The Armament Industry of Hungary between 1867 and 1945: Always to the Limits of What is Possible

There was no significant armament industry in Hungary before the compromise of 1867. After the compromise, Hungary made great efforts to establish weapon factories. This essay gives an overview of the armament industry of Hungary between the years 1867 and 1945. As the essay shows, during the days of the Aust-rian-Hungarian empire, the Hungarian armament industry offered a wide range of products. After the First World War until the end of the Second World War, the achievements of the Hungarian armament industry show us that it is also possible for a smaller state to operate an efficient armament industry, but only to the limits of what is possible.


INTRODUCTION
There was no significant armament industry in Hungary before the compromise of 1867. After the compromise, Hungary made great efforts to establish weapon factories. This essay gives an overview of the armament industry of Hungary between the years 1867 and 1945. Another important company that made small arms was Manfred Weiss, which manufactured weapons and ammunition from the mid-1880s and, starting in 1892, also cartridges. Danuvia, a smaller weapons manufacturer, produced a machine-gun which was developed by Ferenc Gebauer 5 . Furthermore, 11 000 Gebauer submachine guns were produced at Danuvia. The most important ammunition manufacturers were FÉG and Weiss.

CANONS/HOWITZERS 6
The production capacities for canons were low in Hungary. Nevertheless, during the time of the Imperial and Royal (or k.u.k.) Monarchy, Hungary produced artillery pieces for Škoda at a modern canon-factory in Győr 7 , at Magyar Királyi Államvasutak Gépgyára (MÁVAG) and at DIMÁVAG Diósgyőr Gépgyár under license. During the interwar period and during the Second World War, Hungary also produced a small number of canons and howitzers in the towns of Budapest, Győr and Diósgyőr.

MOTOR VEHICLES 8
Army motorization in Hungary can be seen as part of the motorization of the k.u.k. Army. The troops of the k.u.k. Army which were set up in the Hungarian half of the empire were equipped with motor vehicles from Austro-Hungarian production. In the Hungarian part of the monarchy, the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory in Győr (Rába Magyar Vagonés Gépgyár), which was founded in 1896, began with the construction of automobiles of the brand "Rába" in 1902. As early as 1903, the company received an order for the construction of a trackless vehicle. The vehicle was called the "Tlaskal Train". Ludwig Tlaskal Edler von Hochwall was a captain in the General Staff Corps who was responsible for the motorization of the army. The vehicle was designed for a payload of 10 tons, and it had 4wheel steering and 4-wheel drive. It allowed the attachment of five platform trailers. However, because of serious shortcomings revealed in the tests carried out by the army authorities (for example, the braking distance on a slope was more than 200m), the vehicle was returned to the manufacturer.
In preparation for a major war in Europe, the k.u.k monarchy also sought to make available as many cars and trucks as possible. The model which was realized became a part of the mobilization efforts of the monarchy under the slogan "subsidy trucks". The standardized types of vehicles were produced by the vehicle manufacturers of the monarchy. The Ministry of War provided a subsidy fund in the amount of 4 million Austrian crowns for the 5  purchase of 400 trucks. Each buyer of a subsidy truck received a grant of 10 000 Austrian crowns in the case of purchasing a vehicle. The purchaser had to undertake to keep the vehicle in perfect condition for five years and, if necessary, to make it available to the army administration. The vehicles themselves had to comply with certain building regulations. Thus, the scale, wheelbase, gauge, load capacity, paint and equipment were standardized. The design specified a 3-tonner and a 5-tonner. Shortly before the outbreak of the war, for political reasons, larger contracts for motor vehicles were awarded to companies whose business operations were located in the Hungarian half of the Monarchy. The vehicle manufacturers Ganz and Rába benefited from these larger orders.
After the First World War, the development of the Hungarian Armed Forces was stopped by the regulations of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, the chronic shortage of money, and the lack of existing industrial capacity for motor vehicles. The Hungarian forces of the 1920s were therefore largely equipped with the old vehicles, which had already been in use during the First World War. It was only at the beginning of the 1930s that some artillery tractors of the type Pavesi and Breda were bought in Italy, and 70 tractors were produced under license in Hungary by Hofherr Schranz. The tractors were named KV-40 and KV-50, and they looked more like a commercial agricultural tractor than an artillery tractor. Other off-road vehicles were produced in small numbers at Csepel, Rába and MÁVAG. It was not until 1936 that Hungary acquired a civilian 2 1/2 tonner from the Ford plants in Cologne for the mobile brigades. These vehicles formed the backbone of the motorized units until Hungarian companies, especially Csepel, were able to produce vehicles in larger numbers.        A particularly interesting chapter of the Hungarian aviation industry is the development of helicopters. Lieutenant Dr. Theodor von Kármán and Lieutenant of the technical branch Wilhelm Zurovec made a number of empirical experiments on the movements of helicopters 14 . In August 1917, MÁG was charged with building a model in the original size of a helicopter based on the studies of Kármán and Zurovec. This model, known as PKZ 1, produced evidence of the operability of propulsion which is able to launch an aircraft vertically. Further experiments were carried out with a model of the PKZ 2 and with the socalled Asbóth helicopter, which was produced in the FAG plant. The end of the war and the ban on the manufacture of aircraft ended the promising trials to develop helicopters.
During the communist regime in the first post-war years, some aircraft were produced at the three aircraft factories mentioned above. After the collapse of the communist republic, aircraft production continued at a low level. However, after the treaty of Trianon, the aircraft industry in Hungary had to be stopped. Furthermore, Hungary was not allowed to maintain

