hunyadi

As for the helmets - in 1947 the Hungarian Military consisted of less than 14,000 troops, by 1948 only 20,000. In June fo 1948, the Hungarians signed an agreement with the Soviet Union to use Soviet military equipment. From the photo - the man wearing the reworked M38 Hungarian helmet (they repainted them a darker green) is wearing an M47 / M49 tunic. The photo should date from 1949 - 1950 as he has the slip on shoulder boards with what looks to be the 5 sided boards (M47s had rounded ends) from my understanding the Soivets did not begin importing the helmets until 1950 (but it may have been in late 1949?) Regardless - the Hungarian military did not reach its full expansion until 1953 (250,000 men) and until then they used whatever was on hand. I have a photo that shows men in the field with their shelters - some have the WW2 shelter quarters, others are using actual German SS 'pea' pattern quarters...it was a logistical nightmare!

Getting back to Ulstermann's badge - here is one of my early onese - notice the think prongs on the back.

Here is the uber rare political officers arm badge

Not so convinced that those badges are the 1950 Kat. Pol. Badge - just from scale, I would think that those are the Excelent Student of the Political Officers Badge from the Petofi Academy which is a little bigger in size. (I dont have a regulation for this one - its probably locked up in the archives...)

Very nice - interesting how he mounted it above his national ODMs!

Basic way to understand the Levente is to view it as a similar organization as the Hitler Youth - Boy Scouts with a little more miltiary training. The idea was for older boys to enter into the Levente and from there they would be acustomed to military life, drill, physical exercise and military tactics. The Boy Scouts were active in Hungary before, during and shortly after the war - but they were more of 'camp life' in nature. Front is roughly translted 'Everyones Struggle [in the] Hand of the Hungarian' From the reverse it reads 'King Matyas National Sports Competition January 1943' (the abreiviation below it is a sport code - but I dont know what it is?)

If its the one from our favorite hang out - that was the Service Medal - this is the labor one - both reaaalllllyyyy rare. Regards Memebr of the Envious Mob...

The regulations were written in 1950 - so the predominant type still in use at the time was the M49 four pocket tunic. But what is an interesting co-incidence with this badge and the arm badge is that about the time the arm badge was discontinued - this little gem shows up in the regulations...?? One of the main reasons that I believed this to be a polit officers badge from the education system is that when I was talking with a Colonel who ran the Honved Signals Musuem, he showed me a photo album from the 1950's. In it was a photo of his instructor (when he was a student at the academy in 1953) in an M1951 tunic, clearly wearing this badge. The guy was old - a WW2 veteran accoerding to the Col., and he was not a student but an instructor. Its possible that the instructor re-took the exams (??) and achieved such a high score and therefore qualified for the badge - but in WW2 he was already an officer? Hence my confused assumptions... Aside but related - photos of these in wear are almost non-existant (if anyone has one - please post!) The only one I saw was the one in the photo album, and I did not get a photo of it... These are not uber rare - but they do come up every-once-in-a-while...

As luck would have it - I did get the regualiton for these translated...not exactly what I had been led to believe about the badges... Published as: 56 / Kat. Tanint. Csf - 1950 "Soldiers and Political Training Excelenc Badge" (for officers) 'According to the closing exams of each branch of service, the officer candidates who recieve an excelent exam score in every subject and those who are then recomended and whose behavior is exemplary, the title and badge is bestowed uppon them. The title and the badge is only available to offcier candidates in their final year. The badge and the title is bestowed exclusivly by the Military Educational Institution (H.M. Kat. Tanint. Csf. Seg.) Badges are bestowed at the commissioning celebration (Aug 20th) and the name of the awardee published and recorded. A special award certificate is bestowed. Badge is to be worn in the center of the right upper pocket. If the officer candidate has the Freedom Fighters Association badge, this badge must be worn above the Freedom Fighters badge. Badge and the title can be taken away at any time for any infraction, if this occurs then the badge and the certificate must be returned.' The regulations go on to describe a gold colored badge. Therefore it may be safe to assume that at a latter date they added a silver class for the NCO school, though none of my documentation has such a regulation up to 1957.

Yes James - thanks - my German is not so hot! Thanks for making the proper corrections!

Ah - yesssss.... the badge of little men who woke you up in the middle of the night to scare you with stories of evil capitalist empires....the political officers badge... Actualy this is the badge of a political officer / instructor from the education system. The badge superceeded the polit officers badge that was worn on the arm in the early 1950's. These come in silver and gold - but I have yet to translate the exact awarding criteria. Stay tuned... As for the badge - I am going to say that its a 1960's version, but I cant say for certain till I see a shot of the back - the early version had wider / flatter prongs on the back

Thanks again - so is it a 'rare' tunic, or one of just 'general interest'? Question being is that I can get it for just a little more than family night at McDonalds...

Thanks Chip - that is exactly what I needed to know!

more photos

This is a regimental stein that was brought back by my great-grandfather who served in WW1. Unfortunatly the pikelhaub and the trench art flower vase went to my grand uncles side of the family...at any rate - can anyone tell me about it? What Inf Div this steain was from and if it would have made sense for him to get locally as he served in the 88th Infantry Division? Or did it just come out of some place that was selling suveniers to the occupation army? For insurance - what do these go for now-a-days?

Thanks! Is there is problem with the order of the medals? To me (not very well educated in such Soivet things) the bar looks to be one that was done by the veteran in the 1980's for parade - perhaps after the old one fell appart? But it looks like he used his original medals?

this is from January of 1974 (according to the scribble on the reverse) looks like an awards ceremony.

can we sing 'Ive got the Joy-Joy-Joy down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart!'

These are from my own personal collection - once again - Munkasor. As I have been thinking about it and scanning these. I would assume that probably about 80% of the medal bars that come to market are probably Munkasor. These guys were the 'Weekend Warriors' and there is by far more of these photos in publications and in private that contain them wearing medal bars. They wore their bars in seemingly every event possible and therefor had more use of them that say thier military counterparts whom almost always appear in parade photos wearing only the ribbon bar. Just a random thought followed by a theory...

a pretty common photo of Farkas in his dress uniform with his medal bar

To begin a reference for 'medal bars in wear' here is a Munkasor tunic that I got a while ago - the bars are sewn down to the tunic, so its belived that this hung in the closet in this manner for several decades

and the reverse - Military Merit Medal is numbered 913606 (1943-44??)

Could not pass this one up as it was thrown in with a deal I got this morning. Medals appear to be period - but with a new set of ribbons and suspension backing - all ready for the next May Day.

another thing that I like about the bar is that the ribbons are not mounted incorrectly - they overlap the wrong way. Perhaps this was taste or perhaps it was just the way they ended up on the bar...

It was a great weekend to buy a medal bar... here is one of the more interesting bars as it is a pair! 13 in all and form the looks of it probably a Brig General who spaced his medals out for a nice 'top and bottom' bar. The photos may not show it well, but the wear and 'dirt' of the medals convinces me that these have been together for a good time. (the 35 year, 30 year, Jubilee, and Gold Service are cleaner and 'newer' than the rest which look like they were worn a few times and the medals added as they became awarded at later dates in the career.) I have a nice Generals Tunic that has been negelected without a top and bottom bar...