Introduction
On this day 65 years ago the siege of the Hungarian capital Budapest entered its final and bloodiest week. Soviets forces, sensing victory smash their way through to the north of Eagle Hill on the west front of the city, with massive artillery and tank support. Their objective was to break through and destroy the main IX SS Corps’ artillery positions which were the last line of defence before Castle Hill and the Citadel on Gellert Hill.
My intention in this article is to give a short history of the background to the siege and in particular the fate of the Waffen-SS units encircled in the city. German and Hungarian military losses were high. Whole divisions ceased to exist. At a minimum, the Germans lost all or most of the 13.Panzer-Division and the 60. Panzergrenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle, the 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division Florian Geyer, and the 22.SS-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa. The Hungarian 1st Corps, which included the 10th Infantry Division, the 12th Infantry Division, and the 1st Armored Division, was completely destroyed.
In recent years, in the post-communist era in Hungary significant importance, both militiary and political, has been given to the siege. Péter Gosztonyi, Hungarian historian and 1956 exile, the author of many books and a recognized authority on foreign satellite armies which fought as Hitler's allies in the East, describes the Siege of Budapest in the following terms;
“… the siege of Budapest was a chapter on its own in the history of the Great European War. Suffering was great and casualties were massive. There was considerable bombardment, both aerial and artillery. Red Army men referred to the siege as a "second Stalingrad", and with good reason. During the fighting, the troops—both defenders and attackers—had to confront numerous problems, military, economic and social alike….” (1)
There is another reason to remember the Siege of Budapest, arrayed against the Soviets were nearly 35,000 Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS and 37,000 Hungarian Army (Honvédség) soldiers as well as over 900,000 civilians, trapped within the city. The Siege of Budapest was one of the bloodiest sieges of World War II and for other historians, the battle had another Stalingrad:
« The Waffen SS troops involved constituted the backbone of the defensive effort and took the severest losses. For IX SS Corps and the "Florian Geyer" and "Maria Theresia" Cavalry Divisions, Budapest was another Stalingrad. "Maria Theresia" in particular had the unfortunate distinction of being the only large formation of the Waffen-SS to be almost totally obliterated. This work (see below) details the vicious struggle from beginning to end, a struggle in which 70,000 defenders tied up almost half a million Soviet combat and support troops, buying the Germans much needed time…. » (2)
Background
The steady advance of the Soviet forces in the Autumn of 1944 placed intense pressure on the resolve of the various Eastern European states who had joined the Axis during the heady days of 1940. In early 1944, as the front had moved closer to Hungary, the government in the person of Regent Miklós Horthy, tried to open channels of negotiation with the Western Allies in a move threatning to deprive Germany of the much needed Hungarian oil fields located around Lake Balaton. In response, the Germans launched Operation Margarethe and on March 19th the Wehrmacht entered Hungary. The Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, wisely put Hungary's attempts to quit the war on hold.
As a direct result of the intervention and in a move intended to strengthen German forces in Hungary, Hungarian volksdeutsche originally drafted by the Hungarian Armed Forces, were transferred to the Waffen-SS. This move led to the formation of the 22. SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa in May 1944 in the area around Kisber, Hungary, with SS-Kavallerie Regiment 17 from « Florian Geyer » as nucleus. The bulk of the soldiers in the 22nd SS Division were Hungarian volksdeutsche.
In Nov 1944, while the bulk of the Division was still in training around Kisber, the Soviet thrust against Budapest began and all battle ready units were sent into the city in early November 1944. The Division was subsequently encircled, along with the rest of the Axis troops in the Hungarian capital, and destroyed.
Prelude to the Siege
In October 1944 the Hungarian government of Admiral Horthy weighed up the options and again attempted to follow Romania and Bulgaria by deserting to the Soviets. With the Red Army less than 80 miles from Budapest, Horthy figured it was his last opportunity to jump ship and work out a deal with Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Such a move was not unexpected and Hitler had prepared a plan to prevent Hungary’s leaders surrendering. When the Germans received word of imminent betrayal to the advancing Red Army they again responded quickly and while there were sufficient German units in Hungary to prevent a disaster, Hitler sent SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Otto Skorzenny and a special parachute-battalion into the city of Budapest to bring Hungarian leaders back in line.
Unternehmen Eisenfaust (Operation Panzerfaust) was the code-name for this military operation. Skorzeny kidnapped Horthy's son Miklós Horthy, Jr. and his father was forced to abdicate as regent. The details of the operation are well-known. Thirty-five King Tiger tanks were used in conjunction with Waffen-SS and paratroopers to storm the Royal Castle on a hill in which Horthy was holed up along with those loyal to him. This included the cabinet of the Hungarian government, they held out for thirty minutes before they were forced to surrender.
Of importance here is the fact that the Horthy government had signed an armistice with the Soviets leading to confusion among Hungarian units conducting the defence in Budapest, with some changing sides using the Horty armistice as an excuse. However most Honvédség units held the line and suffered horrific casualties alongside the German defenders.
