Légi háborús tapasztalatok a magyar–szlovák „kis háborúban”

The Hungarian–Slovakian “little war” was a border conflict limited in space and time. Significant military movements took place only on March 23–24. The Hungarian army extended the borders of Subcarpathia westwards by 15–25 km to the detriment of Slovakia. This was the first “war” deployment of the Hungarian and Slovak air forces, which were still being organized. The Slovak planes mainly carried out reconnaissance and bombed the Hungarian troops. The Hungarian aircrafts protected their ground troops and attacked the Slovak airfields. The planes did not play a decisive role, but they brought some dynamism to the operations. Despite the short time and the small number of aircraft, many features of the air war appeared in the conflict: tactical and strategical reconnaissance, close air support of ground forces, replacement of missing artillery, air combat, attack on airfields, bombarding of transport facilities, etc. During the fighting, the superiority was on the side of the Hungarian Air Force, but it had many organizational, management, application, and technical problems: obsolete aircraft, poor quality airports, lack of military experience, failed attempt to concentration of a larger flying formation, communication difficulties.