INFANTRY FIELD TRAINING OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A002000340002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 31, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
This Document contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 783 and 794, of the U.i. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its ,ontents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
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COUNTRY $F7r
SUBJECT Infantry Field Training of
University Students
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DATE OF INFO.
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT NO.
REFERENCES
1953
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
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1. The First University Infentr' Battalion consisted of 500 men. It was
subdivided into four companies of 120-150 men each. KELoh company had tir* e
platoons of 1+0 men each, and each platoon had three squads of 13-34 men each,
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Infantry Field Training at Kessthely in the Sumer of 1951.
2.
3. About 70 green canvas tents were set up for the training Battalion in the park
of the castle of former Count Festetics. $ash tent held a squad, i.e. 13-14
men, although the tents were designed to hold 10 men. The Battalion cormacider
had a separate tent. Officers' tuts held two persons. Toilet facilit-es
consisted of a crude trench 20-m. long and about 2 m, deep, located about
100 m. from the tents. Neither line nor any kind of insecticide was used In
this ditch, but the men were instructed to sprinkle earth over it. The
soldiers were dirty because there were not enough bathing facilities. Otherwise,
the camp itself was kept.clean and orderly. We even had to pick up leases,
although the camp was situated among trees.
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SBCT'/RCuRITZ . Aril N
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they were under, but the contingent included cooks, guards,
transportation and sanitation units. There was also a larger
contingent fanjtnown designation 7 stationed In the castle, but moat
of'the men were out training recruits during the suer and lived
In-the castle only in the winter. The castle was a three-stoeied
building with a frontage of about 100 a. and two wings 40 x 20 a.
on the ends at right angles to the front, enclosing a courtyard.
The castle bad about 100 rooms..
our cress ware in the afttle itself, in which now 100 regular roldiers
were stationed to train the reerdite.` I ad not know -hat cc arr etMd .r
Ceepel trucks. There were no tanks.
The soldiers at Keszthely were treated roughly. The doctor would
not excuse soldiers from duty even if they sprained their axskles.
There was no music for either training purposes or pleasure.
Food was poor at the Keszthely camp. Soldiers were hungry .ll the
time. They stole broad from-the storehouse whenever they .had a
chance. Food consisted of the following: -
Regular soldiers guarded a storage building containing small crass
of all types which was located in a large one-story barn near; the
castle. There were some horses in the stables, located in a
smaller one-story building closer to the castle, about five z)r
six antitank guns up to 75 sm. caliber, and-about 20 3?-ton
a. Brealfaet : 20 decagrams of dark bread.
2-3 deciliters of black coffee or very poor soup
with noodles. On Sundays, also 10 ding. of bacon
or 10 dkg. of Jam.
b. Lunch: Soup with noodles.
Some vegetable dish-potatoes, cabbage, noodles
with sugar, farina or poppy seed.
Pone times a week some got a dish with a little
meat mixed in it.
20 dkg. of brown bread.
6.. Dinner: Coffee or soup with noodles.
20dkg. of bread.
10 dkg. of bacon or Jam.
The day we arrived we were issued the following articles of
,clothing and equipment:
a. One set of underwear, which was turned in for washin} once a
week.
Two pairs of foot wrappers, changed once a week.
a. One blouse, Russian style (gisnastorka).
? d. One cap (pilotka). No steel helmets were issued.
e. One wide leather belt.
f. One pair of rubber boots. These boots hurt the feel; of the
soldiers and the officers blamed it on sabotage. Toward the
end of the training we got new boots.
Two bed sheets.
h. One woolen blanket.
I. One rifle, Russian type, with long fluted bayonet. (This
was .the only item for which we had to sign.)
Rifle cleaning, equipment-a bar, some rags, and pie ea of wood.
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Two leather ammunition bags, each holding about 15 rounds.
1. One short infantry spade.
U.
'One, army knapsack.
One mess kit with a spoon. We got no forks or knives.
o. Sergeants and above got pistols =- M-18r models, 7.65 caliber,
which held eight: rounds of ammunition.
One new.gas mask was issued per-. whole squad. It was designed
to 'fit the face, and had a. tube with a round box at the
end,of it.' I do not recall other details.
Our daily routine.in
0500
.0510-0530
0530-o6oo
0640-0630
o645-0700
0700-1300
1500-1700
1700-1800
1806-1900
1300-1330.
1330-1500
the training camp was as? follows:
Reveille
Morning gymnastics
Cleaning the tent and washing
Breakfast
Formation and reading of daily orders
Marching to exercise field. which was located five
kilometers from the camp in hilly countryside..
No vehicles were used ors marches. During the
exercises, which were both theoretical and pract.ical.,
we were given a 10-minute rest period every hour.
Lech
Best, period. However, this was never used as such
because we often returned: from the exercise field
at-1400 hours.
Attack and defense exercises in a nearby swampy field.
Cleaning of arms
Rest period., Here again we. were never allowed to
rest. We always had something .else to do.
1900-1930 Dinner
1930-2200 Free period, often taken up with talks, and discussions.
2200 Tape.
10. We spent Saturday mornings in the camp cleaning tents.. There were
no'exercises on Sundays Some Communists got passes to tour for..
the afternoon from 1500 to 2200 hours. The rest did not get
passes,at all.
