On Friday, July 13 Lt.-Col. Dr. László Töll, the Head of the MoD Military Heritage and War Grave Care Department and his deputy, Maj. Roland Maruzs announced one of the most significant events of Hungarian war grave care in the Balaton St. compound of the Ministry of Defence. The mortal remains of vitéz nemes József Barankay – a legendary Hungarian officer serving with the self-propelled artillery (SPARTY) branch – have been found and identified in the Hungarian–German heroes’ cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.

At the press conference, it was revealed that sixty-eight years ago, on July 13, 1944 around 14:00, SPARTY Capt. vitéz nemes József Barankay and his two comrade heroes lost their lives when a bomb hit their observation post near Targowicza, Galicia.

Lt.-Col. Töll told us that the Ministry of Defence gives priority to the task of war grave care. He added that SPARTY Capt. vitéz nemes József Barankay had been a military officer who had accomplished outstanding feats. His person and the fact that he fell in Ukraine were already known, but his concrete resting place has been identified over the last few months as the result of a research conducted in cooperation with German experts.

The Ukrainian authorities, the local government of Ivano-Frankivsk and especially Igor Kochkin, a local professor of archeology have been instrumental in finding the military officer hero. The Ukrainians living here have displayed an exemplary cooperative spirit which has gone a long way toward the successful finding, the lieutenant-colonel pointed out.

The exhumation of the grave took place on July 11 in the presence of a committee. On seeing the metal coffin the excavating experts already knew they had found the mortal remains of an important person whose transportation back to Hungary was definitely intended.

József Barankay was born in Bácsalmás, Hungary and brought up in Novi Sad and Budafok. He graduated from the Ludovika Academy in 1932, where he became a teacher much adored by the soldiers of the Hungarian Royal 1st ‘Honvéd’ Self-Propelled Artillery Division, an elite unit he himself set up.

He was held in high esteem not only for his many-sided talent, excellent skills, consistency, personal leadership qualities in the most dangerous places and situations of close quarter battle, his passionate character and bravery, but also his love of the homeland he felt literally until death and the humanism he showed under all circumstances earned him unanimous esteem and admiration.

He received several distinguished medals during his military career. The first among these was the Hungarian Officer Golden Medal of Valor, which was awarded only to 22 excellent officers, to eight of them only after their death.

At the press conference it was said that although today there is a memorial park in the area of the former cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk, the experts were able to locate the concrete gravesite, and the personal ID disc they found is a conclusive proof that the military hero officer has been identified.

(Ministry of Defence)