March 15th, 1848-49 Revolution and March 15th, 1848-49 Revolution and War of IndependenceWar of Independence
Bernd
03/15/2023 (Wed) 19:51
No.49960
del
I chose to write about the Hungarian army today, without going into it's actual history. I just want to give an idea what was it like.
Well, it was colorful.
First there were units inherited from the Habsburg's empire, regular units, with imperial training and equipment. Then there was the national guard, the fresh Parliament enacted a law to set up these units, the regulation gave an exact picture what to aim for, and as they started to set up the battalions. They were closer to regular units, since countering the Serbian revolt demanded such level of organization. This was the core of the Home Defense Forces. The term for an individual soldier is honvéd which translates to "homeland defender" in literal sense, or loosely "patriot" - and we use the term since then -, but it originates from the German "Landwehr", the mirror translation of it, which is sometimes translated as "home guard" to English. They entered for three years into service.
The regulars and the almost regular national guards (HDF) were rounded out with various volunteer units, some in the ranks of the national guard, some as very "civilian" militias, territorial units. At the end of 1848 a larger organization was set up, unifying the command over the whole thing, it was called, Hungarian Home Defence Army.