Questions about Hungarian volunteers for Finland 1939-1940

[Antti V]

Many Finnish sources says that about 20.000 Hungarian was willing to or was already volunteered for Finland and that peace between Finland and SU finished the preparations for volunteers in Hungary.
- Was there really 20.000 men and how they were supposed to be transported to Finland? Was that just one divison or several separate units, how was supposed to be organize the command chain of that large group?
- How many men was ready when peace was made?
- How Hungarian government reacted to this all? (I have understood that in Hungary were very happily joining for volunteers and go help their sister nation in its battle).

All info about this matter is welcome

[Milan Szekelyhidi]

The volunteers were 20.000 in the Winter War.
About 9000 Swedish, 1600 Danish, 900 Norwegian, more French, English, American, Italian and Hungarian.
The volunteers were 4 international brigades, 1 Hungarian battalion was in a brigade.
The Hungarian Ministry of the Interior the collection was granted to Finn Red-cross in 15. December 1939.
Finn-Hungarian Society started the action and piled up: 500.000 Pengõ (that time Hungarian money) gift. The posters slogan was: "Brother for brother", "Hungarian mothers for the Finn children".

The Hungarian Government worth 1.000.000 Pengõ war equipment gift.
40-52 piece 40mm Boforts Anti-aircraft with 10.000 piece munitions
30 pieces 8mm antitank guns (Polish)
300.000 pieces grenadiers (maybe Polish)
32.500 pieces 81mm mortar grenadiers
20.000 pieces 20mm Anti-aircraft grenadiers
6000 pieces 37mm antitank grenadiers (Polish)
The Polish armaments from Polish Army units who escape to Hungary in 1939 Autumn.

The Hungarian Ministry of the Interior started the recruiting in 16. December 1939, the recruiting office was in Budapest, Szentkirályi út 8. The volunteers collected in Hárshegy scout camp. Here made the volunteer brigade in 10. January 1940. The staff of officers made from volunteers of the Hungarian Army, who grant leave to they for that time.
Commander: Kémeri Nagy Imre (Imre Kémeri Nagy) 1st lieutenant.
Persons (Finn data): 344 person + 24 officer +52 office messenger + 2 doctor + 2 army chaplain.
The brigade started to Finland in 11. January 1940. The way was across Yugoslavia - Italy - France - England - Norway - Sweden - Finland.
Arrived to Finland, Torniot in 11. February 1940. The winter training was in Lapua.
Not happen for action, because the war was end.
The brigade went to Lappeenrantaa for frontier deffence in 16. April 1940.
The brigade went to Turku in 19. May 1940 and deliver a farewell speech with all due ceremony in 20. May 1940.
The all officers got the Finn White Rosa Class.
The Finn ARCTURUS escort the Hungarian brigade to Stettin, from there with German military and train went to home. Arrived in 24. May 1940 and 28. May 1940. disbanded the brigade.

2 Hungarian volunteer pilots active at the Finn airforce in 16. December 1939.
Names were Békássy Vilmos (Vilmos Békássy) and Pirithy Mátyás (Mátyás Pirithy).
They went to Utti, Lentolaivue 26, commander Jean Wilhelm Raul Harju-Jeanti major.
The 2 Hungarian pilots sent to Sweden for Fiat G.50 fighter. Mission: go to Finland with fighters in 8. February 1940., with Kauko Linnamaa 2nd lieutenant. At the start didn't start the machine for section leather. The 2 Hungarian pilots start to alone for Mikko Ilinkola's command. Started 14:45 1 Pirithy, 2 Békássy. Békássy dropped behind and vanished. Probably fell down to sea. Pirithy come back because the visibility was wrong.
Pirithy start with bigger group in 12:20, 15. February 1940. Plane's sign FA-3. After 20 minutes the fuel run out and he emergency landed Naantali region on sea ice. He got fuel from the civilians and arrived Utti - Haukkajaravira.
The fighter unit went to Hollola airport in 1. March 1940.
Pirithy 1. action 2. March 11:45 plane's sigh FA-1. 2. action same day 16:15. 3. action 5. March 11:30. All without win. Pirithy used FA-22 fighter, that plane earlier used Manzocchi Italian Sargent, who died. Pirithy flayed with that plane in 12. March but the undercarriage was wrong, he came back to airport. No more data for he flayed.
Pirithy came back to home in 30. March. He got Finn Flaying Coin Honoris Causa Nr. K 60.


Source:
Hungary in the WW2 lexicon A-Zs
Top Gun Magazine 2002/6 - dr. Mujzer Péter: Hungarian pilots in the "winter war"

Milán

[Antti V]

Thanks for detailed info, Milan! Especially photos are interesting.

[Håkan Gustavsson]

Hello!

You can find some more info regarding Pirity and Békássy on my site at http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity/hungary_pirity.htm

Best wishes/Håkan Gustavsson

WWII Biplane Fighter Aces
http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity

[Juha Tompuri]

Milan,

Was the Imre Nagy at your pic`s the same Imre Nagy at 1956?

Juha

[Csaba Becze]

Juha,

No. Kémeri nagy Imre was a very interesting man, a former "Rongyosgárda" leader (it was a paramilitary unit behind the Czechoslovakian border) Unfortunately, in late war period he joined to the Arrow cross movement.

