Hungarian Forces

Second Hungarian Army Position, 1942

A unit of Hungarian Second Army troops is shown here taking up a defensive position by the Don River in Russia during the summer of 1942, after having traveled long by train, marching many hundreds of miles, and fighting through Soviet defenses. The Honved Second Army was assigned the Hitler-directed role of securing the far-left flank of the German Sixth Army fighting for Stalingrad on the Volga River. But after winning at Stalingrad, the Red Army was now mainly interested in capturing a crucial east-west railroad line running though the 130 mile Don River front occupied by the 200,000 strong Hungarian Second Army, composed mainly of infantry units and with no armor at its disposal.