This oversized book, The Royal Hungarian Army 1920-1945, cover the history of the Hungarian military (ie not only the army, but also the air force and river forces) for the end of the First World War (or rather from the signing of the Treaty of Trianon) until the defeat of the Third Reich and her allies.

The book begins with a very good introduction to the history of Hungary until 1920, this is something that will prove very useful for all those who (like me) know far to little of this aspect of European history.
This introduction is followed by Part I of the book that deals with the time period 1920 - 1941 (when Hungary entered the war).

An in-depth look at the organisation of the military follows with info on for example general staff, conscription and mobilization plans. The next chapters covers the organisation of the ground forces, air force and river forces.

Part II of the book covers the events of 1941 - 1945.
This part begins with the Hungarian part of the invasion of Yugoslavia before moving to the invasion of USSR. The rest of the campaign in USSR as well as the Hungarian occupation forces are covered in the following chapters, all of these events are covered in great detail. Next the organization and combat history of the air force and river forces are covered, though not in the detail of the previous chapters. The last chapter of this part deals with the Hungarian Waffen-SS units, such as SS-Regiment Ney, 25 & 26 divisions and the XVII. Waffen-Armee-Korps der SS.

The last part of the the book lists the commanders and order of battle of all Hungarian units (brigades and above) as well as the general staff.

It includes lots and lots of maps, tables organisational info and orders of battle, but not a single photo. The main focus of this book in on the ground forces and I would have liked a little more details on the air force, in particular the order of battle.
My only real complaint is that equipment and uniforms are not covered but apart from that, this is an excellent reference work on the Hungarian Army.

(Reviewed by Marcus Wendel)