Horty was arrested and within hours replaced with a friendly government under Ferenc Szálasi, a retired major of the General Staff and head of the Hungarian Arrow-Cross Party (or Hungarist Movement), was formed. Szálasi was Berlin's last political reserve, no other political party would have assumed the responsibility of forming a government after October 15, 1944, fearing reprisals from the Soviet Army now poised to attack Budapest less than eighty kilometres away. The « Hungarist » government was installed and Hungary continued fighting alongside Germany until April 1945, when all of their territory was occupied by the Red Army.
Importance of holding Hungary for the Axis
For Hitler and the Axis war effort, Hungary was of strategic importance, for the following reasons:
• Firstly, as a source of oil to keep the wheels of industry and the Wehrmacht turning. The Hungarian oil fields, practically the last ones available must be held at all costs.
• Secondly, holding the Hungarian capital was key to this strategy and also an important point from which to defend Austria's frontiers.
• Last but by no means least, loss of Hungary at that point in the war would cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkan peninsula.
Hitler and Szalasi agreed on the strategic importance of the city and at their meeting early in December Hitler declared Budapest a fortress city (Festung Budapest), which had to be defended at "any cost".
Unfortunately for those tasked with its defence, Budapest was also a major target for the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Indeed, the Yalta Conference was approaching and Stalin wanted to display his full strength to Churchill and Roosevelt. Therefore, he ordered General Rodion Malinovsky to seize the city as quickly as possible. (3)
Budapest, Fortress City - Preparing the Defences
October 20, 1944 The Red Army under Marshal Malinovski captured Debrecen in eastern Hungary. On Stalin's order, on 29 October 1944, the Red Army started its offensive against the city of Budapest. More than 1,000,000 men split into two operating maneuver groups, the 2nd and 3rd Ukranian Fronts. (4) The plan was to cut Budapest off from the rest of the German and Hungarian forces.
The Soviet offensive started in the eastern suburbs, advancing through Pest, making good use of the large central avenues to speed up their progress. The German and Hungarian defenders, overwhelmed, tried to trade space for time to slow down the Soviet advance to a crawl. They would ultimately withdrew across the danube to shorten their lines, hoping to take advantage of the hilly nature of Buda but this was still an horrific two months of combat intensive urban warfare away.
November 3rd The first Soviet tanks rolled into the Budapest suburbs of Vecsés, Kispest and reached Ferihegy airport. But the advance on Budapest, though rapid at first, was then slowed down by very stiff German and Hungarian resistance.
To defend the Hungarian capital, Hitler send the IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS under by the experienced SS and Police General, SSObergruppenführer Karl von Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. The corps included the 22. and 8. SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Divisions « Maria Theresa » and « Florian Geyer », another five supporting battalion from various Waffen SS divisions; a regiment of SS-Police; two panzer division from German army; with another supported battalion; plus remnants of several Hungarian divisions. However, between them the panzer divisions could barely muster 70 panzers.
:Soldiers of 22.SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa in a street in Budapest. Hungary, October 1944
Almost all European nationalities were represented among the defenders. Scandinavian and Spanish volunteers, French SS-soldiers, Ukranian soldiers of the ˝Galizien˝ SS-division, and Russian and Ukrainian members of the military auxiliary service, HiWis, were among the German units. Almost 35,000 German soldiers were committed to the pocket.
Defending the City - 'Florian Geyer' Holds the Eastmark – 25th October to November 20th See Maps below
25 October 1944 - 8.SS Kavelleriedivision 'Florian Geyer', veteran of many combat missions on the Eastern Front, were assigned as part of Budapest garrison. When Soviets units reached Ocsa, a suburb of Pest, on November 3, the Germans were forced back due to Hungarian units routing on their flanks with the Soviets occupying the suburbs of Vesces and Ullo. “Florian Geyer” was inserted into a 20 kilometer stretch of that front in a line that went from Vecses to Peczel and in a series of desperate counterattacks succeeded in recapturing both Vesces and Ullo. The ad-hoc ‘battlegroup’ that closed the gap in the defences at this particularly vital time and place included the following units:
• SS Cavalry Regiment 15
• 3rd Company/SS Panzer Recce Detachment 8 (assault guns)
• an engineer assault troop
• an assault gun detachment and flame-throwing tank from the “Feldherrnhalle” Division
• supporting anti-tank guns, heavy Flak and artillery from “Florian Geyer”
November 5 'Maria Theresa' Division, sent to southeastern part of the Budapest defense ring to the suburbs of Dunaharztil and Taksony., were attacked by elements of the 66th and 68th Guards and 3rd Armoured of the 3rd Ukranian Front at Karola Positions. The Division held back the attackers and then mounted local counterattacks throughout 6 and 7 Nov. But the Waffen SS divisions success was a short lived.
7 November 1944 - Soviet troops captured the eastern suburbs of Budapest, 20 kilometers from the old town. By November 20, after fanatical assaults on the defences, Soviets force a breach between the 'Maria Theresa' and the 1st Honved Cavalry Division, which endangers the Budapest suburbs. 'Maria Theresa' losses was great and by 5 December 1944, the division strength was reduced to only 8,000 men.
