THE OJTOZI-DEFILE

2008.01.07. 16:07
Former lieutenant Ferenc Kovcs was the deputy commander of the 24/1. Fort
Company. Now he lives in Cleveland, in the United States. He sent me his
memoirs by letter in November 2000.
I got to the fort company at around the end of 1943. By that time the
construction of the valley block had been finished and partly equipped. The socalled not concrete positions, the stores of material, the stables and the posts
of the Szkely Frontier Guard Battalions were being finished on the wings.
Many Walach (Roumanian) forced labourers were employed. In my opinion, it
was a serious mistake to employ them: it was an unreliable gang.
These posts were neither ever completely finished nor completely occupied by
our troops. The trenches, the light- and heavy machine-gun emplacements etc.
were reliable but they were not prepared for bad or winter weather and this fact
could have caused problems. Later the Russians could even have approached
the fort company on bicycles. They did come later, albeit not on bicycles. Those
brave Szkely frontier guards held on grimly while they could. The massed fire
of their rifles and heavy and light machine guns could easily be heard,
especially at dawn. The Russians did not attack there at night.
The supply of ammunition and other material for the Szkely frontier guards
was not too well organised. When they were on the verge of running out of
ammunition, they retreated. Many of them went home into the neighbouring
villages where they lived. The others joined the fort company with their rifles
and with some ammunition. The Fortification Construction Headquarters were
at Gheorgheni, and our supervisor headquarters were based at Miercurea Ciuc.
Having got wounded, I was taken to the hospital of Miercurea Ciuc. After the
first medical examinations I was lying in the room of the janitor. There I was
visited by Engineer Lieutenant Colonel Vitz rchegyi, who was responsible
for the construction of the fortresses. He wanted to get to know what the
resistance ability of the forts was like.103 Somebody had accused them, saying
that the fortification elements had no real resistance against armoured shells. I
let him know that the forts were very hard, their resistance ability was 100%.
The fort element supplied by loophole under my command was hit twice by a
Russian armour-piercing gun, but it didnt harm the shelter. It made a loud
noise, but nothing else; the shell did the fort no harm.
As I already mentioned, I had been transferred from the staff of the 24 th
Battalion of the Hungarian Royal Army to the fort company in Ojtoz as
deputy commander. There was such a post at the fort companies too. I was the
training officer of the fort company. The task of the company commander was

to deal with everything regarding the fort company or the fortification system
apart from the training of the soldiers: filling the units, ammunition, food,
organisation of the supply, etc.
At the time of the mobilisation, I took over command of the so-called machine
platoon. Sergeant Molnr, selected for promotion, who was an electrical
engineer, directed the professional electrical service. The use of the electric
lock was never ordered because of safety reasons. (The moving of our own
forces.) Furthermore, the armour piercing gun platoon and the heavy gun
platoon belonged to me too. I was responsible for about 100 people. The sector
of my platoon included almost the half of the valley block.
The commander of the company was Senior Lieutenant Sndor Megyeri
(Milkovics, of Slovakian origin). He was a taciturn man, very good at paper
work. His spirit was not particularly combative. As far as I know, he was
commander of paramilitary youth organisation groups some time in the 20s.
He may have been over thirty. The second platoon commander was Ensign
Jnos Vc, from Budapest. He was a good, clever, brave soldier, full of
endeavour. He held on in Ojtoz and also after the fights of Ojtoz. Ensign
Virgh, Commander of the 3rd Platoon was a brave man. After the fights in
Ojtoz, he got into Hromszk, and he was killed in action in the fights over
there. The commander of the company, Senior Lieutenant Megyeri, was
wounded there too. Apparently he was hit in the stomach and was taken to a
hospital in Vienna. The commander of the 4th Platoon commander, Ensign
Polgr, was also killed in action defending his country after the battles of Ojtoz.
He was a good soldier.
Ensign Kovcs was the commander of the trench mortar platoon. We did not
use him too much in the fort company. He was an older man of about 40-45
years. The commander of the reserve platoon, Ensign Sos, was also an older
man, but he was a stout, brave soldier.
I was responsible for the training of the company - shooting, the use of had
grenades in woods, fort combats, close combat, trench combat, forest combat,
etc. The composition of the rank and file was very mixed. The majority of them
were from Transylvania, but there were lads from Budapest, Transdanubia, and
even from the Upper Hungarian highlands. Only the trumpeter of the company
was Roumanian. He was quite stupid but a good soldier - he shot his own
people very diligently, I even praised him for it.
We had some platoon-size reconnaissance in the late summer and autumn of
1943 and in the spring of 1944. I was the commander of one of them. The
Germans did not like it, they defended their Roumanian ally and tried to behave
unpleasantly.
In my opinion the supply system was weak. We should have got food,
ammunition, medicine and bandages from Targu Secuiesc or else from Bretcu.
The Ojtoz stream gave water, but this water became dirty and putrid by the
fourth day of the fight.

