This week in the War, 13–19 March 1944: Germany invades Hungary

This week in the war, on 18 March 1944, Admiral Miklos Hórthy, Regent of Hungary, was summoned to the Fuehrer’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia, and was promptly arrested.

The following day, German troops crossed the frontier into Hungary in an operation named Margarete 1. Hitler wanted to ensure that his Hungarian allies did not break away from the ‘Tripartite Pact,’ which was part of the Germany-Italy-Japan Axis alliance. He also wanted take over the country’s resources, particularly the Hungarian oilfields.

Hórthy had started his career as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian navy and, with the dethroning of the Habsburgs and with the king, Charles IV, in exile, Hórthy became regent and head of state. He was largely responsible for sending Hungarian forces to join the Wehrmacht in invading Yugoslavia and also Russia, in Operation Barbarossa. Despite his siding with Hitler, Hórthy was firm in his opposition to the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the death camps in eastern Poland.