Hungary 1849: The Summer Campaign

From Musket To Maxim 1815-1914

by Wilhelm Ramming

The Hungarian War of Independence was one of the largest European conflicts of the 19th century, lasting a year, encompassing a dozen major battles and many smaller actions and sieges, with half a million men under arms by its end. Yet it remains strangely obscure and overlooked by the Anglophone world, perhaps because of the inaccessibility of Hungarian-language sources for most English readers, combined with the limited number of German-language sources due to Austria’s embarrassment about the whole episode.

This book is the second of two volumes which together provide a complete history of this neglected war. The first, Hungary 1848: The Winter Campaign , covered the initial period of the war in which the Austrian army was defeated and expelled from Hungary, obliging the Kaiser to seek help from the Tsar. The present volume covers the decisive second half of the war. Brilliant Hungarian maneuvers and gallant defense defied and delayed the Austrian and Russian armies invading from all points of the compass and even won some notable victories. Despite the victories, the inexorable arithmetic of allied numerical superiority led ultimately to Hungary’s defeat.

This work is a translation of the Austrian official history of the Summer Campaign. It therefore provides a detailed and authoritative account of this dramatic campaign, replete with fascinating episodes and invaluable factual data, in English for the first time ever. It is comprehensive in scope, addressing the secondary theaters in Transylvania and southern Hungary as well as the main western and northern fronts. It includes extensive information about orders of battle, precious nuggets about uniforms and weaponry, actual dispatches reproduced verbatim, and accounts of myriad actions from tiny skirmishes up to major battles such as Pered, Komorn and Temesvár. Over 20 campaign and battle maps enable clear understanding of this war’s dynamic and complex operations. The translation of the original text is complemented by extensive scholarly annotation providing both critical analysis and additional data or contextual information. No other work in English approaches this level of detail.

556 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2023

Reviews

[Colin Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was well impressed with the first volume of this series that focussed on the winter campaign of 1848-49, so had high hopes for ‘Hungary1849, ‘the Summer Campaign’. I am not disappointed. The official Austrian history of the war takes us towards the fierce battles of 1849 and the subsequent failure of the uprising. Chris Pringle has again done a superb job in editing the translation of the original German text leaving us with a level of detail unsurpassed in anything previously published in English on what was one of the largest insurrections of 1848 that swept through Europe at that time.

The book is big in detail and in physical size, at 554 pages. It covers the decisive second half of the war, where the Kaiser, defeated in 1848, called for assistance from the Russian Czar. Assailed from all sides, fighting some brilliant delaying actions and even winning some victories, we are treated to a piece by piece account of the destruction of the insurrection. It seems that every action, great or small, between the Hungarian forces and those of the Kaiser and the Czar is covered, often in great detail. I won’t begin to list the various chapter headings and sub-headings; take it from me this is a most comprehensive and fascinating step by step account of the war across all theatres of operations.

There are sections on the armies involved, and there are numerous detailed orders of battle throughout the book, together with several maps which will be of great interest to the casual reader as much as the historian or wargamer. There is much to recommend this book; a sympathetic translation, forensically researched and presented, and a cracking read to boot! If the nineteenth century and the years of revolution are your thing then this is the book for you.



ISBN 978-1-915113-80-1 554 pages

[Colin Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was well impressed with the first volume of this series that focussed on the winter campaign of 1848-49, so had high hopes for ‘Hungary 1849, ‘the Summer Campaign’. I am not disappointed. The official Austrian history of the war takes us towards the fierce battles of 1849 and the subsequent failure of the uprising. Chris Pringle has again done a superb job in editing the translation of the original German text leaving us with a level of detail unsurpassed in anything previously published in English on what was one of the largest insurrections of 1848 that swept through Europe at that time.

The book is big in detail and in physical size, at 554 pages. It covers the decisive second half of the war, where the Kaiser, defeated in 1848, called for assistance from the Russian Czar. Assailed from all sides, fighting some brilliant delaying actions and even winning some victories, we are treated to a piece by piece account of the destruction of the insurrection. It seems that every action, great or small, between the Hungarian forces and those of the Kaiser and the Czar is covered, often in great detail. I won’t begin to list the various chapter headings and sub-headings; take it from me this is a most comprehensive and fascinating step by step account of the war across all theatres of operations.

There are sections on the armies involved, and there are numerous detailed orders of battle throughout the book, together with several maps which will be of great interest to the casual reader as much as the historian or wargamer. There is much to recommend this book; a sympathetic translation, forensically researched and presented, and a cracking read to boot! If the nineteenth century and the years of revolution are your thing then this is the book for you.