Once There was an Army

A long time has passed since World War II  the former soldiers who had fought in the war are now either deceased or their condition does not allow them to be present at commemorations. In recent years, none of them was able to attend the ceremony in Mány.

This year’s event was organized by Ferenc Kovács, the Chairholder of the Knightly Order of Vitéz in Hungary who recalled the memory of the victims of the Don Battle and the heroes of the hopeless, desperate attempt to break out of the siege of Budapest. Many people gathered in the Catholic church of the village to commemorate the fallen troops.

Following a requiem Mass celebrated by Vicar Dénes Márton Holnapy, the participants laid the flowers of remembrance at the WWI and WWII memorials in the village centre and at the memorial site at the edge of the village.
Minister Tibor László, the Chair Captain of the Knightly Order of Vitéz

read out a list of tragic figures to remind the participants of the tragedies of 1943 and 1945. He said that having been deployed to the Eastern Front in 1942, the 2nd Hungarian Army suffered the heaviest losses on January 12, 1943, following the Soviet breakthrough.

The second anniversary date was February 11, 1945, when Hungarian and German troops faced their destiny in Budapest, to which the Soviet army laid full siege. Germans and Hungarians held their ground to the last, while the occupation of the Hungarian capital was psychologically important for the Soviets, despite the massive bloodshed on both sides.

After breaking out of the siege, only 785 troops were able to make it to their own lines near Zsámbék–Mány–Tarján – said Zoltán Szabó, the deputy mayor of Mány.
A total of 17,000 soldiers, almost half the troops participating in the breakout attempt fell in just a few days. The units that remained in the city surrendered on February 13. The 108-day siege of Budapest (October 29, 1944–February 13, 1945) was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War.

Photo: Melinda Zsohár