Leading the armed wing of this new government, the "National Army", was Admiral Miklós Horthy, the last commander of the erstwhile Austro-Hungarian Navy.

[6] Among the officers who answered Horthy's call were ultra-nationalist soldiers who mounted a campaign of atrocities in a retaliation to the Red Terror; to eliminate communist supporters and frighten the population into obedience to the new order.

[7] The pogroms and mass murders were carried out by units of the "National Army" commanded by Mihály Horthy; paramilitary organisations also committed killings, especially during the "Hungarian Awakening".

Summary executions of people suspected of communist allegiance were common; these victims were often hanged in public places to serve as a warning to others.

[11] Hardest hit were the regions of Transdanubia, the wider area of Horthy's headquarters in Siófok, and in the lowlands between the Danube and the Theiss rivers, where mass murders which aroused international attention were committed in Kecskémet and Orgovány.

But, far from discontinuing their campaigns, the reactionary units expanded and continued terrorising their targets for almost two more years; politically motivated violence devolved into grudge-murders and kidnappings for profit.

After Prónay joined a failed attempt to restore the Habsburg king, Charles I of Austria to Hungary's throne, his battalion was disbanded.