The Hungarian volunteer units were especially successful when they were able to use their knowledge of the terrain to their advantage. The Arrow Cross Party also provided several armed units. In addition, when the City was surrounded, the Hungarian cavalry artillery squad and other units of the 4th Hussar regiment and Cavalry divisions were trapped in the city leaving more than 30,000 horses wandering around Budapest, many ending up providing essential nourishment for the inhabitants and the army.
IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS locates to Budapest
December 11 SSObergruppenführer Karl von Pfeffer-Wildenbruch establishes his HQ on Castle Hill - the governmental center of the Hungarian capital. The Corps itself has at most 70 armored vehicles and will be severly outnumbered by the heavy tanks of attacking force.
The Tunnel, used as the defence head-quarters, in the foreground a German messenger is getting on a motorbike. February 7, 1945.
December 1944 – Budapest is Surrounded – Soviets Intensify Combat
14 December - The Red Army had begun a terrible pounding of German positions in Budapest on both sides of the Danube. That very night twelve thousands guns angled at forty-five degrees and amassed all round the Hungarian capital, were fired simultaneously. The darkness dissolved in apocalyptic flashes as the twelve thousands guns began to pulverize the city in a deluge of steel. Red Army armoured and infantry divisions rush the defenders.
Amazingly the defences held and on 19 December, the Red Army units after taking a severe mauling from the defenders, retreated to regroup.
Dawn on 22 December - The Red Army resumes the offensive. Three thousand heavy tanks and fifteen infantry divisions hurled themselves at Budapest. Soviet troops enjoyed a numerical superiority fifteen to one in ground troops, almost fifty to one in armour and total air superiority. Wave after wave of Sturmovik assault aircraft all but scraped the rooftops. The Germans faced the Red Army attack with a grim determination. To prevent their encirclement a bitter battle was fought south and west of the city shortly before Christmas. Each district, street and building were fought for beneath a shower of high explosives and incendiaries. Quite quickly, the Soviet troops found themselves in the same situation as the Germans had in Stalingrad. Still, their troops were able to take advantage of both their overwhelming superiority in men and material and the urban terrain by relying heavily on snipers and sappers to advance. Fights broke out even in the sewers, as both Axis and Soviet troops used them for troop movement. In this the defenders had the advantage setting up ambushes using local inhabitants as guides in the sewers. (7)
Christmas Eve, 1944 - Russian tanks burst into the suburbs of Buda - on the west side of the Danube. These were from the spearheaded of Marshal Tolbulkhin's Third Ukrainian Front, which had pushed across the Danube below Budapest. Although the German forces succeded in stopping them, Tolbulkhin increased the pressure from the south while Malinovsky's Second Ukrainian Front was crossing the Danube above Budapest.
Withdrawl to the West – Pest on the East Bank of the Danube Falls to the Soviets
24/25 December – German defensive positions in Pest become untenable and units of the SS Cavalry Divisions began relocating to Buda on the west bank of the Danube, the western approaches to which now had to be defended. It was also the most important part of the city and the administrative center for all of Hungary. At the same time the last replacements for the Waffen SS filtered through from Vienna with ominous signs of assembling Soviet forces on either side of the corridor.
26 December – The inevitable happens, a road linking Budapest to Vienna was seized by the Soviet troops, thereby encircling the city.
December 27 The two Soviet forces met in Esztergom in west of the city. The Germans had therefore lost the defence line of the Danube and the 33,000 men of IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS were encircled, together with 800,000 civilians and 38,000 Hungarian military. The encirclement of the city, a neatly executed pincer of 2nd Ukrainian Front from the north and 3rd Ukrainian Front coming up in a wide circle from the south, happened so rapidly that it took the residents of Budapest completely by surprise and in the midst of their Christmas preparations.
The Soviet onslaught on the city’s defences escalated into an extremely violent stage as the fighting intensified to a level that it would seldom decline from for the duration of the siege.
The battlefield report from IX SS Corps on this day reflected the new intensity in the level of fighting:
Attacking from the east, the enemy attained the Budapest--
Pilisvorosvar railroad line. In the city section 4 kilometers
to the east of Budakecsi a strong infantry attack supported
by numerous tanks made a deep penetration in the direction
of Castle Hill and drove to about 2 kilometers from the Danube.
From the suburbs 2 kilometers northwest of Czepel,
the attacking foe drove over the Budapest-Budaors rail line.
Enemy forces in unknown strength crossed over to Budafok
and remain in battle with the Hungarian Flak along the Dunahararaszti-
Soroksar rail line. Ten tanks supporting the enemy attack were driven off.
From Ullo, attacking enemy elements in battalion strength drove into the
southeast part of Vecses. From their previous breakthrough area around
Vecses-Maglod, the enemy attacked to the north and west,
driving to Pestszentlorenz and the south edge of Rakoszsaba.
