Fraternity-Testvériség, 1975 (53. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1975-10-01 / 10-12. szám

The members of the City Council could not imagine that larger forces were able to reach the capital without a warning by their king, for the queen was still in the city. Therefore, they rejected Hadik’s first call to surrender. Hadik demanded 300,000 gold thalers as ransom. Now, he did not remain idle. After a short, but very effective artillery fire, he advanced upon the inner city, which his hussars took within a few minutes. The City Council, faced with a hopeless situation, offered the city to the graces of Hadik. As a punishment for resistance, he raised the ransom to 600,000 golden thalers. As the city could only pay part of the amount in cash, he accepted notes for the remainder. This raid, executed with admirable thoroughness and unprecedented bravery, entered the pages of history as the most outstanding Hussar stroke of the century. Hadik’s small group escaped by using the baekroads from the pursuing Prussian forces with almost no casualties.

It should be recalled that the training masters of the Prussian cavalry were also Hungarians. King Frederick William I of Prussia first observed the Hungarian Hussars at a parade held by his son-in- law, the Margrave of Ansbach-Bayreuth. Presumably under its impact, he established the first Prussian cavalry unit in 1721 at Insterburg. The units had two squadrons, and were composed of Hungarians and Romanians. In 1730 he doubled their numbers and also organized a Royal Guard Cavalry Squadron. In order to learn the Hungarian Hussar tactics, he sent Hans Joachim Ziethen, his Hussar captain and the founder of Prussian cavalry, as an observer to the Rhine campaign of 1735. Here Ziethen formed a close friendship with Lieutenant Colonel Baranyai of the Hungarian Hussars, who taught him all the tricks of Hungarian Hussar tactics. A few years later, they faced each other as enemies in the battle of Rotschloss, in 1741, and Baranyai’s horse was shot from under him. Upon his escape, Baranyai wrote Ziethen “I have educated a very good student.”

In the two Silesian Wars, the Prussian cavalry was still far behind in military usefulness as compared to the Hungarian Hussars. Frederick the Great soon discovered, however, the strategic importance of light cavalry. Therefore, in 1743 he reorganized his cavalry and revised its instructions in order to increase its mobility and to implement Hussar tactics. Simultaneously, he tried to recruit Hungarian cavalry officers through the Prussian Embassy in Vienna. On some days, the embassy reported as many as ten volunteers. The enlisted men of Ziethen's Hussars were mostly Hungarian. Thus, the Prussian cavalry, about which Frederick the Great had said after the

bloody battle of Mollwitz in the First Silesian War that it had not been worth a piece of wood, now became a worthy opponent to its erstwhile teacher.

The most outstanding cavalry unit of Frederick the Great was the First Prussian Hussar regiment. It was in this unit that Michael Kovats had fought during the Austrian War of Succession.

When writing this biography, the author did not have in his possession the regiment’s diary describing precisely, and in detail, the war actions of the regiment. A Prussian Military Almanach, published in 1806, reported about the war history of the regiment:

“In 1756, eight squadrons participated in the battle of Lowositz; in 1757, in the battle of Prague, three squadrons; at Kollin, five; and in the battle of Rossbach, the entire regiment. In this last battle, the regiment captured four cannons, and pursued the enemy to behind Erfurt. In the battle of Leuthen, five squadrons were present. In 1759, the regiment participated in the Franconian campaign, and during the same, hit the enemy victoriously almost daily. The regiment also was present in the battle of Kunersdorf. In 1760, the regiment served exceedingly well in the battle of Strehla, destroying a dragoon and hussar regiment of the enemy and capturing their remnants.

The regiment also served at Dresden and achieved much glory in the battle of Torgau.

In 1761, it had partaken, in the battle near Saalfeld and had finished the Seven Years War in the battle of Freiberg.”

Two circumstances render it almost impossible to determine the presence of Michael Kovats at a particular battle. First, the regiment’s almanach does not list the squadron(s) in which Kovats served; second, according to the Almanach, the regiment was thrown into the battle not as a unit, but frequently by its constituent units. By his extremely brave deeds in front of the enemy, however, Kovats had merited several mentions by name in the above report, despite his relatively low rank.

Therefore, we know that he was present at the first major military action of the war, the occupation of Pegau. This fortified city was captured on September 3, 1757, by an examplary attack of the First Prussian Hussar Regiment. Three officers and 103 enlisted men of the Széchényi Hussars were also taken prisoner. In his “Principles of the Art of Siege and Tactics” published by Frederick the Great in 1770, he quotes the siege as a textbook example in recommending it to the Prussian army. In this connection Kovats got into a painful dispute with cap22