The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

destination of Felsőőr, the district seat. Although officially Ranzenberger was
in command of the battalion, however, the unit considered Prónay as its real
leader, and shortly as the commander of the Western Hungary insurrection, too.
The other unit in the field was the 2 nd Gendarme Reserve Battalion,
commanded by Gyula Ostenburg, which also arrived on August 15 at its base of
Kismarton (now Eisenstadt). 299 The two gendarme units were, in every way,
identical with the earlier Szeged and Székesfehérvár infantry battalions, which
were withdrawn from the Army’s Order of Battle on February 10, 1921 and
transferred to the gendarmerie. The reality was that they were concealed
military units, hidden from the eyes of the Entente. Hence, it is natural that
Count Sigray did not notify the Entente generals in Sopron before the relocation
of the two battalions to Western Hungary. Italian General Carlo Ferrario
vehemently objected but the Chief Government Commissioner refused to
withdraw them, thus staying in Felsőőr and Kismarton.
The third significant force in the Borderland in August was the so-called
Héjjas free-militia unit, recruited from volunteers between the Danube and
Tisza Rivers, commanded by Iván Héjjas. 300 The fourth, also a free unit of
volunteers, was the militia led by District Reeve László Endre (1895-1946), 301
(whose complement soon grew to 200) and who were volunteers mostly from
the towns of Gödöllő, Aszód, Vác and their surrounding villages. He started to
Szombathely by train on August 28, arriving the following day in
Nagyszentmihály and Felsőőr, with the intention to of equipping his men and
occupying the village of Pinkafő. The unit was marching towards its goal,
unarmed, when four trucks, filled with Entente soldiers and machine guns,
caught up to them. They were all taken prisoners and escorted to the courtyard
of the County Court of Felsőőr, where they were handed over to British Captain
Trotter and French African-colonial soldiers. Count Tamás Erdődy, landowner
in Vasvörösvár and chief of the local fire brigade, hurried to their aid. That
evening, alarm bells were rung and agitated men collected in the street and
broke down the court’s front gate; with women and children, they surged inside
for the fire hoses stored in the courtyard. It became apparent that it was a false
alarm and that the count ordered the alarm to free the soldiers. In the chaos, the
militia unit managed to escape, after hitting the few frightened black colonial
soldiers over the head. The assembled during the night outside the village and,
with the help of a local militiaman, sneaked into the Catholic school where they
were provided with arms and equipment. In the evening hours of the following
299 The Ranzenberger battalion arrived on the western frontier with 1,610 men, of
whom 150 deserted to the insurrection; other sources hold it to be possibly 300 or 400.
The size of the Ostenburg battalion was 1,539 men, which was joined by 50 rebels in
Sopron. Later, 105 deserted to the insurrection side, perhaps more. In: Fogarassy, 1994,
op. cit., p. 312.
300 Héjjas, 1929, op. cit., pp. 13–15.
301 Endre László served as a reserve officer in WWI and was wounded on the Russian
front. Served as reeve in a Temes County town (October 1918), later reeve and chief
reeve in the Gödöllő district (1923-1938).
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