THE PRODUCTION OF BATTLE TANKS AND ARMORED VEHICLES 16
The Treaty of Trianon prohibited the operation of armored troops. Because Hungary had ordered 14 LKII tanks in Sweden before the signing of the peace treaty on 4 June 1920, these tanks were secretly delivered across the Danube and unloaded at a secret location in Hungary. Then, the tanks were transported by rail through Hungary to hide them from the Control Commission. It was not until the mid-1920s that the control was relaxed and Hungary could think of a rearmament with heavy equipment. In the mid-1920s, a diplomatic  In 1936, Italy delivered 150 light tanks FIAT CV 33. These tanks were stored in Hajmáskér and Örkénytábor. There was no experience at that time in Hungary in the construction of main battle tanks. Because Hungary was forbidden to produce tanks, the development work for a main battle tank began secretly at the Weiss plant under the code name V-3 (vontató = tractor). In 1933, Mike Straussler, who worked for Manfred Weiss as a designer, presented plans for a light battle tank to the Hungarian army staff. In 1936, two prototypes of the V-4 were built. After some modifications, the V-4 was presented to the Ministry of Defense in 1938. Around 1936, some L-60s were purchased by Landsverk in Sweden for testing purposes. The L-60 and V-4 were then tested and the L-60 proved to be the better tank. As a result, the Ministry acquired the license rights of the L-60. The L-60 was then manufactured as 38M Toldi I at MÁVAG and Ganz. Until 1941, 85 pieces of Toldi I were made. From 1941, Hungarian industry was able to produce an improved version of Toldi I, the Toldi II, from which 110 pieces were made at MÁVAG (42 pieces) and Ganz (68 pieces). In 1943, the type Toldi III was produced with a better armor protection and better armament. There are no records of the production and the exact number of tanks completed. After a market observation, Hungary acquired the license rights for the construction of the tank hunter Landsverk L-62. The tank hunter or the antiaircraft tank "Nimrod" was built in 1940 at MÁVAG. The tank hunter version was armed with a 4 cm cannon, the antiaircraft tank with a 4 cm Bofors canon. A total of 135 Nimrods were produced at MÁVAG.   The most effective Hungarian armored vehicle was the Zrínyi assault gun. The assault gun was mounted on the chassis of the Turan and had a 10.5 cm howitzer as the main weapon. The first Zrínyi did not join the army until March 1944. A total of between 40 and 66 Zrínyi (exact production figures are not available) were produced by Weiss and Ganz. Towards the end of the war, Manfred Weiss also developed some designs for more powerful battle tanks and assault guns. On the basis of the German main battle tank Panther, the 44M Tas was developed, which had an assault gun Tas on the chassis. However, the M44 Tas did not progress beyond the stage of a prototype, and the Tas assault gun did not go beyond the drawing board.  Another shipyard in Fiume is associated with the name Robert Whitehead. Whitehead was an English technician and businessman who together with the Austrian naval officer Luppis is considered the inventor of the operational torpedo. Whitehead became the director of the Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano in 1875 and established a torpedo production. In 1907 the British armament company Vickers Ltd. Armstrong-Whitworth & Co became the main shareholder in this company. The company produced the single-hull boats S.M. U 5, 6 and 12 for the k.u.k Navy.

BROWN-WATER NAVY SHIPBUILDING
Immediately after the compensation in 1868, the First Hungarian Pest-Fiume Shipbuilding Company (Elsö Magyar Pest-Fiumei Hajógyár R.T.) was founded in Újpest. In 1870/71 the two Danube monitors Maros and Leitha were built on the shipyard. Other Danube monitors, Szamos and Kórós, were built at the shipyard Schönichen & Hartmann (Magyar Leszámitoló Kazangyára) in Budapest / Újpest in 1891/92. After that, in a ten years' rhythm, further monitors were produced in Budapest. In 1903/04 Temes (I) and Bodrog were produced in the united shipyard Danubius-Schönichen-Hartmann egysült Hajó-és Gépgyár R.T.. During the war, Wels, Barsch, Compó (Tench) and Viza (Hausen) were built in the yard of Ganz & Co-Danubius Gép-, Waggon-és Hajógyár R.T in Újpest and put into service in 1916. In the interwar period, the defense budget did not allow any more new construction. Only after the occupation of the southern parts of Slovakia were efforts made to expand the brown-water fleet.
In 1939, at the shipyard of Laczkovics in Budapest 11 unarmed mine-laying ships of type AM were built at the Danubius shipyard of Ganz and the development of a speedboat was started. The speedboats were armored up to 40 mm and had a 4 cm turret. They were thus the most modern ships of the Danube Riverfleet.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
As the essay shows, during the days of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, the Hungarian armament industry offered a wide range of products. After the First World War until the end of the Second World War, the achievements of the Hungarian armament industry show us that it is also possible for a smaller state to operate an efficient armament industry, but only to the limits of what is possible.