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

and not to start to travel towards Western Hungary.
The most crucial point in the disbanding of the volunteer force was number
three, which stated: “The leaders and participants of the action receive complete
assurance that they will not be held accountable for their actions, except for any
crimes and offences arising from greed.” István Friedrich and Nándor
Urmánczy were asking for amnesty from the government. Finally, they stated
that they would not take any responsibility 328 in the future, as they had not in
the past, for the volunteer units of Iván Héjjas and György Hir. 329 (György Hir
was, at this time, a National Assembly representative and, with Nándor
Urmánczy, Viktor Maderspach and Dr. Dezső Wein, a reserve medical captain,
were part of the inner staff of István Friedrich.)
In the central portion of the Borderland, clashes continued between the
volunteer rebel forces and the inward bound Austrian units. Beside the already
mentioned clashes of Aug. 28-29 at Ágfalva, Pinkafő and Nagyszentmihály,
there were also firefights at Felsőőr – where Árpád Taby and eight rebels, with
only one machine gun and their rifles, put to flight 200 Austrians – Alhó,
Fraknó, Borostyánkő and Németgyirót, resulting in the rebels successfully
pushing the Austrian invaders across the border into Austria. 330 Columns 11 and
12 of the Austrian gendarmes, advancing in the South, were attacked by the
rebels on August 29. In the village of Nagyfalva near Szentgotthárd, a 35strong
unit, led by György Endresz, 331 successfully dislodged the Austrians
from the village. After getting a few reinforcements, he beat back the Austrian
gendarmes, along with a Volkswehr company come to reinforce them, to the
Austrian side of the border. 332 By August 31, not only the area around
Gyanafalva and Rábakeresztúr but the entire zone East of the pre-Trianon
border up to Pinkafő was under the control of the rebels. In the last days of
August and early September “our rebel units, marching day and night,
appearing here and there, are being unbelievably overestimated, and over
reported and these preposterous numbers are further swollen by the fantasies of
328 MOL. K 26. 1388. csomó 1922–„H” tétel, p. 321.
329 György Hir (1888-1926), fought on the Eastern Front beginning in 1914.
Transferred to the Western Front near Verdun in 1916 with the 69 th Infantry Regiment
of Székesfehérvár. Making use of his combat experience, he helped set up the first close
order combat units of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
330 Missuray-Krúg, 1935, op. cit., pp. 74–83; Ádám T., 1939, op. cit., pp. 29–30.
331 György Endresz (1893-1932), served as pilot in WWI, then commander of a “Red”
airforce company in Győr during the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In 1931, he set a
world record of 26 hours and 20 minutes by flying across the Atlantic in his plane,
Justice for Hungary, taking off from Grace Harbour in Newfoundland, crossing the
Atlantic and western Europe to land near Budapest. For their feat, he and his navigator
received Lord Rothermere’s grand prize for cross-ocean flight. In 1927, Lord
Rothermere had run an article in his paper, “Hungary’s Place in the Sun” (Daily Mail,
June 21), in which he drew attention to the unjust borders dictated by the Trianon
Treaty.
332 A Rongyos Gárda…, op. cit., pp. 148–154.
127