The Battle of the Corvin Passage

The Battle of the Corvin Passage
Part of Hungarian Revolution of 1956

A woman holding an old belt action M91/30 rifle and the massive ISU-152s knocked out by her group, this blonde girl appears in several photos of the Corvin Passage fighters. She used to wear a dark civilian overcoat possibly with a red-white-green ribbon on the left lapel (Hungarian State Security Archives ÁBTL 4.1, album A-2377/195)[1]
Date24 October – 9 November 1956
LocationBudapest, Hungary
Result Hungarian Victory (October 24)
Soviet Victory (November 9)
Belligerents
Hungarian Revolutionaries  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders

László Iván Kovács (October 24 – November 1)

Gergely Pongrátz (November 1–9)[2][3]		 Gennady Ivanovich Obaturov
Strength
1,400-4,000 men[4] 40 guns 75,000-200,000 troops. 1,600-4,000 tanks[5]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown est. 12 tanks

The Battle of the Corvin Passage (Hungarian: Corvin közi csata) was a battle of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The battle is known for starting the career of Gergely Pongrátz , founder of Jobbik.

Prelude

Due to a lack of jobs, declining quality of life, and the failure of the Hungarian economy, an uprising occurred on October 24, 1956. The Corvin Passage was immediately recognized by the rebels as a strategic location due to its importance as a traffic junction, and its great symbolic value (mainly from its location near the Kilian barracks and the Radio of Budapest). The Passage provided a good defense point, with narrow streets that limited the movement of larger vehicles, such as tanks and trucks.[6]

Early Battle

On the third floor of the circular structure in this picture is where the cinema where László set up his command is located

László Iván Kovács is said to have first fought at the Corvin Passage in October during the early stages of the Hungarian Revolution (1956). He first began demonstrating outside of a radio station and later that day used a gun on Üllői Avenue to fight against Soviet tanks. On October 26, he joined other armed revolutionaries in Corvin where he eventually became the leader of a unit of 1,000. It was here that he set up his base in Corvin's resident cinema where his successor, Gergely, also set up command.

The soldiers at Corvin had already resisted a Soviet offensive on October 24 and the Soviets were later defeated, suffering heavy casualties. The strategy then was to gather intelligence and attack with a renewed offensive on October 28. To battle this offensive, the Soviets appointed the leader of the 33rd Mechanized Infantry Division, Gennady Ivanovich Obaturov. Heavy artillery support, poor intelligence and insufficient planning resulted in the failure of the offensive. On October 29, László negotiated a cease fire resulting in a Soviet withdrawal from October 29 to October 31.[7] Despite his successes as a commander, after November 1 László was deposed for unknown reasons and replaced with Gergely.[6]

Under Gergely Pongrátz

Nicknamed 'Bajusz' for his 'Twirly' mustache, Gergely Pongrátz fought in less harmonious circumstances than his predecessor.[2] Though he commanded 4,000 militia compared to László's 1,000 militia, he still had to contend with a second Soviet intervention which had turned back toward the city after it had withdrawn and attacked on November 5. His soldiers fought from the windows of buildings, destroying Soviet tanks with makeshift Molotovs. With these tactics, Gergely gained a degree of success destroying a reported 12 tanks. However, under heavy Soviet artillery and mortar fire, the defense of the passage became steadily more difficult, and with the desertion of 300 troops on November 6, defensive capabilities were damaged and made fighting against the Soviets solely guerrilla. Then on November 9, Gergely's forces were defeated and he fled to Austria, ending the battle.[8]

References

  1. ↑ The Hungarian Revolution 1956 - Erwin A. Schmidl, László Ritter - Google Books. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  2. 1 2 "Gergely Pongrátz - Obituaries - News". The Independent. 2005-05-28. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  3. ↑ Though these were the main leaders of the Battle, other's from nearby streets frequently collaborated with the two commanders
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Sources vary widely on numbers of Soviet forces involved in the intervention. The UN General Assembly Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary (1957) estimated 75,000-200,000 troops and 1,600-4,000 tanks (p. 56, para. 183), but recently released Soviet archives (available in Lib.ru, Maksim Moshkow's Library) list the troop strength of the Soviet forces as 31,550, with 1,130 tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces. (Russian)
  6. 1 2 http://www.allworldwars.com/Revolutionary-Forces-of-the-Hungarian-Revolution-1956-by-Zoltan-Virag.html Figure 1.The Corvin Passage
  7. ↑ Békés, C.; Byrne, M.; Rainer, J. (2002). The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents. Central European University Press. ISBN 9789639241664. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
  8. ↑ It is disputed whether or not Gergely was one of the 300 who fled to Austria.
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