After a few days of unsuccessful siege, the Russians set fire to the Ojtoz-defile
with flame-grenades. We also got strong artillery fire with many hits but it was
not dangerous at all, the shelters withstood it well. The flame grenades set the
pine-trees on fire but the trees in leaf did not catch fire. The fallen leaves were
wet and the grass fresh and very green, so they did not catch fire either. Apart,
therefore, from the unpleasant steam covering the valley there was not too much
effect from the flame grenades.
The first attack of the enemy took place on 24th August, on the day of the
Roumanian defection. A smaller Roumanian troop about 30-40 men came
up to the first fort elements, covered by blankets, with submachine guns around
their necks, without reconnaissance. They surrendered after a short fight. We
led our first war prisoners to the frontier guard battalion, to Bereck.
A few hours later a larger Roumanian unit appeared under the command of a
Roumanian lieutenant colonel on horseback. I dont think he knew that he was
riding in the middle of a valley block. Not much later the march in of the
lieutenant colonel was followed by a Roumanian mechanised troop in German
amphibian cars, equipped with German lightning machine-guns. After a short
skirmish, they also surrendered and followed their compatriots to Bereck. That
was the last Roumanian attempt.
The Russians began their attack with very large forces from the south,
Ssmez, on the second or third day after the Roumanian defection. The
commander of the officers post,104 Senior Lieutenant Gyrgy (he was a very
good friend of mine) held on heroically together with his 30-40 people and
with one exception they all died in action. The Ss platoon commander was
the only one who could get back to the fort company. This officers post was
the outpost of the fort company.
We had two other outpost groups with machine-guns and light machine-guns
in the foreground of the fort company, between Ssmez and Ojtoz. They
already belonged to my platoon. They marched fighting, covering each other
into the fortress as we had practised not long before. They suffered heavy
losses, almost half of the two advance guards were killed in action.
The Russians attacked on the eastern side of the Ojtoz stream in a northerly
direction. They advanced to the foot of the mountains in the forest and used
many mine throwers and submachine-guns. They responded to the fire of the
fort with trench mortar fire. They shot very accurately but they could not cause
damage to the fort. Our first wounded soldier was Corporal Ills, the heavy rifle
squad commander. He got a snipers bullet right in his throat.
The defence system of the fort company was successful. The loss of the company
was minimal in the fights inside the fort. We used a large number of hand
grenades (of the Vcsey-type). It seems that they were the most effective weapon
in the fort fights. Luckily, we had enough of them.
There were several individual acts of valour. Corporal Istvn Csszr, machinegun commander of one of the fortress elements, cleared up the situation by hand

