Field kitchen in the rear area on the eastern front. All honved (Hungarian soldiers) enlisted men seen on this undated photo

Soup time

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.


Second Hungarian Army Position, 1942

In the relatively treeless Don River valley, firewood often had to be  brought in from good distances. After a  heavy rain, the unpaved roads turned into a quagmire, making life miserable for both the Hungarian soldiers and their horses.