Further positional construction of a unified front around the inner city is in
progress. Subordinated to the 8th SS Cavalry Division “Florian Geyer” were the Group
“Kessere,” part of the 271st Volksgrenadier Division and the Armored Group “Feldherrnhalle.” Frosty weather; -10 degrees Centigrade.
A Notorious Interlude
Under pressure from Stalin, the Soviet High Command wanted to capture Budapest as soon as possible, with his consent they called upon the German-Hungarian garrison to surrender. On 29 December 1944, The Soviet General Malinovsky sent two emissaries in order to negotiate the city's capitulation. The emissaries never came back. The ultimatum should have been delivered on the Buda side by Ilja Afanaszjevics Osztapenko and on the Pest side by Captain Miklos Steinmetz. The missions of both envoys ended tragically. Steinmetz died when his Jeep hit a mine as he was approaching enemy lines. Ostapenko managed to deliver the ultimatum, but on the way back, somewhere in no-mans land he was caught up in mortar shelling and was mortally wounded by shrapnel.
For decades Soviet and Hungarian Communist historiography accused the Germans of killing the envoys deliberately. Even before the siege had ended the Soviet propaganda machine was in action: staged photos were produced of the dead Steinmetz surrounded by all kinds of wreckage. In reality the body of Steinmetz was actually that of a Jeno Kim, an Hungarian film studio location manager. In the case of Osztapenko, Captain Erich Klein, the artillery commander of the anti-tank division of the German Division Feldherrnhalle was made the scapegoat. He did not admit to being guilty even under intense physical pressure but was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Klein was released from prison only in 1957.
In any case, Soviet commanders considered this act as a refusal and ordered the start of the siege. The Soviet news agency TASS labels the incident a serious war crime and states that Soviet troops encircling Budapest vow they will offer no quarter and a grim fate awaits the defenders. (8)
Jeno Kim, a prop supervisor at the film factory, dressed as Mikl�s Steinmetz (negotiator).
Source: Budapest Military Institute and Museum
German Counter-attack – Operation Konrad
Ist January 1945 - To relieve the pressure on Budapest and open a corridor, Hitler, ordered SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Herbert Gille's IV.SS-Panzer-Korps to leave the threatened Warsaw front and move four or five hundred miles south to Lake Balaton.
The counter attack (named as Operation Konrad) began on New Year's day. Operation Konrad was a joint German-Hungarian effort to relieve the encircled garrison of Budapest. First phase of the operation started by the German IV.SS-Panzerkorps attacked from Tata through hilly terrain north of Budapest in an effort to break the Soviet siege and, without artillery preparation, at Pilis heights and Gerecse, launched an attack against the 4th Guards Army. Simultaneously, Waffen-SS forces struck from the west of Budapest in an effort to gain tactical advantage.
A drive from Komarno towards Ezstergom and along the railways to Buda developed, led by Gille's 'Totenkopf' and 'Wiking' panzer divisions, supported by an infantry division. They made attack after attack in effort to find a weak spot in the Soviet defenses. On 3 January, the Soviet command sent four more divisions to meet the threat. This Soviet action stopped the offensive near Bicske less than 20 kilometers north of Budapest. (9)
January 7 - The second phase of Konrad begins with 'Wiking' attempt to continue the advance in a more northeasterly direction. After heavy-attacks, Soviet forces under Tolbulkhin was forced to evacuate Ezstergom. However, the Germans progress slowed under fierce Soviet defensive measures. Gille, under increasing pressure from Himmler and General Balck of the Fourth Army, forced his men to move on. After heavy fighting, on January 11, 1945 Gille's force reached Budapest airport and the rescue of forty-five thousand German soldiers, half of them fellow SS men, seemed assured. Although Gille's men was within 21km of the centre of Budapest the corps was withdrawn to support Konrad 111, an attack on ten Soviet divisions north of Lake Balaton.
12 January - German forces withdrew, casualties were high, 51 senior Waffen SS officers KIA, 157 WIA and an estimated 7,000 men KIA. By this action the fate of the Budapest garrisons had been sealed.
17 January - The last part of Operation Konrad was launched - Konrad III. The German IV.SS-Panzerkorps and the III. Panzerkorps attacked from the south of Budapest and attempted to encircle ten Soviet divisions. This encirclement attempt failed. (10)
Operation Konrad - Grenadiers from 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking are penetrating deep into the Soviet
defences through forest roads. Hungary, January 1945
The Soviet Offensive Continues: Defending the City – ‘Dig in and Hold the Line’
With fanatical Soviet forces closing the ring around Buda the defenders frantically dig in. Reports of the time describes the measures taken:
« The strongpoint system in the city of Budapest consisted of a layered defence beginning with a system of fortified firing positions and fortifications calculated to delay and bleed the enemy in the first zone of defence. The second zone of defence would have annihilated the remaining Soviet forces.
