While Civilians Were Rowing, Warship Crew Gave Blood

“War steamer Lázár Mészáros hath been set to sail, it is cruising up and down the Danube, shooting at the sky immensely" – said the report on the day when 160 years ago the first Hungarian war steamer was launched. Although the anniversary of this important day is on 25th June, HDF 1st Honvéd Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Warship Battalion wants to commemorate the jubilee with a series of events. Római part hosted the first programme on 14th June. Honvedelem.hu has also attended the event.

According to the ladies in the registration tent more than 200 people had signed up for the parade. All of them were given an uniform T-shirt and were advised to wear it since one easily gets a sunburn on these hot early summer days on the water where there is constant sunshine. And though the parade started off from Római part and ended there, participants had to row down to Margitsziget (Margaret Island), get round the island, and head back to Óbuda.

The Szolnok air force military orchestra heated up the audience before the race — children were dancing to their outdoor music which provided a good atmosphere and even the older ones couldn’t resist beating the rhythm with their feet. In the meantime, majorettes gave a spectacular performance on the stage.

Unfortunately, the festive mood was shadowed by a tragic event; just a few days earlier one of the soldiers of the unit had lost his life while in service in Afghanistan. The audience bowed in silence for a minute in memory of Sergeant First Class, Posthumous Lieutenant Gyula Kovács.

In his opening speech Major Zsolt Szilágyi, deputy warship commander of the unit also remembered the EOD technician who died so young. As he told us Gyula Kovács, an EOD technician and diver, had participated in the defusing of explosive devices remaining from the Second World War not only on land, but in the Danube as well. For example last autumn it was him, who had lifted and defused 7 bombs weighing 500 kilograms each, which were dropped from aircraft and found only a few hundred metres away from the site of today’s event, at the northern railway connection bridge. It was not by accident that his comrades called him the EOD man of the Danube.

Following the words of remembrance, Major Szilágyi told about the 160 years of Hungarian military navigation in a nutshell: war steamer Lázár Mészáros was launched on the decision of the responsible Hungarian ministry on 25 July 1848, and with this event we have entered the era of modern Hungarian military navigation. Following the reconciliation of 1867 the Danube Fleet was set up and in 1872 monitors Maros and Leitha, representing the most advanced technologies of that time, started operating. This unit was dissolved after the First World War and the vessels were distributed among the states of the former Monarchy. The Royal Hungarian River Guard was founded in 1921 and as of 1931 it was operating as an independent arm under the name River Forces. Their duties included defusing magnetic mines laid in the Danube by the Allied Forces in WWII.

Honvéd warship unit was established after the war, and it is still operating today, although it had several names in this period. In 2001 it was merged with the EOD unit and in the course of the 2007 restructuring process Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment became a battalion. Its tasks have remained the same, the soldiers serving here are in charge of defusing and desposing of unexploded military explosive devices found on land and in the waters of the Republic of Hungary.

Following the short retrospective Mr Balázs Bús, the mayor of Óbuda has recalled the old saying ‘Navigare necesse est’, it is necessary to sail. The head of the local government also emphasized that the Danube has to be involved in the community transportation network and the parade of rowers may be a good demonstration of this.

While the participants of the memorial parade were lining up at the start, two aircraft had ‘stricken’ the water from above. Everybody was watching the air show of aerobatics pilots Béla Keserû and István Szálkai in awe on the bank of the river. Unfortunately, the ‘big attraction’, namely flying across the two concrete pillars under the railway bridge was cancelled due to strong wind – nevertheless, the demonstration was very spectacular.

The rowers, who had to complete 12 kilometres, started off for the sound of the gun salute fired from the 4-tube deck cannon of demining warship named Dunaújváros, numbered AM-31. EOD patrol vessel Baja and commanding motorized vessel Tas have also taken part in providing an unobstructed ‘lane’ for the oarsmen.

While the civilians were rowing, the warship crew gave their blood. In the most noble sense of the word since the soldiers, who were wearing combat uniforms and a black ribbon on their left arm in memory of their comrade who died tragically, were lining up in a long queue in front of the blood donation bus of the National Blood Supply Centre. The medical staff of the bus were surprised to see such a large number of donors — as they have told us, it was worth coming to Római part.

Of course there were a lot of people at the military tents, too, who wanted to see the temporary exhibition presenting 160 years of Hungarian military navigation and the display of state-of-the-art equipment used by EOD technicians. In the tent of the capital’s recruitment office quite many were inquiring about the details of contracted and professional military service.

But undoubtedly, the most popular programme of the whole-day event was providing free access to warship AM-31 Dunaújváros. Hundreds of children, young and old people alike have tried what it feels like to stand at the steering wheel or how hard it is to aim with the machine guns on the gundeck…

The next programme in the series of events organized in celebration of the 160th anniversary of Hungarian military river navigation will continue on 26th June in the Újpest military harbour with a warship open day.