grenades and spade, and repulsed the Russian assault four times. Corporal
Bartha, light machine-gun commander, repelled the assault in close combat on
several occasions. The Russian group attacking my machine-gun post also had
a taste of the battle with hand grenades and spades.
In spite of the assaults by day and night, the Russians could not capture the
24/1. Fort Company. They kept the valley block under continuous mortar fire
and artillery fire. This fire came from the flanks, where the Szkely frontier
guards had been repulsed. The defence of the flanks was weak. It was not the
fault of the frontier guards defending there. They could do nothing without
supplies. There were not enough people or ammunition. So the fort company
was surrounded from three sides, the way was open only northward, towards
Bereck. However, at that time there were also battles in Bereck.
I got the order to retreat from Senior Lieutenant Megyeri, the company
commander, by telephone on the fourth day of the fighting. We had to retreat
northward, across the Magyaros-tet towards Bereck. It was night time, around
1 or 2 am. Only the burning forest gave light in the darkness. Russians were
strolling on the road and in the yards of the houses, they were plundering the
barracks. I saw several Russians in the helmets of the armoured units, but
without tanks.
We cut our way through, fighting often. In most cases the Russians did not
know, who we were. We had to take great care of our rearguard, which had
started its retreat after us. I got wounded by a round from a submachine gun on
the eastern side of the fort company, in the valley of the Tlgyes stream. A
Russian soldier was shooting from a tree but I shot him in the next moment.
Two others of my people got also wounded from that Russian round.
We got to the Magyars-peak where those parts of the company which had
already withdrawn were assembling. 1 was on horseback, supported from two
sides. There were many German military policemen there. I do not know where
they came from. Up to then I had not seen even one German soldier, with the
exception of those who were pouring back after the Roumanian defection. A
Captain of the military police had a look at me and said coldly: Herr Leutnant,
Sie sind kaputt. Soon after I fainted and only regained consciousness in the
church of Bereck which had been set up as a hospital. This was the end of the
battles in Ojtoz for me.
After I had been wounded the hospitals were as follows: sanitary stations:
Bereck, first aid station, Orbn sanitary ensign; Torja, public hospital, then
military hospital, Klmn Szke medical captain; Cskszereda, military hospital.
I woke up between two dead men; Szkelyudvarhely, X/1 field hospital, my
former grammar school, where I had graduated as commander: Captain Mikls
Pal, surgeon. My wrist never recovered properly. I travelled with the field
hospital across Parajd, Szovta, Szeretfalva to Zalaegerszeg, to the military
hospital.

I met people from the 24th Frontier Guard Battalion and the 9 th Mountain
Fighter Brigade at Szeretfalva. I was informed about the fate of the fort
company after Ojtoz by them. I noted the details later, at Andrshida, in the
neighbourhood of Zalaegerszeg. That was the assembling spot of the 9th
Mountain Fighter Brigade, of the 67th Combat Group, the 24th Battalion and of
the 24/1 Fort Regiment. There I got to know about the hard battles with their
heavy losses. My fort company and the 24th Battalion launched a counterattack together with the 4th German Armoured Combat Group.105 They
planned to recapture the Ojtoz valley block. The fort company totally crumbled
in those fights. Many soldiers were also killed in action from the 24 th Battalion.
There were heavy losses among officers. However, the losses of the Germans
and the Russians were also very large. Just there it happened that the
commander of the fort company, Captain Megyeri got a bullet in his stomach.
In my opinion that was the reason for the fort companys heavy losses in the
battles of Targu Secuiesc, Lunga, Cernatul de Jos si de Sus, and in the zone of
Bretcu - they were not prepared for offensive operations. In spite of this, they
fought very well. The combat spirit, successfully drilled into them, bore fruit
there too. The Russians had very heavy losses, they had not reckoned with such
stoic resistance. The 9th Mountain Fighter Brigade fought, deserving all praise,
at Idecs. The commander of the 24th Battalion was Captain Tibor Schmindt
there. He fell in action defending his country at Idecsfalva.
The wounded soldiers of Ojtoz were carried to the sanitary station set up in the
Catholic church of Bereck. I was there too. The deceased were buried in the
church yard of Ojtoz, and in its immediate vicinity.
Out of the report of Lieutenant Kovcs we may feel that the valley blocks of
Szkelyfld were never completed. Many temporary, hastily made elements had
to be applied as the front approached, but the largest shortfall was in the number
and the equipment of the defenders. The military leadership had never reckoned
with the possibility that the Roumanian Army would have launched such an
offensive there - not alone but together with the Red Army. In spite of the
undermanned forces for the planned continuous counter-attacks and for the
protection of the wings, the defenders of the defile fulfilled their task because
they began their pullback only after having taken orders, when the evacuation of
the whole of Szkelyfld began.

103 Each shelter serving as refuge for a squad or half a squad got a serial
number in the valley block. According to military jargon of those days this
shelter together with the firing emplacement belonging to it was named a fort.
They were numbered with Roman numbers painted on wooden boards over the

entrance. That is why the shelter was named fortress by the writers of the
memoirs.
104 There were also frontier guard marauding companies in the staff of the
frontier guard battalions. They guarded the frontier in peacetime. There were
posts, officers posts and small posts, which belonged to the marauding
companies in respect of the importance and extension of the guarded frontier
section. In the case of enemy attacks the marauding companies were usually the
advance guard.
105 I.e. with the Fourth German Mountain Jaeger Division. By the way, its
units were thrown into battle one after the other, as they were unpacking on the
railway stations.