The Royal Hungarian Paratroopers

By Henrik Krog

http://www.geocities.com/kumbayaaa/hungroyparas.html

Beginnings
A bit of mystery (or rather: uncertainty) surrounds the Hungarian paratroopers. Leo
Niehorster in his book on the Royal Hungarian Army mentions, that the Hungarian parachute arm
came into existence when the national airline MALERT (Mgyar Lgiforgalmi R.t.) ceased
operations on 16 January 1941 in accordance with the mobilisation plan. The 5 (he later writes 6)
SIAI-Marchetti SM 75 tri-motor transports of the airline were then transferred into the Hungarian
Air Force along with their staff personnel and equipment. There, they were formed into the 1st
Parachute Squadron and, adding reservists, soon began expansion into a battalion.

One of the SIAI-Marchetti SM 75transports taken over by the Hungarian Air Force, and
formed into the 1st Parachute Transport Squadron.

From an OB of the Hungarian AF as of December 1940 it is evident, that at least three

parachute companies and a transport squadron were already in existence then, however. They
were all subordinate to the Parachute Group. With what aircraft they were equipped I do not
know.
Perhaps the ones Mr. Niehorster mentions as only being transferred in January 1941.
Another odd thing is why he would want to have the parachutists and their aircraft concentrated in
one unit (the 1st Parachute Squadron he mentions). Later he also mentions the 1st Parachute
Transport Squadron, which leads me to the conclusion, that the 1st Parachute Squadron
mentioned above was in fact the transport squadron. Whether it was only transferred to the air
force in January is a question.
Anyway: in December 1940 3 parachute companies were already in existence. Whether
they were already combined into a battalion, or they were only done so after January 1941 as Mr.
Niehorster tells us, I do not know. They were present in the Hungarian OB for the invasion of
Yugoslavia, though, by now named 1st Independent Parachute Battalion, and commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel vitz Arpd Bertalan.

The battalion was then used in a drop to secure the bridges across the Franz Josef
Canal, that provided the backbone for the second defensive line of the Yugoslav army in the
Batchka.

Expansion to the End

This proved to be the last combat drop done by Hungarian paratroopers during WWII (at
least if you except ethnic Germans that joined the W-SS and ended up in the two paratrooper
battalions set up in that outfit). Regardless, the unit was kept in existence, and by October 1943,
the Hungarian parachute arm was still contained in the 1st
Parachute Group, organised as follows:

1st Parachute Group

1st Parachute Transport Squadron

1 x ground support squadron

3 x parachute company

1 x bicycle infantry company

1 x telephone company

1 x MMG company

1 x pioneer company

1 x other company

By 1944, the parachute arm had been expanded (possibly because of the like expansion
of the Romanian parachute battalion into a regiment in late 1943-early 1944), and contributed the
1st Parachute Regiment to the formation of the elite Sznt

Group photo of members of the 1st Parachute Battalion in front of one of their transports.
Lszlo Division in October 1944. Lumped in with other "spare" units, some considered
elite, like the Grenadier Regiment, that included the 1. Bodyguard Battalion, formerly bodyguard
to Admiral Horthy, the Hungarian leader until deposed by the Germans when he tried to defect to

the Allied side, some not so elite (like the 3rd Flying Riflemen Regiment, former ground-crew in
the air force), the division began forming in western Hungary.
At the time, with the division forming in western Hungary, the 1st Parachute Regiment
was organised as follows:

1st Parachute Regiment

1 x bicycle infantry company

1 x motorised unit

1st Parachute Battalion

o

3 x parachute infantry company

2nd Parachute Battalion (a heavy weapons battalion)

o

1 x pioneer company

1 x signals company

1 x MMG company

1 x heavy weapons company

Training Parachute Infantry Battalion

o

3 x parachute infantry company

It is doubtful whether the regiment, much less the division, ever served together as a unit,
instead being scuttled to various hotspots along the front as a sort of fire-brigade. At least part of
the regiment was used around Budapest, where the 1st Parachute Battalion shows up in an OB
of the Budapest garrison as of 26 December 1944 (the date the city was cut off by the Soviets).
No mention is made of where the rest of the regiment went, the only certain thing being, that the
1st Parachute Battalion was crushed along with the Budapest Garrison in February 1945.