Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1999-10-01 / 2. szám

Above:Meetingwith the Freedom Fighters. (1) Steve, (2) Sgt Comer,(3) SgtBolick,

(4) Sgt Parauka. Below; Left: Sgts Bolick, Parauka and Comer at the Stalin monument; Right: Sgt Comer assessing damge to his apartment. Bottom: In this car, wrapped with the American flag, Monsignor Turcsdnyi travelled toward Vienna. Unfortunately, he

was caught and executed.

people in the Square to be calm and restrain themselves. He was later quoted as stating, “fellow comrades,” and the crowd responded, shouting in unison, “no more comrades, no more communism!.”

In the Legation, at about 9:45 pm, I received a telephone call from an unidentified caller stating that a crowd of approximately 10,000 people had gathered in Stalin Square and had pulled down Stalin's statue from its pedestal. We heard weapons being fired about 10:00 pm. We were to learn later that these shots originated from Magyar Rádió, supposedly these were the first shots fired in the Revolution of 1956.

There was a situation report regarding Magyar Rádió which stated there had been a heavy exchange of firing between the dissidents in the street and the AVH (Hungarian Secret Police) which occupied the radio station and buildings across the street. Apparently unconcerned by the event occurring at Magyar Radio several

girls were seen embracing several Hungarian soldiers nearby on Rákóczi út and Körút. After the embrace the soldiers tore the communist emblems from their caps and threw the emblems to the street and then stomped on the emblems in a display of disgust. Also, an American legation officer observed several second-hand Buick and Pontiac automobiles, which were used by the AVH to follow foreign diplomatic cars, turned-over on their sides.

The remainder of the night was filled with sounds of “fire-fights” between the insurgents and pro-government forces in most sections of the city.

At approximately 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 24th, the “insurrection” became a full scale war, as the Soviet armored columns rolled into Budapest firing indiscriminately at people. During the day, more members of the Hungarian Army defected to the “insurgents” bringing with them weapons, ammunition, tanks, vehicles and armored cars. The government radio announced that martial law was in effect and no one was allowed on the streets from 6:00 pm until 9:00 am the following day. This edict was met with crowds gathering quickly during the day and night to attack some pro-government buildings and disperse before the Soviets responded to the attack. Budapest was paralyzed, and anything that moved drew weapons fire.

By 9:00 am, Thursday, October 25th, the fighting had subsided to the point where it was safe to move between the Legation and our apartment building. The seven blocks between the Legation and our apartment building were in shambles, tram lines were ripped-up and their electric power lines were tom down. Soviet troops, tanks, armored cars, and gun emplacements were everywhere we looked. In the Legation we had been in telephone contact with the four Marines in our apartment building, so the 26 Soviet tanks positioned on the Széchényi Rakpart was no surprise. Our apartment building was 75 meters to the right of Parliament and 200 meters left of the AVH (Secret Police) Headquarters. All three pieces of real estate fronted the Danube River.

On or about 10:00 am, two other Marines and I were standing on the balcony of our second floor apartment looking at the Soviets and their equipment when someone' dropped an ordnance charge from our apartment building roof onto the Soviet tanks and crews on the street in front of our apartment building. It sounded like a half block of TNT used in infantry training.

When the ordnance charge detonated we all responded by falling face first to the floor as the Soviets began firing their 12.7 mm machine guns at our apartment building, beginning at ground level and ending at the edge of the roof We escaped injury by this strafing but we were covered with window glass shards and plaster dust gen-