Agony of the Third Reich. 75 years ago, on February 13, 1945, Soviet troops completed the assault on the capital of Hungary, the city of Budapest. The successful end of the Budapest operation dramatically changed the entire strategic situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front and facilitated the offensive of the Red Army in the Berlin direction.
The Hungarian capital, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky and the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal F. I. Tolbukhin was blocked on December 26, 1944. Surrounded by 188 thous. the German-Hungarian group was offered to lay down their arms. However, the Nazis killed the Soviet parliamentarians. Of all the European capitals taken by Soviet troops, Budapest took first place in the duration of street battles.
Firstly, this was due to the difficult operational situation on the outer ring of the encirclement, where the Nazis repeatedly tried to free the encircled garrison of General Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. The Germans inflicted strong counterattacks with strong mobile formations. This made it difficult to concentrate on the defeat of the city's garrison. Secondly, the Soviet command, in order to preserve the Hungarian capital, where there were many historical monuments, and to avoid serious destruction in the crowded city, tried to avoid the use of heavy artillery and aviation. All this delayed the capture of Budapest.
Situation in Hungary
In the fall of 1944, the Red Army, having completed the liberation of Romania and Bulgaria, reached the border of Hungary and Yugoslavia. The offensive began in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Hungary by this time remained the only ally of the Reich. The hostilities in Hungary dragged on for almost six months. This was due to the fact that Hitler was trying with all his might to keep Hungary, and large forces of the Wehrmacht were concentrated here, including powerful armored formations.
In addition, the Hungarian elite remained loyal to Hitler to the last. True, after the heavy defeat of the Hungarian army on the middle Don in the winter of 1943 and heavy losses, the mood in Budapest began to change. But on the whole, Horthy's dictatorial regime did not experience big problems, the population was loyal, and resistance was minimal. It was only in March 1944 that the Germans openly occupied the country when Horthy began to seek an armistice with the anti-Hitler coalition. The first Hungarian partisans appeared only in the fall of 1944, when the defeat of the Third Reich became obvious and the Red Army was victoriously advancing in the Balkans. October 6, 1944 2- Ukrainian Front (2nd UV) began the Debrecen operation. From the very first days, our troops achieved significant results, defeated the 3rd Hungarian army. During the offensive, the eastern part of Hungary and the northern part of Transylvania were liberated.
After that, the Hungarian dictator Miklos Horthy showed flexibility. He dismissed the pro-German government, and on October 15, the new government announced an armistice with the USSR. Hungary's withdrawal from the war exposed the southern flank of the Reich and could lead to the isolation of the Balkan group of the Wehrmacht. Also, Germany needed Hungarian oil. Hitler's reaction was lightning fast. The Germans carried out Operation Panzerfaust. German troops took control of all of Hungary and its army. The personal special forces soldier of the Fuhrer Otto Skorzeny kidnapped the dictator's son, Horthy Jr. They put him in a concentration camp and told his father that he would be executed if he resisted. Horthy capitulated and was arrested in Germany. Power was transferred to the leader of the Hungarian Nazi pro-German party Salashi. Hungary continued the war on the side of Germany. To avoid a mutiny in the Hungarian army, the Germans divided the Hungarian divisions, they operated as part of the German corps. The remaining compact Hungarian troops, like the 2nd and 3rd armies, were subordinated to the German command. All Hungarian units were at the front, away from Budapest. In the interior of the country, there were almost no Hungarian troops left for the government to rely on. German tank formations were concentrated in the area of the Hungarian capital.
Budapest operation
On October 29, 1944, the troops of the left wing of the 2nd UV began the Budapest operation. The main blow was struck by units of the 46th Army, the 2nd and 4th Guards Mechanized Corps. Mainly Hungarian units defended here and the defense was weaker. Soviet troops were supposed to reach the city from the southeast and take it on the move. From the northeast, the 7th Guards Army delivered an auxiliary blow. The rest of Malinovsky's troops were advancing in the direction of Miskolc. The troops of the 3rd UV (3rd UV) under the command of Tolbukhin had just completed the Belgrade operation and began the transfer of the 57th Army to Hungary, which was concentrated in the Banat area and was supposed to capture bridgeheads on the Danube.
The left wing of the 2nd UV broke through the enemy's defenses and by November 2, 1944, our troops reached the approaches to Budapest. However, it was not possible to take the Hungarian capital on the move. The German command deployed 14 divisions here (including three tank and one motorized division from the Miskolc area), which, relying on a previously prepared defense system, stopped the further offensive of the Soviet troops. The Soviet Headquarters ordered to expand the offensive zone in order to defeat the Budapest grouping with strikes from the north, east and south. During November 1944, the Soviet armies broke through the enemy defenses between the Tisza and Danube rivers and, having advanced up to 100 km, reached the outer defensive line of Budapest from the south and southeast. Meanwhile, the troops of the 3rd UV captured a large bridgehead on the western bank of the Danube. After that, the troops of the center and the left wing of the 2nd UV received the task of creating an encirclement around Budapest.
On December 5-9, troops of the 7th Guards, 6th Guards Tank Armies and the mechanized cavalry group of Lieutenant General Pliev intercepted the northern communications of the Budapest group of the Wehrmacht. On the left wing of the 46th, the army crossed the Danube south of Budapest. But it was not possible to bypass the city immediately from the west. Stubborn fighting continued until December 26. The Soviet command had to throw new powerful formations into battle: the 2nd Guards, 7th Mechanized and 18th Tank Corps. Only on the 26th, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd UV united in the area of the city of Esztergom and surrounded almost 190 thousand. enemy grouping.
