Combat on the Russian Front

[Mad Russian]

Would not Hungarian troops be Reg/Vet experience for this time period? Specially in Cavalry/Armoured units. The infantry lacked mobility but from what I understand, they "blitzed" along side the German units with good success.

There was only one unit the Germans thought there equal in all the Axis Minors, not counting the Finns, the Slovak Mobile or "Fast" Division.

There were others they thought fought okay but they never felt them as good as German troops. The Hungarian mountain troops did well also.

All other combat formations of Axis Minors the Germans considered inferior.

There were only 18 Romanian, 9 Italian, 7 Hungarian, 2 Spanish, 2 Finnish and 2 Slovakians awarded with the Knight's Cross. As you can see the Germans thought little of the combat capabilities of the Axis Minors. Of those 3 were Italian Submarine Captains, 30 were above the rank of General Officer and only 4 Colonels and 2 Majors were issued the medal with no-one below the rank of Major earning it outside the German armed forces.

No, there wasn't alot of combat power in the Axis Minors, which the Soviets learned/recognized very early on. Romania's biggest contribution was to take Odessa. Hungary's biggest claim to fame was to retreat during the summer battles of 1944 without orders often leaving the German troops outflanked with no warning.

To be fair about this though this was Germany's war against the Soviet Union and not the Axis Minor's. While they sent troops it was not their idea and in many cases they were just along for the ride.

If you are interested in a discussion about the capabilities of the Axis Minors I can do some research about each of them individually. As a whole they were cannon fodder.

Good Hunting.

MR