Hungarian Artillery Training in Congo

Szöveg: Col. Attila Král | 2013. július 19. 9:53

The courtyard of Camp TP, located at the seat of South Kivu Province, is resounding with French command words. Maj. Béla Lökösházi – a member of the advisory mission of EUSEC RD Congo drawn from the artillery battalion of the Tata Infantry Brigade – is giving a battle skills training for 12 soldiers selected from the close support artillery battalion of the 10th Military District.

The primary training objective is to create a strong and well-trained team, whose members can later share their knowledge with their officer comrades, and can start the training of the battalion, which went on gunnery for the last time in 2006.

Since January 2013, these twelve soldiers attend four classes per week, where they learn the basics of the artillery profession by taking lessons in ballistics, tactics and battle skills. After the fall of Mobutu (full name: Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga), officer training completely ended in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was called Zaire at the time.

Some years ago, the EUSEC started to rebuild the military schools, but the young and well-trained officers have not yet appeared in the warn-torn eastern provinces plagued with anarchy. Only two officers of the close support artillery battalion – the deputy battalion commander and the operations chief – have the basic qualifications, which they acquired 20 years ago.

Fortunately, the training of artillery officers in Hungary has always been conducted to high standards, so the students have learnt not only the how but also the why (thanks to Lt.-Col. Mihály Horváth, Lt.-Col. Attila Furján, Lt.-Col. Tibor Szabó and Lt.-Col. Attila Tamás), so it was possible to start the training with the use of paper, pencil, a gunnery table and knowledge of geometry.

In the absence of special literature in French, the core literature of the training consists of Hungarian technical specifications and field manuals.