Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany during World War Two and supplied men to fight alongside German troops against the Allies. However, there was a resistance movement in Hungary that received a great boost when the Russians started to have military victories against the Germans on the Eastern Front. This movement, supported by Prime Minister Miklos Kallay, established contact with Britain in early 1943. He was anti-communism and in September 1943, he signed a secret agreement that stated that Hungarian forces at the end of the war would surrender to the Allies and not to the Red Army of Russia.
In August 1943, the Special Operations Executive made its first proper contact with the Hungarian partisans in an effort to co-ordinate what they planned to do. The Hungarian Nazi ‘Arrow Cross’ movement informed Berlin of suspected partisan activity and Hitler ordered the occupation of Hungary which was carried out in March 1944.
This sparked off a series of resistance attacks – especially against ‘Arrow Cross’ members. German communication lines were also targeted. The end result of this was that the Germans had to keep units in Hungary that could have been better deployed elsewhere on the Eastern Front.
