Little Quake, Little War

In the tiny troop-packed Hungarian village of Debreczen one morning last week the earth quaked, chimneys tumbled, ceilings crumbled, pictures fell. Excited villagers, thinking war had come at last, leaped from their beds and ran down into cellars to avoid bomb splinters. No sooner had they discovered their mistake than Hungary actually was at war. The quake lasted 40 minutes, the war three days. Neither did much damage.

Hungarian troops and planes invaded Slovakia. Immediate objective was the important Ung Valley railroad connecting Hungary with Poland. Hungary's larger ambition is eventually to gain control of all Slovakia, which used to be in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Adolf Hitler, having just assumed a 25-year responsibility for Slovak territory, hurried back from Memel. At week's end, it seemed that Hungary would get the railroad, but nothing more.

After three days of fighting, a truce was declared. As peace negotiations began in Budapest, Hungary claimed a complete victory. Official Hungarian statements said that the railroad was captured, eleven Slovak planes had been brought down and 17 destroyed on the ground; that the only Hungarian loss was the capture of two men who had accidentally taken a wrong road. Slovak dispatches listed 23 Hungarian dead and 55 wounded. German communiques insisted the whole thing was just a border incident.

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