Békássy crashed in a forest, not into the sea, and the other pilot uses his name in this form: Pirity.

Csaba

[Milan Szekelyhidi]

Milan,

Was the Imre Nagy at your pic`s the same Imre Nagy at 1956?

Juha

No, Imre Nagy in 1956 was another man.
I sent his picture and 2 plane pictures for my earlier writes.

Milan

[Csaba Becze]

A sad news: hadnagy Mátyás Pirity, volunteer fighter pilot of the winter war, passed away on 17 May, 2003 in Budapest.

Pirity was born in 1911.
He was a skilled fighter pilot and took part the border incident between the Hungarians and Slowakians in March, 1939. He downed a Slowakian Letov S 328 recon/light bomber plane on 24 March, 1939 (his victim emergency landed).
He later volunteered for service in Finland during the Finnish-Soviet Winter war in 1939-40 and joined the Finnish Air Force on 16 December together with another Hungarian fighter pilot. During this conflict he served in LLv 26. He flew 22 combat sorties with Fiat G 50 fighters over Finland and claimed one damaged SB bomber in March, 1940.
Later he received the Finnish Flying Badge "Honoris Causa" no K 60, and the Finnish Winter War Campaign Medal.

He was buried in 29 May in Budapest in the presence of many veteran Hungarian pilots, and the Finnish consul and military attaché.

I got two letters from him in 2000/2001, because I asked him about the border incident in 1939.

[Harri]

Really sad news...

I didn't know he was still living. He upset his plane at Haukkajärvi ice airfield near Utti airbase on 15.2.1940. I thought he was injured in this incident and didn't fly in Finland after that but maybe I am wrong if he was in action as late as in March 1940 (not in 1939)?

You solved the writing problem of his name because in Finland his name was usually written in a form "Mathias Pirithyi" or "Matias Pirithy" instead of "Mátyás Pirity". His mate 2nd Lt. Wilhelm Békássy missed on 8.2.1940 during a transit flight with FIAT G.50 from Sweden to Finland in a very bad weather. Can you say is his name written correctly?

[gabriel pagliarani]

Nice pics about G50 (...Bis, I presume..) May the 2nd plane behind enginer's shoulders be a Morane Saulnier? Can someone explain me why Hungary and Finland were considered sister countries by propaganda? I understand words like friend, comrade or alley but "sister" is a too much adherent term. Why?

[White_Trader]

because finish people and the magyar people have the same roots from asia. A half magyar (hungarian) cousin of mine when he was a child he heard someone talking suomi(finish) and he made very intresting reactions ,, its just an example for telling that these countries are "sisters"

[Harri]

Nice pics about G50 (...Bis, I presume..)

Finnish FIAT G.50s were not improved "bis" models.

May the 2nd plane behind enginer's shoulders be a Morane Saulnier?

Correct. It is Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighter.

Can someone explain me why Hungary and Finland were considered sister countries by propaganda? I understand words like friend, comrade or alley but "sister" is a too much adherent term. Why?

It is not propaganda. Finnish and Hungarian languages belong to the same Finno-Ugrig language group and we consider ourselves the relative nations together also with Estonians.

[Csaba Becze]

Harri:

Pirity flew all his combat sorties in March, 1940 with the LLv 26 (he flew his first combat sortie on 2 March, 1940 at 11:45 with Fiat G 50 code FA-1) On 15 February, he just made an emergancy landidng (cause: lack of fuel). Evidently, he claimed the SB bomber as damaged/probably destroyed(?) over Holola in March 1940, not in 1939 (sorry )
The other pilot was: Ensign Vilmos Békássy. Unfortunately, he crashed in a forest near Lapua on 8 February, 1940 and killed (with the Fiat G 50 code: FA-7). It was an accident in a bad weather (they had not any maps about this area: he strayed, used up all of his fuel and crashed)

BTW Pirity and Békássy were reserved officers, so they could to join volunteers easily. I think, a lot of professional pilot officers had the same thought, but it was not too easy to carry out.

The Hungarian nation really wanted to help more our Finnish brothers in their epic fight.

[Harri]

No doubt. Thanks!

Many other volunteers had also problems with Finnish winter landscape and harsh conditions. Airfields were soft due to snow and temporary ice airfields were especially dangerous. FIAT G.50 had a very short range (even shorter than Messerschmitts') which usually didn't leave many minutes to find out a place for landing if got lost for example. FIATs suffered initially also from technical unreliability and freezing problems in hydraulics (ricine oil was used which froze and jammed propeller blade turning mechanism). Actually FIATs didn't fly very many sorties until the problems were solved and hydraulics oil replaced.

It is funny how the correct names of the pilots are not known in Finland. I think it is either due to bad clerks or the names were altered a bit on purpose either by the Finns or most likely by the volunteers themselves.

[Csaba Becze]

Well, you know, some old Hungarian sources wrote Pirity's name as 'Pirithy' also, but the good one is Mátyás Pirity.
About the first names: maybe Finnish used the German form? (Mátyás - Matthias, Vilmos - Wilhelm) Maybe the volunteers used the German form in Finland also (for the easier intelligibility)