I know that they had unusual names for certain regions sometimes, and I know that during the time of the Italian Social Republic, some northern parts were designated "Operationszone"
I need to create a " Operationszone Balkan" for a game that I am working on (is there an s there by the way?) And this zone would be Hungary and Romania.
What would be the most historically accurate thing for that to be called within the alternative history setting that I am making my game it?
To answer your initial question, no, there wasn't a collective term for Romania and Hungary. The term "Operational Zone" (Operationszone) only applied to two areas in northern Italy and present-day Slovenia (Operational Zone Adriatic Coast and Operational Zone Alpine Foothills) that were annexed into the Reich after the Italian capitulation in September 1943. It should be noted that despite the name, the two "Operational Zones" were civilian administrative areas, not military ones. The remaining Italian territory (that hadn't been captured by the Allied forces yet) was governed by the Italian Social Republic.
These two areas were the only time that the term "Operational Zone" was used for an administrative division of the Reich, so it would be ahistorical to refer to Hungary or Romania by that term at all, much less to refer to them collectively, since Romania and Hungary were separate, nominally-independent countries throughout the war. German troops were active in both countries, and Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, but it was never incorporated into the Reich's civilian administration like the "Operational Zones" in Italy were, and the Wehrmacht did not establish a separate military administration in Hungary (although there was an SS administration responsible for the deportation of the Hungarian Jews, which, somewhat confusingly, used the term "Operationszone" for the former Hungarian gendarmerie divisions).
It's also worth noting that neither Hungary nor Romania is considered part of the Balkan peninsula, so referring to them as "Balkan" would be inaccurate in any case. The only historically-accurate terms for the two countries during WWII would be Hungary/Ungarn and Romania/Rumänien.
Source:
Michael Wedekind, Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspolitik in Norditalien 1943 bis 1945. Die Operationszonen „Alpenvorland“ und „Adriatisches Küstenland“ (Oldenbourg, 2003)
For more clarification on the status of Hungary and Romania, see:
Mark Axworthy, Cornel Scafes, and Cristian Craciunoiu, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941-1945 (Arms & Armour, 1995)
Randolph Braham, The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary (Columbia UP, 1981)
Dennis Deletant, Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime (Macmillan, 2006)
