During the siege of Budapest in the winter of 1944-1945, the  Royal Palace of Buda suffered heavily from Allied air raids and Soviet artillery fire. But Regent Horthy no longer resided there, having been taken prisoner by the SS in October, 1944. One of the bombed out halls is shown here, never rebuilt to its original grandeur. 

Hungarian Royal Palace Bombed, 1944-1945

The prevalent mechanized fighting on the Eastern front prompted Hungary to develop and manufacture more advanced weapons. In 1943, Budapest bought the license for the successful German Nebelwerfer and started to manufacture its own cluster rocket launchers under the name of “43M Sorozatveto” or Sequential Launcher. Here the army is displaying its new weapon to the public sometimes during 1943 or 1944.


Hungarian Nebelwerfer or “Sorozatveto”

Being a former adjutant of Emperor Francis Joseph and later an admiral of the Austro-Hungarian navy, Regent Horthy of Hungary moved easily in Germanic circles. Between 1938 and 1944, he trekked a number of times to confer with the Fuehrer. Horthy hoped for assistance in regard to the recovery of lost territory and Hitler wanted to draw Hungary into his power political moves and eventually into the war itself. 

Here Horthy is departing by train from Germany in 1941, while Hitler standing on the platform bids good-bye. The meetings between the two were polite and businesslike at first, like in the photo above,  but eventually they degenerated into some shrill exchanges, especially by 1944.