Taking full advantage of the terrain, the strongpoints of Budapest were strengthened by a natural obstacle—a river with steep banks and numerous hills in Buda. On the Germans' western side of the Danube River in Buda a series of timber and earth emplacements, which flanked the banks and covered the approaches to the river, were constructed. Such emplacements were typically connected by a continuous trench, which stretched along the bank and merged with a network of trenches in the depth of the strongpoint zone. It should be noted that fire and communication trenches were developed mainly along the front and on the flanks. In the rear, the trenches and firing positions did not usually represent a continuous line. However in Budapest, multi-layered reverse slope defences supplemented by strongpoints featuring a perimeter defense should have annihilated the invading Soviet and Rumanian armies.” (11)
“… we are again engaged in heavy fighting, but my soldiers are experienced and in good spirits and I’m sure we’ll pull through. The individual deeds of heroism we are witnessing are too numerous to be related now, or, for that matter, ever.”
SS-Brigadeführer Joachim Rumohr, Commanding General,
8th SS Cavalry Division “Florian Geyer,” in Budapest
Air Supply and the Siege
On the night of 29/30 December the first re-supply from the air reached Budapest at the race track with 75 tons of ammunition and 10 tons of fuel being unloaded. Another 45 tons of supplies were air dropped in via parachuted supply canisters. Fourteen Heinkel
111’s made the nighttime supply run, while thirteen Junker 52’s and sixteen Heinkel 111’s came through during the day time.
Until 9 January, German troops were able to use some of the main avenues as well as the park next to Buda Castle as landing zones for planes and gliders, although they were under constant artillery fire from the Soviets.
January 10, Malinovski tightens the noose and clears eight city districts with the help of Romanians who had switched sides further restricting air supply options.
On January 15, IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS radios Army Group South: "Artillery munitions are all used up....fuel is at an end. The supply situation is critical. The position of the wounded is catastrophic." The Luftwaffe managed to successfully drop only six tons of supplies to the garrison that night.
As urban warfare in Budapest increased in intensity. Supplies became a decisive factor because of the loss of the Ferihegy airport just before the start of the siege, on 27 December 1944. Before the Danube froze, some supplies could be passed on barges, under the cover of darkness and fog.
Nevertheless, food shortages were more and more common and soldiers had to rely on finding their own sources of food, some even resorting to eating their horses. Extreme temperatures also affected German and Hungarian troops.
Hitler personally concerns himself with the aerial resupply of the city. Ultimately 73 DFS230-type gliders from Luftflotte 4 attempt to resupply the trapped garrison, but only 43 land successfully.
Combat intensification
January 17/18 - Early in the morning of the 17th rearguard units in Pest retreated into Buda and the remaining bridges across the Danube are blown up to slow the Soviet advance. Those unable to escape surrendered on the following day. The Soviets claimed 35,840 (very precise?) killed and to have captured 62,000 prisoners. This latter, absurd claim was to have appalling consequences for the civilian population of the City as the Soviet commanders rounded up all able bodied civilians they could lay their hands on to make up the ‘prisoner shortfall’.
Battle for Buda Rages
Unlike Pest, which is built on flat terrain, the city of Buda is built on hills. This allowed the defenders to place artillery and fortifications above the attackers, greatly slowing Soviet advance. Furthermore, the defenders' small number demanded unorthodox tactics that took advantage of the terrain. This was referred to as "chess-board" tactics: the defenders held their positions at the various villas of the area. The Buda hills were scarcely populated at that time, houses were 50 or more meters away from each other. This was to the advantage of the German troops: while they were forced to retreat from the attackers, the Soviets were often caught in the undefended areas in between the houses. They were then fired at from the villas and sharpshooters prevented reinforcements from reaching them. Although this amounted almost to blasphemy for those who held orthodox views on military strategy, this practice worked well even for poorly trained and poorly armed troops who could use their creativity and knowledge of terrain to their advantage.
20th January The defenders fate become worst. The wounded soldiers would soon surpass the remaining German combatants. All non-combatant troops of corps sent to front lines while military decorations parachuted into the pocket in an effort to raise morale.
The main citadel, Gellért Hill is teneciously defended by the Waffen-SS, remaining elements of Florian Geyer SS-Kavallerie Regiment 15 and 16 and SS-Panzerjäger Abteilung 8, SS-Pionier Battalion 8 and SS-Flak Abteilung 8, 'Maria Theresa's 52nd and 53rd SS Cavalry Regiment with support from 13.Panzer-Division. As of December 18th, 1944, the 13th Division was mainly engaged in the defence of Buda, the part of the city located on the western bank of the Danube. Its CO, Generalmajor Schmidhuber was killed in action, the remnants of the Division took part in the attempted break out of the encirclement on 11th February.
The defenders of the Hill fought with great tenacity and successfully repelled several Soviet assaults. Nearby, Soviet and the remenants of various Waffen-SS units were fighting for the city cemetery. Fights on the shell-opened tombs would last for several days. Panzergrenadiers from several European countries fought shoulder-to-shoulder against an unstoppable avalanch of steel from the advancing Red army. Hungarian units were involved in fighting on Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube, in particularly merciless hand-to-hand combat. The island was of strategic importance, still attached to the rest of the city by the remaining half of the Margaret Bridge and was used as parachuting area as well as for covering improvised airstrips set up in the downtown.
