picture 170194

The 8th Motorised Rifle Division – nominally the best unit of the Hungarian Army, home-based at Zalaegerszeg, near the border with Yugoslavia – was deployed in Czechoslovakia during Exercise Šumava: it returned to the country only two months later, while participating in Operation Danube. All the armoured battalions of the 8th Motorised Rifle Division were equipped with T-55 main battle tanks that, as of 1968, lacked the turret-mounted 12.7mm DShK heavy machine guns. All were painted in dark olive green overall and wore the usual set of markings typical for Hungarian formations: a white dot, followed by a three-digit tactical number. (Artwork by David Bocquelet)