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

two Szekler battalions and an artillery unit to stop the attackers. The
Romanians, reaching the village of Vitnyéd, retreated on August 29 and
withdrew from occupied Kapuvár, then Csorna, all the way back to Győr. 167
In the meantime, on August 12, the temporary head-of-state, archduke
Joseph, appointed Miklós Horthy as commander-in-chief of the Hungarian
National Army. Horthy’s hands were tied in the collection of military forces by
the enemy occupation of Szeged. Thus, the next day, he relocated his command
center and units to Siófok, to bolster his forces with units in Trans-Danubia.
Horthy named the monarchist Col. Lehár as commander of the Szombathely
sector on August 22, whose unit was nominally entered into the order of battle
of the National Army, while actually retaining its independence. The C-in-C
was able to draw under his command units being (re)formed in Szombathely,
Sopron, Győr, Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Kaposvár and other places and add
them to his forces. While bolstering his military forces, he reviewed his
numerically growing Trans-Danubian forces through parades and city-wide
events. The C-in-C review took place on the main square of Szombathely on
September 21, 1919, attended by General Károly Soós (1869-1953), chief of
staff of the National Army, and Col. Antal Lehár. The review scheduled for the
following day in Kőszeg was cancelled due to weather. Horthy combined his
Szombathely review with meeting of the regions leaders (government
commissioner, county Vice-Constable, mayor, Catholic bishop). 168
By the end of October, Horthy was able to reorganize the Hungarian
National Army into an effective force made up of the units around Szeged,
Siófok and the western Trans-Danubian Szombathely. This was an adequate
force with which to enter Budapest and restore order, assume control and take
command of the Trans-Danubian sector occupied by the Romanians.
167 Koréh, op. cit., pp. 193–194. The 2 nd Szekler Brigade escaped Romanian capture
through the brave actions of Captain Kálmán Verbőczy after the collapse of the Red
Army in eastern Hungary. A smaller portion of the unit and their officers reached
Budapest by train. Verbőczy assumed command of the 4-5 battalions and artillery left
behind in the area of Kál-Kápolna. Since the Romanians ripped up the railway tracks,
the brigade began to march toward Vác and annihilated, by artillery barrage, the
Romanian forces blocking their route at Eger. They crossed the Danube on August 6
near Vác, having successfully evaded Romanian encirclement. They marched on
toward Esztergom, then Komárom, from where the brigade continued by rail. They
regrouped in Csorna on August 15. The approx. 3,500-strong Szekler unit was finally
garrisoned on August 25 in the villages of Nagycenk and Sopronnyék. In: Fogarassy,
László: Háború hadüzenet nélkül. Hadműveletek Magyarország területén a páduai
fegyverszüneti egyezménytől a soproni népszavazásig. II rész. [Undeclared war.
Military actions in Hungary from the Padua truce to the Sopron plebiscite. Part II]. In:
Soproni Szemle, 1990, issue 4, p. 295.
168 Simola, Ferenc: Horthy Miklós csapatszemléje Szombathelyen, 1919-ben [Armed
forces review in Szombathely by Miklós Horthy in 1919]. In: Vasi Szemle, 2002, issue
6, p. 831. The work fundamentally refutes the popular opinion that Horthy’s first visit
to Szombathely was on September 1, 1929 when he cut the ribbon on a new hospital in
the city, the predecessor of the current Markusovszky hospital.
73