Summer Camp in Memory of the Bridgehead Battles by River Don

This year saw the tenth such camp organized by the military heritage section of Matasz in cooperation with re-enactors from Sopron and Szolnok as well as the hussars of Zrínyi Honvéd Sports Club. The main patron of the 2011 camp was Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende.

The HDF Ludovika Battalion provided the venue for the event, namely the Ócsa training base, where the camp was running under the professional guidance of the MoD Office for Public Relations and Military Grave Care. The organizers’ aim was to make sure that the representatives of arms arriving from different parts of Hungary can familiarize themselves with each other’s activities.

Balázs Jásdi (see picture), the head of the Matasz military heritage section told us that during the winter Don memorial tours it became evident that there is a need for commemorating the heroes of the 1942 summer bridgehead battles as well. As they considered it important to organize preparatory camps in the summer, they decided to conduct the summer Don memorial tours in the form of follow-on training camps, which have been organized for ten years now.

The organizers drew up the program of instruction (POI) for the training camp in cooperation with the HDF units. In accordance with the POI, he trainees were required to do formation drills in the morning, then proceeded to the field to practice the arms-specific techniques they have learnt. Moving around the area of operations was a key element of the training, so the participants were practicing it by moving in column and single file formations.

The training session was running simultaneously for the different arms without interruption. The artillerymen were given their own trade training, which included the handling and maintenance of the guns and orienting themselves with the use of period instruments. The objective of the gunnery was to enable the crews to execute their allocated tasks in sequence.

The hussars carried out specific mounted duties. At the end of the event the different arms held a joint exercise to close the program of the camp. 

Photo: Veronika Dévényi

(Click on our gallery for more pictures!)