Elemér Gombos

Elemér Gombos was born on 18 April 1915 in Debrecen in an intellectual family, his father was a professional officer. He swam competitively and was a member of the Hungarian Olympic team from 1934 to 1938. After graduating from the Ludovika Academy, he was promoted to the rank of infantry lieutenant in 1939. In 1941 he attended an armoured retraining course. From 1944 he took part in the division's battles as commander of the 2nd Company of the 1st Tank Regiment. He was twice lightly wounded and was hospitalised in Kőbánya on 2 January 1945 with severe abdominal and eye injuries. From then on he did not take part in any further fighting, and at the end of the siege he was taken prisoner by the Soviets at the Sziklak Hospital, from where he returned home on 30 September 1947. He was subsequently retired, but in 1948 he re-enlisted in the People's Army, first at the Kossuth Academy and then at the Mátyás Rákosi Armoured Officers School. His characterisation here was relatively positive, he was even recommended for a medal, but there were shades of reality in his summary. He embraces the solid persuasiveness of facts. [...] He acknowledges the Soviet Union's leading role, without often stating it, on several occasions in individual conversations. The feeling of hatred for the enemy does not have a solid basis in principle. [...] He lacks the qualities of revolutionary vigilance. He does not have a mature position on the current class struggle. He gives no political support to the work of his subordinates. He is inclined to liberalism."

In 1952, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Hungarian People's Republic, and two years later he was awarded the Flood Protection Medal.His 1954 rating acknowledged his military professional talent, but the "shortcomings of his previous rating remain, due to the total uncertainty about his future. This is linked to the sometimes indifferent cadre policy of his superiors towards him, and to his great sensitivity, which leads him to draw excessively unfavourable conclusions for himself. For example, he assesses his current post as having a vacancy to fill." He was not wrong in this, and in 1955 he was demobilised as a lieutenant colonel, first became librarian of the officers' club in Esztergom, then had to leave and continued working as an ambulance nurse. He was not demoted, and in 1963 he was called up for a training exercise and was counted on as a regimental deputy commander in case of mobilisation. Gombos himself used this opportunity to ask for his reinstatement, but was refused.