Third Army ( Hungary ) The Hungarian Third Army was a field army in the Royal Hungarian Army that saw action during World War II . Order of Battle - Yugoslavia - April 1941 . On 5 April 1941 , the Hungarian Third Army was mobilized for the invasion of Yugoslavia . The invasion began with the bombing of Belgrade and the crossing of the border by the Germans on 6 April . The Third Army faced the Yugoslavian First Army . By the time the Hungarians crossed the border and finally attacked , the Germans had been attacking Yugoslavia for over a week . As a result , the Yugoslavs put up little resistance to the Hungarians . Units of the Hungarian Third Army advanced into a triangular shaped area known as the Baranya - triangle between the Danube River and the Drava River . The Hungarians suffered few casualties in this invasion . As a result of participating in the invasion of Yugoslavia , Hungary regained Bácska and Baranya . Order Of Battle - Soviet Union - October 1944 . From 25 March to 15 April 1944 , the Hungarian VII Army Corps was involved in the Battle of Kamenets - Podolsky Pocket . The Hungarian VII Army Corps was to become part of the Hungarian Third Army in August . On 30 August , the Hungarian Third Army was mobilized to defend Hungary against the relentless advances of the Soviet 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Front s . The Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Armed Forces , Colonel - General János Vörös , ordered this army of nine weak , undermanned , and underequipped reserve divisions to attack west of the Hungarian Second Army ( which was mobilized at the same time ) . The Third Army was to then cross Arad and the Maros Valley and occupy the mountain passes of Transylvania . This attack failed . On 6 October , in the opening stages of the Battle of Debrecen , the Hungarian Third Army was badly mauled near Arad . Very quickly , the army was scattered near the town of Kecskemet . Rodion Malinovsky ' s 2nd Ukrainian Front attempted a pincer maneuver to encircle Army Group Fretter - Pico . The 2nd Ukrainian Front ' s southern pincer sliced easily through the Hungarian Third Army . This southern pincer was spearheaded by Soviet General Issa Pliyev ' s Mobile Group Pliyev . Later , in the same battle , Mobile Group Pliyev was encircled and badly mauled by Army Group Fretter - Pico ( " Armeegruppe Fretter - Pico " ) . The northern pincer was stalled and turned back by veteran German " panzer " forces . The Hungarian Second Army was an integral part of the victorious German - Hungarian " Armeegruppe Fretter - Pico " . The Order Of Battle in October 1944 was as follows : The Hungarian Second Army was disbanded on 1 December 1944 , after the Battle of Debrecen , and its remaining units were transferred to the Third Army . The Fall of Budapest and the End . From 29 December 1944 , the Hungarian capital city , Budapest was under siege . In the Battle of Budapest every available Hungarian unit was employed in the defense of the capital . After great loss , the city was unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945 . Between 16 March and 25 March 1945 , most of what was left of the Hungarian Third Army was surrounded and destroyed about forty kilometers to the west of Budapest . The army was destroyed by the Soviet 46th Army as it advanced towards Vienna . But , even after this , the Hungarian Third Army did not totally cease to exist . Some remnants remained and they fought on . Fighting as they went , they moved progressively westward to southern Austria . The army was not officially disbanded until 8 May 1945 , the end of the war . That is when the last commander of the Hungarian Third Army , Lieutenant General József Heszlényi , surrendered . References . < br >