Soft-skin vehicles in service with the Hungarian Army 30/45

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

A HSCS KV-40 tractor towing a very rare trailer.The front part It seems the limber of an 8cm Bofors-MAVAG 29M AA gun ....

Sturm78

[romsitsa]

Hi all,

Ford M1939 hungarian truck but this seems a special variant....Does somebody knows the exact purpose of this truck ?

Sturm78

Hello Sturm, it's a cable drum truck based on the Ford V8.

Adam

[romsitsa]

Hi all,

A Ford 39M Hungarian truck with 3-axles. Does somebody have any information about this conversion ?
Marmon-Herrington axles and 6x4 wheel drive ??

Was this conversion realized in Hungary with kits bought in US ??

Sturm78

Iirc, this lone vehicle was purchased, was tested as a tankette carrier, then remained at Weiss Manfred and was converted into a workshop truck (used by Weiss Manred factory).

Adam

[romsitsa]

Nimrod7 wrote
According to the book I mentioned the Hungarians purchased 1000 Ford V8 2.5t trucks from America and 785 from Germany in 1938.

820 of these were rebuilt under the Marmon Herrington licence.

Thanks, again, Nimrod7. So, no Ford trucks were manufactured under Ford licence in Hungary,..only reworked to convert them in 3 axles 6x6 trucks under MH licence....

On the other hand, Any idea about this armoured car. It seem an ancestor of 39M Csaba....

Image from Korbuly archive
Sturm78

Straussler AC-2, one built, forerunner of the 39M Csaba. Was used by the Ludovika academy as a training vehicle after trials.

Adam

[romsitsa]

Hi all,

A HSCS KV-40 tractor towing a very rare trailer.The front part It seems the limber of an 8cm Bofors-MAVAG 29M AA gun ....

Sturm78

It's the trailer for the 35M 4 meter range finder. used in 29M batteries as the standard range finder.

Adam

[Nimrod7]

Thank you for you help Adam.

I have a couple of books by Peter Mujzer that cover the mobile and armoured forces can you suggest any other good reference books ?

Also I know that the Hungarian army had some Steyr 1500 chassis, do you know if these were ever used ?

[romsitsa]

Hello Nimrod, English literature is quite scarce on the Royal Hungarian Army, what are you interested in? Troops, weaponry, history?

We received some Steyr 1500s ( undercarriage with bonnet) these received a Hungarian chassis in the Uhry Brothers chassis factory. There are only two or three photos and a snipet from a newsreel I know of. These Steyrs were used as a prime mover for the Pak 40, so the back of the troop compartment had some kind of ammo storage.

Steyr-1.jpg

Steyr.jpg

steyr_magyar.JPG

steyr1500kicsi_haroru_utani.jpg

Adam

[Nimrod7]

Thank you for those pictures.

I am most interested in small soft skins, staff cars such as Mercedes G5, Steyr 1500, Skoda Popular and the like.
Second interest is artillery and field guns.

[romsitsa]

Unluckily there's not much on these subjects in English, except for Mr. Bernards and Mr. Mujzers books.
Information of soft skins is mostly outdated even in Hungarian, but maybe there will be something new and more accurate (heard some rumors).
Artillery and field guns are more or less covered, but the books are also only available in Hungarian.

Adam

[Nimrod7]

Unluckily there's not much on these subjects in English, except for Mr. Bernards and Mr. Mujzers books.
Information of soft skins is mostly outdated even in Hungarian, but maybe there will be something new and more accurate (heard some rumors).
Artillery and field guns are more or less covered, but the books are also only available in Hungarian.

Adam

Thank you for your help and information.

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your answers, Adam

About the rangefinder trailer, dou you have any better quality image of it ? It is a very rare trailer...!!

About the last image of the Steyr 1500, I think it is a Bulgarian vehicle..

Sturm78

[romsitsa]

Hello Sturm, Iirc the last Steyr was ID as a possible post-war Austrian vehicle, it could be Bulgarian of course. I think the canvas top is in the same position as on the Hungarian chassis, but I could be wrong.
Think there more pictures of the trailer, have to dig them up.

Adam

[Sturm78]

Thanks Adam
It would de interesting so see more images of the trailer

Adam wrote
Straussler AC-2, one built, forerunner of the 39M Csaba. Was used by the Ludovika academy as a training vehicle after trials

Ummmhhh....A search in Google images give this image for the Straussler AC-2.....
It seems a different vehicle...

Sturm78

[romsitsa]

Hello Sturm, it’s a bit confusing as usual with us . Straussler was a Hungarian engineer and inventor who moved to England, but regularly visited Hungary. He kept good relations with many Hungarian firms, like Weiss Manfred (WM), so some of his ideas/prototypes were in fact produced here. The vehicle which I call the forerunner of the Csaba was based on his AC-2 armored car (offered for purchase to the British government), but the RHA was also looking for an armored car, so it was partially redesigned by WM to fit the requirements of the RHA.
Some sources call this vehicle an AC-3, but afaik, the AC-3 was developed from the AC-2 for the British Air Ministry and by this time Straussler merged with Alvis.
So it’s a redesigned AC-2 from wich later the 39M Csaba prototype evolved. And while the AC-2 (Csaba forerunner) became the property of the RHA and was handed over to Ludovika as a training vehicle, the 39M prototype (that looks like a 39M Csaba) remained in the possession of WM...

Adam

[ayovtshev]

Thank you very much for your answers, Adam

About the rangefinder trailer, dou you have any better quality image of it ? It is a very rare trailer...!!

About the last image of the Steyr 1500, I think it is a Bulgarian vehicle..

Sturm78

I can confirm the Steyr 1500 is a Bulgarian one: the Audi-like stencil indicates a vehicle from the Bulgarian Armoured Brigade.

Cheers,
Angel