The representatives of the Hungarian Defence Forces, a military delegation from the US Embassy in Budapest and the World War II American and British Military Heritage Association held a joint wreath-laying ceremony in Szigliget on Saturday, June 30. On the hill of the settlement near Lake Balaton, US and Hungarian war memorials keep alive the memory of the soldiers who fell in World War II.

The US monument commemorates the crew of a B-24 bomber that crashed in the area on June 30, 1944, whereas the Hungarian memorial site commemorates the soldiers killed in action of the Hungarian Royal Army (Magyar Királyi Honvédség).

Col. Zoltán Bali, the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defence Department for International Cooperation, the soldiers of the Hungarian Defence Forces, Col. Curtis S. Milam, the military attaché of the US Embassy in Budapest and an NCO of the US Navy, as well as WWII American military traditionalists (re-enactors) laid the wreaths in the sweltering heat.

The participants stressed that the joint wreath-laying has another important message beyond commemoration, which is that we must remember the soldiers killed in action regardless of their nationality because they made the supreme sacrifice by giving their life in the war.

After the wreaths were laid, a trumpeter played first the Hungarian Last Post, then the American one.

Balázs Balassa, the mayor of Szigliget has also been highly instrumental in organizing the wreath-laying ceremony. The mayor’s office has renovated the military memorial that had been demolished by unknown perpetrators, thereby creating a deserved venue for the Saturday event.

After the wreath-laying ceremony the organizers told us that from now on they want to hold the commemorative event every year.

(Ministry of Defence)