Baptism of Fire

I do like an obscure conflict, and they don't come more obscure than this border scrap between Slovakia and Hungary over Sub-Carpathia in 1939. Casaba B Stenge has written a history of the modest-sized air war for Helion Books. This was a birthday present from my daughter, following a not-too-subtle hint, and much rolling of the eyes!

Both Hungary and Slovakia had very inexperienced and newly formed air forces. Slovakia was a new puppet state created by Hitler out of the former Czechoslovakia, and Hungary was much depleted after World War I. Hungarian pilots were a bit more experienced, although the Slovak Air Force had inherited some better Czech aircraft.

The author has combed the archives for an impressive amount of detail on the handful of air actions fought during the conflict. A few air combat actions and ground-attack sorties had a limited impact on the ground war. The biggest action was the Hungarian air raid on the Slovak airfield at Spisska Nova Ves. As you would expect in this series, it is profusely illustrated and has lovely colour plates of the main aircraft types. The Hungarians used the Fiat CR. 32s as their main fighter, and the Junkers Ju 86 for bombing operations. Heinkel He 70 and He 46s for reconnaissance. The Slovaks had the Avia B-534 fighter and Letov S-328 reconnaissance aircraft.

The Slovaks did not inherit a fair share of the Czechoslovak Air Force, as Hitler stole over 1,000 combat aircraft. They had only 82 combat-ready aircraft in 1939. They had even fewer pilots as the Czechoslovak Air Force had a disproportionately small number of ethic Slovaks. They had virtually no leaders. They managed a few ground-attack successes, but hadn't much of a clue when it came to dog-fighting. As a consequence, they suffered heavy casualties.

The Hungarians had developed a secret air force before they broke away from the post-WW1 constraints. Their reconnaissance units performed well, and the bombers carried out the war's only successful operation. Despite the CR. 32 being inferior to the Avia, they more than held their own, due to superior flying skills.

The conflict was short-lived and ultimately pointless. It did provide a vital Polish-Hungarian border, through which some 60,000 Polish soldiers escaped to the West in 1939. The Hungarian Air Force paid a price for this in the form of limited deliveries of German aircraft. Hitler was not happy. The Soviet Union took a slice of the contested region at the end of WW2. The Hungarian aggression poisoned relations between what would become allies on the Eastern Front. There is even a suggestion that a Slovak pilot might have deliberately shot at a Hungarian aeroplane in Ukraine during 1941.

The air action was very limited, and it takes a lot of detail to make a book out of this. However, it includes some interesting early war aircraft types, which is always a plus for me.