February 5th to 12th – The Final and Bloodiest Week of the Siege
5 February, - Soviets attempt to smash their way through to the north of Eagle Hill on the west front, with massive artillery and tank support. Their objective was to break through and destroy the main IX SS Corps’ artillery positions which were the last line of defense before Castle Hill and the Citadel. Heavy fighting raged all day long and the positions changed hands several times. The performance of the defenders could only be described as super-human, but it wasn’t enough. At 2225, Eagle Hill was lost and the situation in Budapest had gone from critical to desperate. The surviving 88mm guns of Kampfgruppe Portugall, named after their commander, Ostuf. Kurt Portugall, are withdrawn to the Castle Hill/government center area.
The SS Corps have now over 11,000 wounded in pocket.
At this time, some of the Hungarian troops begin to desert to Soviets, creating gaps in the defences, even shooting some German soldiers in the back in the process. Fortunately such behaviour was the exception rather than the rule and can be blamed on the less disciplined and often inadequately trained Hungarian officer/NCO corps. Ultimately the deserting troops will share the same fate as those who resisted to the final hour in the camps and on the long road into slave labour in the Gulags. (12)
February 11 - The battle for the west side of the river had turned into a bitter siege. Securely entrenched in Buda's hills, German-Hungarian troops shelled any attempts to cross the ice-covered Danube. But the 70,000 defenders were trapped on a pocket roughly one kilometer long and one kilometer deep; other Russian forces were closing in from the west. Explosive bullets and phosporus tumbled onto the defenders, who refused even to contemplate surrender. The Russians eventually had little to do but mop up the bodies. On this day Gellért Hill finally fell after a vicious Soviet attack launched from three points of compass simultaneously. Now, after six weeks of fighting Soviet artillery was finally able to dominate the entire city and to shell the remaining Axis defenders, who were now suffering from malnutrition and disease. Daily rations were reduced to 150 grams of bread and meat from slaughtered horses. Nevertheless, the defenders refused to surrender and defended every street and house, fighting Soviet troops and tanks.
The last strength report of IX SS Mountain Corps dated 11 February 1945 gave the following totals:
• 23,900 German combat-ready troops
• 9,600 German wounded including 3,600 severely wounded or unable to walk
• 20,000 Hungarian combat-ready troops
• 2,000 Hungarian wounded
• 500 Arrow Cross Volunteer Militia
A view of the Castle from the slopes of Gellert Hill.
Source: Museum of Hungarian Photography
Breakout – German and Hungarian Forces Run the Gauntlet
For some days, the German commander in Buda, Pfeffer von Wildenbruch and his staff had been planning a breakout of the pocket, finally ordered his men to try and break through the Soviet ring in three separate groups. It was obvious that there was almost no chance of escaping, but few objected. It was better to die fighting than to be exterminated.
In a final act of desperation, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch along with the Hungarian commander, General Iván Hindy, executed in 1947 by the Soviets, decided to lead the remnants of his troops out of Budapest, in a last desperate breakout attempt.
The odds for escape were even slimmer than imagined. The Red Army commander knew all about the breakout and was already covertly withdrawing his men from the first buildings surrounding the German-Hungarian troops. The result for the defenders was a massacre.
Massacre on the Road to Vienna
“One of the Most Horrific Events ……of the Entire World War 11” – Hungarian Historian
Night of 11 February - After all functioning vehicles had been disabled, 28,000 German and Hungarian troops began to stream down from Castle Hill. They moved in three waves. With each wave were thousands of civilians. Entire families, pushing prams, trod through the snow and ice and thick fog. As the three groups were about to move off in different directions, Russian rockets began blasting their axis of advance through buildings recently evacuated by the Soviets to create killing zones. Nevertheless, they advanced out of their hiding places armed only with carbines and machine pistols and met a withering wall of rocket and artillery fire. Most of them were cut down in the first few minutes. The others kept coming, desperately trying to break through but the Soviets had prepared their positions well.
The troops, along with the civilians, used fog to their advantage, the first wave managed to surprise the waiting Soviet soldiers and artillery, and its sheer number allowed many to escape from the city. The second and third waves were less fortunate than the first. Soviet artillery and rocket batteries bracketed the escape area with deadly results. Those surviving the rockets and artillery were met by such masses of Russian infantrymen that it seemed impossible for single person to survive, let alone escape; but in the darkness and confusion, despite heavy losses, almost 5000 Germans and Hungarians, mostly civilians and seven hundred German troops filtered through and managed to reach the wooded hills northwest of Budapest and finally the German lines towards Vienna. The majority of the escapees were killed, wounded, or captured by the Soviet troops. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch and Hindy were among the captured.
