "

TURAN TANK
weight 18.2 tons ; crew 5 ; armour 14-50mm ; speed 47 km/hr ; armament one 4cm or one 7.5cm cannon and two 8mm machineguns.

In the course of fighting in northern Transylvania during the fall of 1944, the Romanian Army captured, or more likely recovered from abandoned battlefields, a few of these Hungarian tanks -- whether earlier, 4cm - armed models or examples of the later version with its 7.5cm cannon is not clear, although the former is more likely -- and while their derelict condition suggests any subsequent Romanian service to have been fleeting if at all, by this stage of the war the Romanian Army was so hard-pressed for armour of any sort (even resorting to using thirty year-old Renault FT's) that even remotely operable Turan's were probably impressed into service. If any survived to the end of the war, they were no doubt confiscated with all other Axis equipment by Romania's Soviet allies-cum-masters. "

i only know some photo about captured and damaged zrinyi by Russians, but these photos are mainly fromthe battle of Debrecen and Budapest.

Sorry for my bad English

if i found more i will write

[chisi]

It apeared on a book: "Tinerete eroica" (Heroic Youth) edited in 1974 at Editura Albatros. The book is written by M Stefan and C Ucrain. I have no scan of the picture but we will try some day

[drgeorge]

Link:

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/hun/Hungary.html

[sample]

In various romanian publications which appeared before 1989 there was a balack and white photo of a Zrinyi II assault gun; the captation of the photo was something like: a romanian tank of 2nd Tank Regiment in Czechoslovakia; i will try to scan the photo

[chisi]

Well after some years, I got the scan of the SPG



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[sebipatru]

What flag is that?