[size=+1]Hungarian Military[/size]
The Reforms of Király Lajos III
When Lajos III Bourbon accepted the Crown of St. Stephen, he brought with him to his new Kingdom his training, talent, and experience in the elite circles of the French military. His first act following the coronation was to review the garrison of Budapest; and while Lajos liked the enthusiasm and natural talent of the Husjars, he was not impressed by the quality of the army. The King therefore set out, upon the formation of the Kossuth government, to overhaul the nascent Hungarian military, and to restructure and strengthen it along French military lines. The resulting policy, crafted by King Lajos III, Minister of War Ödön Beöthy, and General of the Army Artúr Görgey, would come to be known as the Bourbon Reforms.
Lajos' reforms focused on two principal areas: organization and tactics. The diverse and irregular origin of the Hungarian military in the War of Independence had caused it to develop along strange and disorganized lines; while the National Army was now a centralized force, it maintained the disorganized quality of a revolutionary army constructed from disparate militias and volunteer forces. The Bourbon Reforms sought to address this problem, by reconstituting the Army on the model of the French Imperial Army. All forces would be reorganized into units of standardized size and strength, and arranged into a strict hierarchy of command and attachment. The tenure of officers would be reevaluated, and the command structure adjusted to place the best and most qualified strategic leaders at the top. Most importantly, a permanent corps of professional non-commissioned officers would be formed, to provide the Army with a steady foundation of knowledge, experience, proficiency, and tactical leadership.
Military Education
For the purpose of improving the quality of commissioned officers, and to ensure a steady supply of leaders after the Revolutionary generation had retired, the King chartered and ordered the construction of the Royal National Defence University in Budapest. The University would provide prospective military officers with a broad-based collegiate education, followed by an intensive officer-development and military arts programme. The classical education provided to all students at RNDU Budapest includes history, geography, advanced mathematics, engineering, physical sciences, Latin, German, French, European literature, and physical fitness. The officer-development programme teaches potential commanders essential leadership skills and the ethics of command, and the military arts programme prepares cadets for command with an education in classical military history, historical strategy, historical tactical theory, modern tactical doctrine, artillery tactics, logistics, military mapping, and defensive engineering. Cadets who successfully graduate from NMDU Budapest enter the Army as commissioned Hadnagyi (Second Lieutenants).
Lajos III ordered that a similar Royal National Service Academy be established at Pecs to train the NCO corps. Unlike RNDU Budapest, the Academy would retrain veteran soliders, rather than training fresh cadets. Soldiers who had displayed exceptional skill, proficiency, and leadership qualities during their time as enlisted men would be offered promotion to the rank of Őrmester (Sergeant) and the opportunity to attend the Academy. The Academy's three-year NCO development programme combines an education in mathematics, physical sciences, engineering, military history, and languages with a military arts curriculum focusing on leadership skills, small-team leadership, historical tactical theory, modern tactical doctrine, artillery tactics, weapons proficiency, survival skills, and physical fitness. Cadets who successfuly graduate from the Academy reenter the army as professional Főtörzsőrmesteri (Staff Sergeants), responsible for training and leading small units. These educated, experienced noncommissioned officers form the backbone of the new Hungarian National Army.
Tactical Reforms
The other focus of the Bourbon Reforms is tactical doctrine. During the War of Independence, the Hungarians had been forced to rely on irregular tactics and the high-mobility doctrine of the Husjars. However, the Revolution was over, and the nation was no longer required to field an ad hoc force to resist a vastly superior enemy. Instead, Lajos III and Artúr Görgey intended to implement a new doctrine of organized, disciplined combined-arms tactics, relying on skilled heavy infantry and the effective use of artillery to defeat enemy forces.
Lajos' own time in the French Army had somewhat biased him in favour of heavy infantry and against cavalry. Experience had taught the King that cavalry were obsolete on the modern battlefield, in the face of exploding shells and repeating rifles. On the contrary, his time with the Garde Imperiale had proven, in his mind, the supremacy of a disciplined, organized, skilled force of well-armed heavy infantry. The Husjars were therefore phased out of service in favour of the Királyi-Nemzeti Gránátosok.
The Royal-National Grenadiers are the elite Hungarian heavy infantry force, modeled after the French Garde Imperiale. They are a well-organized, well-disciplined assault infantry unit, utilizing superior firepower to destroy enemy units.
Each Grenadier is hand-selected from the standing Army on the criteria of experience, strength, fitness, weapons proficiency, loyalty, bravery, and leadership. The Grenadier candidates then undergo a rigourous training program, in which they are physically and mentally hardened, taught the knowledge and skills they will need to excel on the battlefield, and trained to perfect proficiency with all the weapons of their unit. Those who successfully complete the program (approximately one quarter of all candidates selected) are granted the rank of Őrmester and inducted into the nation's elite force.
The Grenadiers are heavilly-armed, significantly outclassing other Hungarian infantry units -- and the infantry forces of some other nations -- in terms of firepower. The standard firearm of the Grenadiers is the large-caliber breech-loading, a weapon with great accuracy, stopping power, and range. While each rifle is fitted with a socket bayonet, all Grenadiers also carry large combat knives for close-in fighting. In addition to their rifles and knives, Grenadiers carry hand-thrown bombs. These bombs are thin-skinned hollow iron balls, filled with explosive and a primitive timed friction fuse. When the friction fuse ignites the filler, the bomb explodes, throwing iron shards of varying size out in all directions. Used at close range against massed enemy troops, these simple explosive devices can cause great damage and demoralization.
The new tactics of the Bourbon Reforms focus on combined-arms cooperation and concentrated firepower. All regular soliders are to be equipped as heavy infantry, with powerful breech-loading rifles. These infantrymen are to engage the enemy in disciplined but flexible combat formations, concentrating their fire and strength against the enemy where it is most needed. The infantry advance under constant support from the artillery, who are deployed to secure the most advantage and commanding position on the battlefield. Heavy artillery provides ranged supporting fire, pounding the massed enemy; lighter artillery, deployed at the front with the infantry, provides direct close fire support. Marksmen, sheltered behind the line, serve in a capacity similar to artillery; they provide ranged fire support, targeting officers to reduce the coherence of enemy units, and targeting sheltered or hidden enemy troops to dislodge them or expose them to the regular infantry. Cavalry are largely relegated to scouting the field, pursuing fleeing enemy infantry, and disrupting supply lines and artillery positions; the days of the heavy cavalry charge are over.