A View of the Destruction on Castle Hill After the War
“A Scene of Slaughter and Destruction”
Of the 28,000 that participated in the break-out, some 55% were killed, many in the first few hours. All this took place before the very eyes of the local civilian population who were inevitably caught up in the slaughter and destruction.
“In the story of the siege of Budapest one particular part stands out as particularly horrific….when the Germans and civilians attempted to break through the Soviet encirclement in Buda on 11 February, is, in Ungváry's opinion, not only one of the most horrific events of the siege itself but of the entire World War II.” (13)
Waffen-SS members were among the most desperate men to escape, expecting and getting no mercy from the Red Army and few survived the breakout, either killed in action or murdered. Few Waffen-SS prisoners were taken by the Soviets.
Of Pfeffer-Wildenbruch's garrison of 70,000 men, over 5,000 men made it alive out of the city but thousands would be killed as they were hunted down by Soviet troops in the wooded areas to the West of the city, until about the middle of February. In all a grand total of 785 German soldiers actually reached the main German lines from Budapest garrison. About a third of the survivors were from the “Feldherrnhalle” Panzergrenadier Division led by Lieutenant Colonel Wolf.
Only about 170 of the Waffen-SS soldiers in the pocket would reach safety, men of the 'Florian Geyer' Division. Most of the rest were killed in battle, murdered in the aftermath as bands of Red Army soldiers hunted survivors among the ruins or perished in the Gulags.
Their commanders, the thirty-four-year-old SS-Brigadefuhrers Joachim Rumohr and August Zehender, the commander of 'Maria Theresa' Division, according to Hungarian sources, committed suicide during the sortie after they had been wounded.
Obergruppenführer Pfeffer-Wildenbruch was said to have been wounded during the escape and went into Soviet captivity. He would he held in prisons and labor camps until his release in October 1955. He received the Oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross for his stalwart leadership at Budapest.
After the Battle – German antitank gun
End Game – The Pocket Surrenders
13 February All resistance in Buda ceased with the surrender of SS-Oberstgruppenfuehrer Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. During the siege, which had last seven weeks, some 50,000 German-Hungarian troops had been killed in action or murdered, with the Soviets claiming over 40,000 prisoners. This was a lie, the Soviet commander had only about 5,000 in the cages. To make up the numbers the dreaded NKVD were sent into the streets to round up 25,000 civilians who instantly became ‘POW’s’.
Two Waffen-SS divisions - 'Florian Geyer', 'Maria Theresa', and some supporting units destroyed were destroyed. The IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS was written off from the SS units' list. Budapest had indeed become a Stalingrad for the Waffen SS.
With the exception of Operation Spring Awakening (Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen), launched in March that year, the Siege of Budapest was the last major operation on the southern front for the Germans. The siege further depleted the Wehrmacht and especially the Waffen-SS. For the Soviet troops, the Siege of Budapest was a final rehearsal before the Battle of Berlin. The Allies took no action as they regarded Hungary as part of the Soviet sphere of influence and therefore not worthy of attention. A day or so before the siege ended, the conference at Yalta took place, and the fate of post-war Europe was sealed. Hungary was not mentioned. It also allowed the Soviets to launch the Vienna Offensive. On 13 April 1945, exactly two months after the Budapest surrender, Vienna would fall.
This Hungarian Civilian is one of many thousands of ‘POW’s’ rounded up in Budapest.
Casualties – See also Appendix 2
The entire German-Hungarian loss of life amounted to about 60% of Red Army losses. Between November 3, 1944 and February 16, 1945, there were about 50,000 dead and 62,000 wounded (including civilian victims of the attempt to break out of the blockade). (5)
No one will ever know how many German soldiers died in the months after the battle of Budapest, but estimates range up to 25,000 (John Toland, The Last 100 Days). In any event many were put to death upon surrendering while others died during punitive “death marches” or later on in the slave labor camps.
Red Army casualties, according to their sources, were 80,026 dead and 240,056 wounded during the military operations in Budapest and its vicinity, and for each Soviet soldier killed elsewhere in Hungary, two lost their lives in the capital city. The material damage was also great with the capital virtually destroyed.
March 12, 1946. The execution of the Hungarist Movement (Arrow Cross Party) in a courtyard at Market Street.
After the coroner pronounced them dead, the bodies of the leaders were put on public display.
The Aftermath
“The aftermath of the fighting is described in harrowing and dispassionate detail by Ungváry in his book. It makes it chilling reading. The pages dealing with the Soviet victory are harrowing. The looting, pillaging, mass murder, deportation and rape that took place is difficult to comprehend. One estimate is that about 10 percent of the population was raped. The situation was so dire that even arguably the most hated Hungarian of all time, Mátyás Rákosi, secretary general of the Communist Party, appealed to the Soviet authorities.” (14)
Some 40,000 civilians were killed, with an unknown number dying from starvation and diseases. Mass rapes of women between ages of 10 and 70 were common. In Budapest alone 50,000 are estimated to have been raped by Red Army and Romanian soldiers.
In a Post-Communist Hungary, historians still ponder the result of the Battle.
