Other Magyar Photos
Hello,
The book I have was published more than 10 years ago when the print quality was very poor compaired to today. It does have excellent line drawings however of many of the AFV's although not the trucks.
About 2 or more years ago approximately three Pro Modell Achiv Specials came out with very good pictures of Hungarian tanks and trucks.
When I showed them to my step father in law who was a Hungarian Russian Front survivor, he got wildly excited, for two reasons.
Firstly, he had been orphaned in 1938, and like all Hungarian orphans he was sent to Military College. Just after he graduated as an officer he was assigned to test drive the first Botond trucks as part of the acceptance trials. Apparently he and two friends were told to drive some immense mileage around Hungary. As none of them had been allowed so much freedom, and they had not previously travelled much, they had a fantastic time driving around a route to take in as many relatives etc. as possible, in order to get the best beds and food.
The second point was that many of the photos were taken by a fellow officer who was a photography buff. He had an unauthorised camera. After the war being officers they were both suspect for some years, and could not get proper employment. My father in law by luck and on the basis of his prowess at football, ended up running a section of the Ganz organisation, and one day needing a photographer to photograph new railway engines, placed an advert in the paper.
His old friend turned up, and was employed on the spot. They remained friends until very recently.
Regards
Nick Balmer
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