More than a thousand calls in six months

There aren’t identical periods and identical days in the life of the EOD and warship regiment, for professional and contracted troops serving with the unit are always facing new tasks and challenges – told us Dr. Tibor Horváth, the deputy commander of the unit when we asked him to summarise the work done in the past six months.

We were told that between January 1 and June 30, the EOD ’hotline’ of the regiment received 1,087 calls. In 344 cases they had to act urgently because the explosive devices that had been found endangered human life. This number roughly corresponds with statistical data from previous years, since in the first six months they usually receive 1,100–1,200 calls.

In the opinion of the deputy commander this indicates that they have to work in the ‘usual order’ until the end of the year, and it is likely that they will have a total of 2,200–2,400 calls this year. Statistical data collected since 1974 show that year after year, this is the approximate number of cases in which the specialists of the Hungarian Defence Forces have to destroy ammunition and explosive devices remaining from World War I and II.

In the last six months they had some extraordinary cases too – said Lt.Col. Horváth. One of their most important and demanding tasks was on the outskirts of Tata, from where they received a call in the middle of March, saying that several explosive devices had been found directly under the surface. The troops learned that in the so-called Pokker-dûlõ WWII devices had been annihilated earlier but they could not explode all of them, more than one dangerous device remained almost intact or were only partly destroyed. The EOD specialists of the Hungarian Defence Forces were working in the weedy marshland for several weeks, they checked a total of 1,630 square metres and found 254 explosive devices, which were annihilated without exception in the designated area near the site.

They had another interesting case only a few weeks ago: they received a phone call from Pécs, saying that the owner found rifles and dynamite in the attic of a detached house. The new owner had bought the house a couple of weeks before and when he did some ‘reconnaissance’ in the attic he found the unwanted surprise. Fortunately, he notified the EOD regiment without delay. The patrol found three Steyr rifles, dated 1895, in very good condition – one of the regular weapons in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy during WWI. Besides the weapons they also found five dynamite rods, which were annihilated, of course. The rifles were also taken away and it is possible that they are going to be exhibited in the Institute and Museum of Military History in the near future.

Fortunately, no 500 or 1,000-kg bombs have been found this year, EOD specialists met FAB–100 Soviet demolition bombs in most of the cases. In recent days they had to defuse this type of explosive device in two locations: three pieces were found in Seregélyes and five in the 11th district of the capital – said Lt.Col. Horváth, adding that the majority of the 2,200 devices found in the last six months were artillery projectiles but EOD specialists often found mine grenades and hand grenades too. These numbers are also equivalent to the data from previous years.

The deputy commander of the regiment also told us that this year, warship crew have not had to assist in the salvaging of explosive devices from rivers or standing waters. But according to plans, the reinforcement of the pillars of Margit-híd (bridge) starts in July, therefore they are preparing for the possible involvement of mine clearance vessels and EOD patrol boats into their daily work. This bridge was often bombed in the world war, and what is more, it was also blown up so it is almost certain that they will find a few explosive devices in the water near the pillars.

Besides their regular daily work at home, EOD troops have also done their fair share of work in missions – told us Lt.Col. Tibor Horváth. They are always present with a squad in the Hungarian PRT serving in Afghanistan but they are already preparing for Kabul, where Hungarians will operate the international airport again, starting this autumn. Naturally, an EOD division will also serve there. In addition to that, we have to mention the EOD function – with the weekly rotation of personnel – at the HDF Pápa Base Airport, which is in the territory of Hungary but owing to the Heavy Airlift Wing stationed in Pápa, it is an international assignment.

In his evaluation of activities performed in the last six months, the deputy commander of the HDF 1st Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment also mentioned flood protection tasks. He said the corps’ 150 troops participated in protection and recovery activities after the natural disaster hit Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county. In addition to their two explosion teams and two water rescue teams contributed to the Home Defence Disaster Management System, other soldiers also participated in the fortification of dams and in flood protection and recovery tasks in the previous month.