Royal Hungarian Honvéd


The Royal Hungarian Honvéd, Royal Hungarian Honved or Royal Hungarian Landwehr, commonly known as the Honved, Honvéd or in Hungarian, Honvédség, was one of the four armed forces of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. The others were its counterpart the Austrian Landwehr, the Common Army and the Imperial and Royal Navy. The word "honvéd" means an enlisted private without a rank, literally "Defender of the Homeland". "Honvédség" is degree of the noun and refers to the community, institution of these soldiers.

History

The word honvéd in Hungarian means "defender of the homeland" and first appeared during the 1848 revolutions. At that time it was the name given to volunteers who were engaged for several weeks or a gyözelemig and sent to fight the Serbs and Croats. Subsequently, the bulk of the fighting was against the Empire of Austria, whereupon a number of regular imperial regiments went over to the Hungarian side. Some volunteers were attached to these existing regiments and some joined new regular regiments. Consequently, the term honvéd was used to refer to all members of the Hungarian land forces in 1848-49. The Honvéd was finally defeated by Austria with Russian assistance.
Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Royal Hungarian Honvéd was restored for Hungary, and the Imperial-Royal Landwehr was created for Austria, but both states had to continue to finance the Austro-Hungarian Common Army, much larger than both. A common Austro-Hungarian War Ministry was formed immediately for the large Common Army, but it had no right to command directly the smaller Austrian Landwehr and the Hungarian Honvéd armies, which were respectively placed under the direct control of the separate Austrian and Hungarian Ministries of Defence. The Austrian and Hungarian Ministers of Defence were not placed under the command and jurisdiction of the Common War Ministry; they were subordinated only to their own prime ministers and the respective parliaments in Vienna and Budapest.
The monarch became the supreme warlord, holding all authority over the structure, organization, and administration of the army. He appointed the senior officials, had the right to declare war, and was the commander-in-chief of the army.
On 21 May 1893 the Honvéd Memorial was unveiled in Budapest in commemoration of the deeds of the Hungarian national army during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49. From 1919 to 1945, Honvédség was also a name given to the Royal Hungarian Army.

Structure

The Hungarian Landwehr consisted of territorial units from the Hungarian half of the Empire and parts of the present-day countries of Romania, including Transylvania and Banat, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.
Usually the term Landwehr implies units of limited fighting power. This was not the case in the Hungarian Honvéd. Although weaker in numbers - there were only three battalions per infantry regiment insteald of the usual four in the Common Army - the troops were regular combat soldiers and were highly trained.
The Royal Hungarian Honvéd was divided into the Hungarian Honvéd and the Royal Croatian Home Guard. The Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 granted the Croats the right to introduce Croatian as their working and command language within their units. In addition, the Croatian-Slavonian Honvéd units were subordinated to the Ban in Agram and not to the National Defence Minister in Budapest. However, both Ban and the Defence Minister were subordinated to the Prime Minister of Hungary.

Recruitment

In peacetime the officers of the Hungarian Honvéd either transferred from regular Hungarian regiments of the Common Army or graduated from the Ludovika Military Academy in Budapest. From 1869 onward the rank and file soldiers of the Honvéd were recruited as part of the general conscription process of the Common Army with individual Hungarian conscripts being allocated to specific K.u.K. or Honvéd regiments according to the numbers required. Entry to the Honvéd contingent or to the Common Army was decided by drawing lots. Enlisted at the age of 21 the Honvéd soldier usually undertook 24 months of active service before passing into the reserve. The commitment for compulsory service ended at the age of 36.

Landwehr districts

The Royal Hungarian Honvéd was the standing army of Hungary. A part of the Honvéd was the Royal Croatian Home Guard, which consisted of 1 infantry division and 1 cavalry regiment. Its order of battle at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 was as follows:
In 1915, units of the whole Army that had nicknames or honorific titles lost them by order of the War Ministry. Thereafter units were designated only by their numerical designation, but the practice of honoric titles remained in the Honvéd.
All details relate to the year 1914:

Infantry divisions

Cavalry regiments

The history of Austro-Hungarian forces is documented in detail in the Military History Museum in Vienna, which was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I as the Imperial-Royal Court Armaments Museum. In a special display cabinet in Hall V of the museum, several uniforms of the Imperial Royal Landwehr are displayed, a relief on the rear of the cabinet shows the territories from which the Hungarian Landwehr and the Imperial Royal Landwehr recruited.

Literature and sources