Hungary Hungarian Generals Insignia

[TeaRex]

Hi,

As a new comer to this forum, I'm interested in knowing if any members can add some photo's of Hungarian General's shoulder boards, cap insignia and the like. After decades of collecting militaria of Fascist Italy, I've gone to the other side and now have a deep interest in regalia of the former Eastern European Communist states.

Cheers Rex from New Zealand.

[Gordon Craig]

TeaRex,

Welcome to the forum. I'll see what I can dig up tomorrow to post. If you are going to get interested in artifacts from the HUPR I would suggest purchasing a copy of Hunyadi's book. It is in English. There a coule of more books on Communist era military uniforms etc written by some friends in Budapest, in Hungarian. I can list them and post pictures of the cover if you are interested.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited February 2, 2011 by Gordon Craig

[TeaRex]

Sure sounds good, whatever you wish to sumbit is fine with me.

Cheers

TeaRex,

Welcome to the forum. I'll see what I can dig up tomorrow to post. If you are going to get interested in artifacts from the HUPR I would suggest purchasing a copy of Hunyadi's book. It is in English. There a coule of more books on Communist era military uniforms etc written by some friends in Budapest, in Hungarian. I can list them and post pictures of the cover if you are interested.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Rex,

Sorry that it has taken me a few days to get back to you. Developed a bad cold and didn't really feel like digging through my collection to photogaph uniforms.

The first uniform is of the Hungarian equivalent of a Major General (one star). Generals ranks go up to four stars. There were a number of uniform changes from 1948 through 1990 I E embroidered stars versus metal ones etc but the Generals uniforms remained basically the same throught the Communist period. There are some notable exceptions such as the blue/green generals uniform which was worn for less than a year and really only appeared in one annual parade. I'll post pictures of my army uniforms. I do not have Generals uniforms for the Air Force and the River Patrol. The River Partol did not have enough men to have a General Rank. These uniform configurations date from the 1982 to 1990 except for the last one which is from a little later period.

This first uniform have thread loops for both medal bars and ribbon bars. Plastic ribbon bars were worn until approximately 1987. The ribbon bars show are the specila ones for wear by Generals. Of heavier construction than the regular officers bar due to the greater number of awards a General usually wore. The badge on the right breast in for a graduate of the Zrinyi Katonai Akademia - Zrinyi Army Officer Academy. It is not unusual to see this academy badge worn in this position with a Soviet Senior Military Academy to its right.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

A closer view of the shoulder boards and metal oak leaves on the collars.

[Gordon Craig]

The next General officers uniform is from the period of 1987 to 1999. This type of cloth ribbon bars was introduced in 1987.

[Gordon Craig]

A closer view of the shoulder boards and oak leaves on the collar.

[Gordon Craig]

The last uniform is from the period immediately following 1999. There was a two year period while the Republic of Hungary designed new uniforms, awards etc. There was even a display of proposed uniforms in the Military Museum in Budapest and people were asked to vote on the uniforms they liked the best. In the end, the results of this exhibit were ignored and new uniforms similar to those displayed were adopted with out any more to do. A list of awards that could be worn during this time period was produced and the ribbon bar on this uniforms illustrates that.

The gold, pin on, device on the right breast was the newly adopted symbol of the Hungarian military. It was only worn for two years and then was replace with a cloth device of the same design. This appears to be a General's tunic that was up-dated from before 1999. The oak leaf collar badges have lost a lot of their gold plating. This indicates production in the early 1980s when a cheaper oak leaf collar device was produced. They were only made for a few years and discontinued when the problem with the loss of the gold colouring was identified.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

A closer view of the shoulder boards and oak leaf badges on this uniform.

[Gordon Craig]

A better view of the ribbon bar and the gold device on the right breast. I forgot to mention the mdification to the stars. They are remeniscent of the Austrian style stars with six points etc.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Gordon Craig
Additional info

[Gordon Craig]

A book written by two friends in Hungary. Tamas is the curator of uniforms at the Military Museum in Budapest and Sandor is a very knowlledgable collector who specializes in the uniforms of the Hungarian military from 1957 until 1999. If you go to the top of the forum you will find the English language book written on the Hungarian Military by my co-host Hunyadi.

[Gordon Craig]

A lot of my Hungarian collection remains packed away from when I moved from Budapest back to Canada so I can not show you a military Generals visor cap. Picutred below is a visor cap for a General in the Fire Brigade which is virtually identical to military Generals cap, including the cap badge, except for the colour of the cap. The military cap would be brown instead of the blue/grey of the Fire Brigade. The military General's cap badge is gold as well.

Regards,

Gordon

[TeaRex]

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for the great photos and the information. I'm a little surprised how plain the Hungarian Generals caps are, sure the tunics are nice and I just love the shoulder boards, and your information is great, I'm very pleased you took the time to reply.

It's going to be very interesting getting to grips with the more detailed aspects of Hungarian uniforms and regalia.

Thanks also for the heads up on the books. I followed the thread on the books and various guys efforts in doing research and writing.

Having had two books published on Italian WW2 regalia, I can totally appreciate how much blood and effort it takes to get a book done, and as someone said little fame, or money but a great deal of satisfaction.

By the way the link that was given for the English language book did not work, can you provide me any details and of course if it is still available.

But once gain many thanks.

[Gordon Craig]

TeaRex,

Re Generals hats. There were some early hats that were very ornate but they did not last long. As for a link to the English language book, I suggest that you send a PM to Hunyadi. He should respond relatively quickly. I do not know if he has any books left. It has only been inprint just over a year so it is very possible he has some copies left. Good luck in researching Hungarian uniforms.

Regards,

Gordon

[bazsi]

Gordon has an impressive collection, these are great General Officer uniforms. The last one, the General Major uniform is a bit earlier from the early 90's (1991-1993). The metal badge for officers which was used instead of the obsolete academic badges were used between 1991-1993. The cloth ribbon bars is an earlier one from the late 80's and the early 90's. A new type of ribbon bars was introduced in the mid 90's.

Another uniform from the same person:

http://nephadsereg.h...Mk-Scharrer.jpg

The cloth ribbon bars was officialy introduced in late 1985 but the general usage started from 1986.

You can find other General Officer uniforms in the following site by clicking on each photo which represents the uniform periods of the Hungarian Peoples Army or the Hungarian Army.

http://nephadsereg.hu/gyujtemeny.html

Regards,

Balazs

Edited May 3, 2011 by bazsi

[Gordon Craig]

Balázs,

Good to have you with us. Thanks for the links to the uniform pictures. How I miss my visits to the museum!!!!!!!!

Regards,

Goordon

Edited May 3, 2011 by Gordon Craig

[bazsi]

Thanks Gordon for the kind words. We have another virtual tour on General Officer uniforms on the website of our Hungarian forum here:

http://uniform.extra.hu/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=359&cid=18

Hope you can find some interesting photos.

Regards,

Balazs

[cimbineus]

Here is a winter headgear (fur-cap) introduced in 1975 for General Officers. It is a relatively scarce piece.

[cimbineus]

...and another view: