During Operation Barbarossa, what tanks and AFVs would the Kingdom of Hungary have been employing at the time?
Of the vehicles employed, which would have had access to radios? Are they fairly ubiquitous like with Germany armor, or found more sparsely/only with reconnaissance vehicles like many of the Allies?
Did Hungarian doctrine treat tanks as an infantry support weapon, similar to the French? A mobile breakthrough weapon, like the Wehrmacht? Or in some other manner?
Finally, during the initial stages of Operation Barbarossa, what color/camouflage would Hungarian vehicles have been painted in? Would the Unit/National identification markers been displayed or covered at this stage?
Thanks!
Hungary had the second strongest armored forces on the Eastern Front, and had some indigenous tank production.
Hungary initially was not part of Barbarossa, and did not invade the USSR with the Germans. However, about five days later, the USSR bombed some Hungarian towns, and so the Hungarians joined in with the Fast Corps which had earlier seen service in Yugoslavia, consisting of about three score CV33/35 tankettes purchased from Italy, a number of Csaba armored cars, and some 80 Toldi light tanks, which were basically Landsverk L60s. By November, the unit had been basically gutted and returned to Hungary.
After November, the Hungarians started re-arming, with improved Toldis, some Panzer 38(t) and Pz IVs purchased from Germany, the Turan, a domestically produced tank loosely related to the Pz 35(t), and a dual purpose tank destroyer/aa gun named Nimrod, which used a 40mm Bofors. The only other domestic program of note was the Zryni, an assault gun similar in appearance to the Semoventes.
By the end of the war, the Hungarians were pretty much dependent upon German supplies, and in addition to the earlier models also used StuG IIIs, Jagdpanzer 38(t)s, and even ten Tiger Is.
Zaloga gives the colors of 1941 as army green (about FS 34096), Ochre (FS 30266) and chocolate brown (FS 30059). The national markings would have been the baltic cross in green, white, red (inside to outside), and a license plate.
I can't help you with the doctrinal or radio questions off the top of my head, I fear.