11,. Two or three times a week we had combat alarms at night. This
exercise. consisted in getting ready by squad and company in 20
minutes. The battalion had to get ready in 30 minutes in-full
equipment. On one or two occasions we marched a short,distatce
at night. Once we marched the Whole night returning'to the camp
in the morning. We got no rations
12. Ttruotion was given in Hungarian only, by Hungarian officers.
. had nothing to do with training. Instruction included
suoh'things as description and demonstration of arms, defense
and attack with rifles and bayonets, various commands, shooting.
with ppistol and rifle, protection from exploeiveee, learning to
sompute how much dynamite would be needed to blast specific
Objects, e.g. a treesa wall, etc.
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In addition, .. we had four hours weekly, on Mondays and Frids.; rs,
bf ' political indoctrination lectures. These lec urea dealt-, with
glorification of the Hungarian Army, praise of R 031,, praise=, of
Marxism, and .the soviet Army and its accomplishments in World War II ..
Each.figure was marked with several concentric circl es numbered
from 10 in the center to one on the periphery. The grades for target
shooting were: "Excellent", for a score of 27-30 Points, "Good",
for a score from 20-27 points, and "Satisfactory", for a score from
15-20 points.- Each soldier shot four rounds with the -if'le, three
rounds with the pistol, five rounds with automatic pi A' o:. , three
rounds with automatic rifle. Those who missed were given more
rounds. until, they hit the target. Every squad had. two or th1ee
"excellent" shooters. On the whole Hungarian soldiers are good shots.
15. Grenade practice consisted of throwing wooden grenades, not real ones.
'16. There were only a.few gas masks which were worn in turn by different
men. The whole practices; gas masks consisted of marching a few
The figures were inscribed "Truman" or "Tito" or "Churchill".
14. We -had .on.Iy one shooting practice on the training field,, located
about. five kilometers from the camp and about one square kilometer
in ' size . It had no mechanical devices -- only trenches five or
six. feet deep. We' shot at flat wooden figures In the form o'- men
which were . held in fixed positions by a soldier in the trench. .
yards with the mask on the face.
17. Politiea-i officers were in each unit from battalion down to
company level. The political officer in my company was Second
Lieutenant (fnu) LOVASe Each platoon and squad had one
political trustee.
18.
20 , I do not 'recall the name of the company oor nde x- ..
2 . ? Once a 'Soviet officer came to. inspect the camp. V: *id not see
his because we were sent to exercise, but we wer-u told about it
by the regular soldiers in the castle.
22. 1 recall the following Army salaries. (All political officers and
political trustees received higher salaries.)
private
private first class
d"orporal
sergeant
senior sergeant
staff sergeant
master, sergeant
warrant officer (alhadnagy
second lieutenant
first --lieutenant
captain
major
60 forints per ino, t l
75 forints per moot
90 forints per month
100 forints ne month
600 forints per month
700 forints per month
00 forints per month
1,100 . forints per month
1,?200 forints per month
10300 forir tt per Month
1,500 forints per month
1,800 forints per mo~,th
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23. Ater the end of the school year in 1952 I was ordered to spend
from 23 July to 23 August in training at a large Arm s{ p
situated in the flat, forested region at Doboz, about 10 lit? from
B kesosaba 639N-2105. About 20,000 troops were located at
this camp a . that time including a complete division (I do.not
recall the ?deaignation$, a? platoon of women students or medicine
and pharmacy, in addition to two university battalions, There 25X1
were no'barraoks or other military buildings there. All personnel
were housed in tents holding a squad each..
25. This camp. was poorly organized as far as we were concerned. The
kitchen was located one kilometer from our camp in the division's
camp. Often I did. not bother to go to get food, Sanitation as
'poor. A dysentery epidemic broke out among the soldiers. Th3
authorities blamed the epidemic on the packages of food. Which
the soldiers received from: their homes, and consequently all
t;.
ppackagee,'were collected and burned. Sick soldiers were taken
to the Szeged Military Hospital. Many were taken care of by the
field ambulance of the division, which had nurses from the Sport
Hospital attached to it. Food was better at 0 than at 25X1X11
We got meat four times a week for lunch and dinner y,
each time five decagrams). There was also a canteen in whioi we
could buy additional food. The morale of the university troops
was at best indifferent, with the exception of a small. number of convinced Communists.
26. The organization of the battalion and the daily :routine were
the same as at, the training was more Inters l,?ve , T hie
training field was located about two kilometers fvc*-n the carne
We had .no a#ghine gun practice shooting. Our target, shooting
practice consisted of shooting from a prone position at a, moving
target Wh40h .,was Qther*ise `like the targets used at 1 -1 25X1 X
We.had only one 'shooting practice with the following arms.
4 rounds, for rifle
3 rounds for pistol
rounds for automatic pistol
3 rounds for automatic rifle.
.27. On one oooasi.on our battalion had a two-day 'march 50 km., jr1.ra
full equipment. I did not participate The 25X1
battalion was followed by a field kito r do not
know of special rations for soldiers.
25X1X,28. Q we attended lectures on such subjects as infi.ltratioti,
crawling under barbed wipe, how to avoid mines, and wira-sapp'.,ng
methods which made way for the infantry through wire obstacleti and
.mine fields.
29. Soviet officers and advisers visited this camp twice during m stay
there, but there were no Soviet officers stationed at the camp. All
training and oQmmands were given in the Hungarian language.
25X1 X 30 ? there I saw from a distangp of about, .~0 m.
ve or six Soviet tanks of the T-50 and T-34 types at the camp.
us and covered with canvas.
antitank guns and armored ears.
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