The Hungarian Royal Police – Part Four: the 39M Csaba armoured car

While I’m still waiting for the miniatures for my Hungarian Royal Police (Magyar Királyi Rendőrség) project I have decided to introduce one of the vehicles that the HRP had for armoured support. As it is stated in the third post, the project is about to build some 15mm or in other word 1/100 units for the rule system Flames of War. The plan is to have both infantry, HMG stands and different armoured vehicles. The first vehicle is going to be the 39M Csaba armoured car.

The 39M armoured car

The Hungarian engineer Miklós Straussler desinged two different types of armoured cars in the 1930s (the AC1 and AC2) in the Weiss Manfred factory (Csepel, Budapest) for the British, cooperating with the Alvis factory in the UK. In 1937 he even moved to Great Britain, where Straussler designed the type AC3, whose chassis was still produced in Hungary, but the armour and weapons were built together in Coventry.

In 1938 the Weiss Manfred factory started to produce a home built armoured car on the chassis of the AC2. It was tested in 1939, when the Hungarian Royal Army ordered 53 of the type, already called the 39M Csaba.

The factory price of a Csaba was 112.000 Pengő (Hungarian currency at that time), which was around 33.000 USD, while the Army paid 93.000 Pengő for each of them (27.000 USD). It was normal that the factory price and the amount of money paid by the Government was different. Usually the final cost was a compromise between the two prices. Just for comparison, a Sherman AFV had a price of 44.000 – 64.000 USD in 1945.

The 39M was equipped with a Danuvia 36M 20mm (Solothurn) anti-tank rifle and a Gebauer 34/37M 8mm MG, both fitted in the turret. In the rear hatch there was a detachable (could be used by the crew on foot too) 8mm Solothurn LMG in anti-aircraft role. It had two driver’s seats in both end of the hull, and was operated by a 4 men crew. The structure was made of 13mm thick armour in the front, 9mm on the sides and back, and 7mm on the top and bottom.

The interior of the 39M [Fortepan/Ludovika]

In 1940 a command version was designed and called the 40M Csaba, armed only with the turret mounted Gebauer 34/37M 8mm MG. This type had double radios (R-4T) and a large lattice radio mast.

The 40M command version [virtualiskiiallitas.kozlekedesimuzeum.hu]

The Army ordered additional 50 pieces in 1941, then in January 1943 another 70 Csabas. Besides the 30 40M variant 18 turrets were given for the Duna flotilla to use them on their ships.

Yugoslavia 1941, a 39M damaged by a mine [Fortepan/Klenner Aladár]

The Csaba fought in the following campaigns:
1941. Yugoslavia: Mobile Corps (1. and 2. motorised brigades, 1. and 2. cavalry brigades)
1941. Eastern front: 2. motorised brigade, 1. and 2. cavalry brigade
1944. Eastern front: 2. armoured division, 1. cavalry division
1944. Hungary: the units above, plus 9 infantry divisions (each had a platoon of Csabas)

Besides the Army both the Gendarmerie and the Police obtained Csabas, without any armament. The Police got 2 (other sources say that 5), armed only with an 8mm MG, and had a search light, both in the turret. The HRP’s version was painted dark blue and had only licence plates as identifications.

The two 39Ms of the HRP [virtualiskiiallitas.kozlekedesimuzeum.hu]

The model and unit card

The model I modified and painted is a Butlers Printed Models, 15mm 39M Csaba. It is a nice, solid miniature with great details and a fairly cheap price. To make it look like the HRP’s version I cut down the main gun and painted its place with black (trying to form a rectangular shape). I could not find a suitable search light for it, plus has no good quality picture about it, so I just passed the question away (try to convince myself that in this scale it is not a huge lack). I painted the whole model with Revell Aqua Color 56 Matt Blue and washed the details with black (I painted this some years ago, today I would do it in a different way, e.g. painting license plate, but I still like the result).

The Csabas arriving to the outskirts of Budapest to defend the Fóti út (road to Fót) with German and Hungarian troops

As I want to use them in the latest, V4 version of Flames of War, I have to prepare a unit card for them. I only deal with the front side, the point value would be around 2 point for one Csaba.

The unit card, sorry for the bad resolution

The basis of the unit is from the Stalin’s Europe army book. There are two possible infantry types that you can choose: the first one is the non-professional types (university students, Arrow Cross Party members etc.) with a motivation of Fearless and an experience, skill of Conscript. The other one is the regular military units, plus for some reason the Police and Gendarmerie, who are Confident and Trained in the game. I understand that you cannot make a stat for every small units, so this is a compromise. But still, seeing the real combat experiences and results of the HRP I decided to make their status to Confident Conscript. With this I hope that I can indicate that they had no real military training and their moral was also questionable. If you don’t like it, as it makes the Police units too weak, then I would recommend to use the regulars’ ratings. In fictive scenarios against occupying German troops a higher morale could be used, as the Police was not to keen of the occupation and regime change, especially after the Szálasi government put them under military supervision.

The weapon stat was easy, the HRP’s Csabas only had a co-ax MG, the values are from the army book just as the armour points.

These armoured cars will not be the toughest in your army, but they can bring colour into it, plus you can use them in historical scenarios or heroic last stands. If you have any opinion about the card or has better ideas about the point, please let me know!