Since 1872, the Ludovica Military Academy had been turning out competent and efficient officers and graduated the majority of officers for the Hungarian Army. A core of competent and educated officers struggled to handle the large expansion of the Hungarian Army to meet the needs of the Eastern Front. The Hungarians enjoyed a professional and experienced core of staff officers.
Although the majority of infantry forces fielded by the Royal Hungarian Army in 1944–45 were not combat hardened, there were some experienced units after 3 years of fighting on the Eastern Front. Infantry Divisions of the Hungarian First Army had recently fought in the defence of Galicia in early 1944, and would put their experience to good use, like the 25th Division at the Battle of Tordá and the 10th Division inside the Budapest pocket.
Mussolini famously boasted that the Italian army had eight million bayonets standing at the ready. In actuality, the standing Italian army was far smaller than that, with huge numbers of troops conscripted into a war they neither believed in nor understood. The fighting ability of units of the Italian army varied greatly, with much of the rank and file lacking proper equipment, transport and even motivation. Still, there were several key battles in North Africa and the Eastern Front where they performed well.
Produced by Fiat Ansaldo, the M13/40 was the main battle tank of the Italian army in World War II and served throughout the war following its introduction in 1940. Although designated as a medium tank it was more in line with the light tanks of other nations at the time.
The British Expeditionary Force was an army of nearly a third of a million troops sent out to France to try to resist aggression from Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Allied with Belgium and powerful French forces, it fielded ten infantry divisions, artillery, tank brigades and supporting air squadrons.
The middle ranks of officers were almost invariably drawn from the upper-middle classes: educated in the public schools, instilled with the values of empire, and imbued with a sense of confidence, duty and resolve that is difficult to conceive of today. An officer unit consists of the man himself and can include up to two other men acting as his immediate attendants.
The middle ranks of officers were almost invariably drawn from the upper-middle classes: educated in the public schools, instilled with the values of empire, and imbued with a sense of confidence, duty and resolve that is difficult to conceive of today. An officer unit consists of the man himself and can include up to two other men acting as his immediate attendants.
After years of fighting in North Africa and the Far East the British Army set foot back in Europe with the invasion of Sicily and Italy. In 1944 they spearheaded the D-Day landings in Normandy before pushing on into the German homeland and ultimate victory.
The middle ranks of officers were almost invariably drawn from the upper-middle classes: educated in the public schools, instilled with the values of empires, and imbued with a sense of confidence, duty and resolve that is difficult to conceive of today. An officer unit consists of the man himself and can include up to two other men acting as his immediate attendants.
The battle for France saw Matilda IIs fighting what would become a general retreat. However, Matildas caused problems for the Germans, whose 37mm and 50mm anti-tank guns were simply too small in calibre to penetrate the thick armour of the Matilda.
The Universal Carrier, or Bren carrier as it became popularly known, was just that a multi-purpose, tracked and armoured vehicle that filled a whole variety of roles with all British and Commonwealth troops in every theatre of World War II.