The storming of Budapest
It is worth noting that the German and Hungarian military commanders believed that Budapest should not be defended in a complete encirclement. The commander-in-chief of Army Group South, Johannes Friesner, wanted to align the front line and avoid street fighting. He also noted the strong anti-German sentiments of the residents of the capital. A riot could break out in the rear of the German troops. The commander of the 6th German Army, General Maximilian Fretter-Pico, wanted to retreat behind the Attila Line in order to avoid the threat of encirclement. The Hungarian command also considered it possible to defend Budapest only in the defense zone of the Attila Line. The capital, after breaking through the defensive line and the threat of encirclement, was not going to be defended. The "national leader" of the Hungarian state Salashi also feared an uprising of the "big city rabble" and believed that the troops should be withdrawn to the mountainous regions. The Hungarian leadership proposed declaring Budapest an "open city" and thereby avoiding the destruction of the historic capital.
Hitler did not take into account the arguments of his command and the Hungarian military-political leadership. The troops did not withdraw. The Fuehrer ordered to defend every house, not to reckon with losses, and by an order dated December 1, 1944, he declared Budapest a fortress. The supreme leader of the SS and police in Hungary, general of the SS troops, Obergruppenführe Otto Winkelmann, was appointed commandant of the city. The 9th SS Mountain Corps under the command of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was transferred to him. De facto, it was he who became the head of the defense of Budapest. Each stone house became a small fortress, streets and quarters became bastions. For their defense, they mobilized everyone they could. Friesner and Fretter-Pico were removed from their posts. Army Group South was led by Otto Wöhler, and 6th Army was led by Balck.
After the encirclement, there was the possibility of withdrawing a combat-ready core from Budapest. At first, there was no tight encirclement, and the German-Hungarian troops, especially with outside support, could break through to their own. But they did not receive such an order. On the contrary, they were instructed from above to stand to the last. As a result, Budapest, with its more than a million population, through the fault of the Fuhrer, became the arena of a fierce battle, the “Danube Stalingrad”. For the capture of the city, the Budapest group was formed under the command of General I. M. Afonin (then I. M. Managarov). It consisted of 3 rifle corps and 9 artillery brigades.
The siege of Budapest dragged on due to heavy fighting that continued in Hungary. The German High Command continued to build up the forces of Army Group U in Hungary. 37 divisions were transferred here, sent from other sectors of the front (including the central Berlin direction) and from the Western Front. By the beginning of January 1945, the Germans had concentrated here 16 tank and motorized divisions - half of all the armored forces of the Reich on the Russian front. The Nazis launched three powerful strikes in January 1945 with the aim of unblocking the Budapest grouping and leveling the front along the Danube (Operation Konrad).
It is interesting that Hitler wanted to cut through a corridor to Budapest not with the aim of withdrawing the local garrison, on the contrary, but wanted to strengthen it with fresh forces. In his opinion, the “Danube Stalingrad” was supposed to grind the Russian troops and tie them up. It was necessary to hold the western part of Hungary and cover the path to Vienna. Therefore, the Fuhrer categorically rejected any idea of surrendering Budapest and breaking through his garrison to meet his own. The Budapest garrison had to hold the city until the arrival of their troops. Therefore, the Pfeffer-Wildenbruch group made no attempts to exit their city towards the unblocking forces and waited until the last to be liberated. As a result, Hungary became a field of extremely stubborn and brutal battle. So on January 18 - 26, the Germans struck from the area north of Lake Balaton, dismembered the front of the 3rd UV and reached the Danube. The enemy's breakthrough was eliminated only by joint efforts of the troops of the 2nd and 3rd UV.
Meanwhile, the troops of the 2nd UV continued the fierce battle for the Hungarian capital. They tried to cut the enemy's defenses, and then destroyed separate, isolated enemy garrisons. The tactics of assault groups were actively used. Such a group usually consisted of a platoon of riflemen, sappers, flamethrowers, it was supported by 1-2 tanks or self-propelled guns, guns that hit with direct fire. On January 18, 1945, our troops took the eastern part of the city - Pest, and on February 13 - the western part - Budu. The remnants of the German-Hungarian grouping tried to break out of the city on February 11, as the integral defense collapsed and it was necessary to break through or surrender, and the Nazis did not want to surrender. The fighting continued for several more days. Only a few hundred soldiers and officers were able to leave. The rest were killed or captured. The final clean-up of the city was completed by February 17. Over 138 thousand people, along with the command, were taken prisoner.
Results of the operation
Soviet troops liberated the central part of Hungary with Budapest from the Nazis and their local accomplices. The enemy's Budapest grouping was defeated. Hungary is withdrawn from the war. The Provisional Government of Hungary on December 28, 1944 decided to withdraw from the war and declared war on the Reich. On January 20, 1945, the Provisional Government signed an armistice with the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition. Salash's government continued to resist. Hungarian troops fought on the side of the Germans in the Balaton operation and in Austria.
The battle in Hungary, including the Budapest direction, attracted significant forces of the Wehrmacht, including from the central (Berlin) direction. The battle for Budapest made it easier for the Red Army to carry out the Vistula-Oder operation, a breakthrough to Berlin.
The defeat of the enemy's Budapest grouping seriously changed the situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. A threat was created to the communications of the Balkan group of the Wehrmacht, its withdrawal was accelerated. The Red Army was given the opportunity to develop an offensive in Czechoslovakia and Austria.
The Budapest operation is described in more detail in the articles on "VO": Battle of Hungary; The beginning of the siege of Budapest; Breakthrough of the Attila Line. The beginning of the assault on Pest; Fall of Pest. The beginning of the assault on Buda; The decisive assault on Buda; Operation Conrad; Bloody finale of the Budapest gang.
