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

Zárány was taken into custody by a new unit of gendarmes arriving in the
village and taken away with the charge of having been in collusion with the
rebels. 359
Still on September 7, an officer of the Entente Mission, British Captain
Trother, met with delegates of two German-speaking villages in the border zone
in Felsőőr (Oberwart). We learn from Lt.Col. Ferenczy’s report of the
following day that: “Their spokesman, the parish priest of Árokszállás, said,
more or less, in his enthusiastic speech that they are appealing to the victors’
chivalry and sense of fair play. They ask that a sick Hungary not be driven into
the arms of a dead Austria. They would rather die than be part of ‘Red’ Austria.
They ask that the Entente Powers take note of this, all the more so because they
are the representatives of purely German villages.” The lieutenant-colonel also
reported: “The Entente officers are searching for the rebels, whom they would
like to convince to retreat.” During the negotiations, they accepted that “the
rebels act in the role of home guard” and that “the Entente officers deem it
rightful that the population wants to defend itself by way of [its] home guard
against ‘Red’ Austria.” 360
As we have already written, the staff of Robert Davy, the appointed
governor of Burgenland province, have moved from the Austian town of
Wiener Neustadt to Nagymarton in Sopron County. The governor travelled
from here daily by car to the Entente Mission in Sopron. A public meeting was
organized in Ágfalva, occupied by Austrian gendarmes, for September 7, where
Davy also spoke and announced: “Morgen wird der Vormarsch nach Ödenburg
vorgenommen!” [In the morning, we must press on to Sopron!] The mob – in
which the leading shouters were people who arrived from Vienna and Wiener
Neustadt – took up the chant: “Einmarsch! Einmarsch nach Ödenburg!” [Entry!
Entry into Sopron!] at this time, the garrison of Ágfalva consisted of 400
Austrian gendarmes, with six machine guns, which had a good chance of taking
over the waterworks of Sopron, thus forcing the city to its knees. 361
The Officer Company that joined the Ostenburg battalion had made
preparations in the morning of September 6 to take and occupy Ágfalva. In
preparation, Captain Viktor Maderspach and Elemér Székely, commander of
the company, set out on a scouting mission. Lajos Krug, intimately familiar
with the neighborhood, got the assignment to obtain military maps of the
village and its surroundings and mark any forest trails. On the following
evening, about 100 rebels set out from Sopron towards Ágfalva, about six
kilometers away. On the orders of Elemér Székely, the attack was begun at
dawn on the 8 th but the Austrians put up a stronger than expected defense. In
the heated exchange of fire, cadet Gyula Machatsek forestry engineer, reservist
359 Ibid, pp. 386–388. The former Marxist-Communist historiography treated the 70
gendarme report as truth, ignoring the fact that Count Sigray had ascertained by that
evening that it was a lie. See, Soós, 1971, op. cit., p. 145.
360 MOL. K 26. 1388. csomó. 1922–„H” tétel, p. 394.
361 Krug, 1930, op. cit., p. 74.
137