Other Forces

Forgotten war of a forgotten state

When Slovakia declared independence (14th March 1939) and the Czech country was occupied by Germans (15th March), the rest of former Czechoslovak army was preparing to leave Carpathian Ruthenia. After the fight (14th-17th March) the army finaly retreated and Ruthenians had to face the Hungarian invasion alone. The new Ruthenian state (existed 15th-18th March) mobilized its "army" which wasn´t able to stop Hungarians and after a few days this area became a part of Hungary. About 1.500 Ruthenian defenders died in the war and about 4.500 were executed in the next weeks in Hungarian POW camps. You can see Ruthenian soldiers armed with Czechoslovak machineguns ZB-7/24 Schwarzlose and ZB-26 in the photo.