The following are a selection of comments from various websites of comments from Hungarians on the aftermath. Where the comments are related to reviews of Urganvva book, this is mentioned.
“For more than four decades, Marxist historians had been trying to brainwash Hungarians into believing that Budapest was liberated by the Great Soviet Union, a claim conceived by Rákosi's propaganda and later readily repeated by Kádár. For serious historians things were always that Budapest was captured and conquered by the Soviet Army. The campaign medals—no fewer than 35,000—had inscriptions to the same effect - the Soviet Army conquered Budapest and occupied it. The "liberation" lasted for a couple of hours, perhaps, ….But the soldiers' conduct….[showed] Stalin's army conquered Budapest for the Soviet Empire...The Red Army….behaved in a murderously stupid manner as they began a systematic campaign of looting, murder and rape that would haunt the Hungarian people for a generation inspiring one major insurrection against their Communist rulers…The siege was still in progress, when the Communist Party and the police started the process of organizing and carrying out mass arrests and lynchings. Due to the encouragement of the Communist Party, these public executions became mass celebrations, and they continued for several years following the end of the war….. However, these punishments only served a political purpose and the 'legal' procedure lacked the minimal judicial requirements…” (15) (16)
Soviet Occupiers in a Budapest Street March 1945
“Many of these same things can be said of Krisztián Ungváry’s The Siege of Budapest. Once again we have a serious scholar tackling a subject that has not garnered anywhere near the attention it deserves. Once again we have the Red Army seemingly irresistible in the advance, the Wehrmacht resisting desperately and enough death and destruction to turn even the strongest of stomachs. And once again we have the martyrdom of a great city, yet another historic European capital blown to smithereens. Ungváry’s research is almost completely new, based heavily on testimony from Hungarian participants who could talk only after the fall of communism. For all these reasons, Siege of Budapest …. deserves the widest possible readership.”
Footnotes:
1. Péter Gosztonyi in the Hungarian Quarterly, Innse no 150
2. « Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS » - Richard Landwehr indicates that ; A Siegrunen/Merriam Press Original Publication Siegrunen Monograph SR2
3. Wiki
4. While the Germans employed army groups as their premier strategic force, the Red Army employed fronts, which, initially, were roughly equivalent in size and mission to army groups. After the 1941 campaign, the Red Army reduced the size and increased the number of fronts, making them roughly equivalent to German armies.
5. Budapest Military History Museum
6. "Axis Cavalry in World War II" by Dr Jeffrey T. Fowler page 21.
7. Paul Hellyer in the magazine Magyar Szó , Issue 82 - December 2005 when reviewing the book; The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II by Krisztían Ungváry, Yale University Press,
8. Budapest Military History Museum
9. Wiki
10.Wiki
11. Richard Landwehr - Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS
12. Richard Landwehr
13. Paul Hellyer
14. Paul Hellyer
15. Budapest Military History Museum
16. Paul Hellyer
Published sources referred to and used in this article :
Roger James Bender & Hugh Page Taylor - Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS, vol 3
Dr Jeffrey T. Fowler - Axis Cavalry in World War II
Richard Landwehr - Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS
Marc J. Rikmenspoel - Waffen-SS Encyclopedia
Gordon Williamson - The Waffen-SS: 11. to 23. Divisions
In particular:
Krisztian Ungvary, The Siege of Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II (trans. Peter Zwack), Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10468-5
Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS, Richard Landwehr; A Siegrunen/Merriam Press Original Publication Siegrunen Monograph SR2
Paul Hellyer in the magazine Magyar Szó , Issue 82 - December 2005 when reviewing the book; The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II by Krisztían Ungváry, Yale University Press, 2005, pp475, ISBN 0-300-10468-5
James Mark. Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944–1945. Past and Present 2005: 188: 133-161 (Oxford University Press).
Budapest Military History Meuseum.
And of course Wikipedia, always good for a ‘steer’ in the direction of available material and the occasional smile.
Published sources referred to and used in this article
Roger James Bender & Hugh Page Taylor - Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS, vol 3
Dr Jeffrey T. Fowler - Axis Cavalry in World War II
Richard Landwehr - Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS
Charles Whitinh – Warriors of Death
Marc J. Rikmenspoel - Waffen-SS Encyclopedia
Gordon Williamson - German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45
Gordon Williamson - The Waffen-SS: 11. to 23. Divisions
In particular:
Krisztian Ungvary, The Siege of Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II (trans. Peter Zwack), Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10468-5
Budapest: The Stalingrad of the Waffen-SS, Richard Landwehr; A Siegrunen/Merriam Press Original Publication Siegrunen Monograph SR2
Paul Hellyer in the magazine Magyar Szó , Issue 82 - December 2005 when reviewing the book; The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II by Krisztían Ungváry, Yale University Press, 2005, pp475, ISBN 0-300-10468-5
Budapest Military History Meuseum.
Reference material on 8th and 22nd Waffen-SS cavalry units
Hanns Bayer - Die Kavallerie der Waffen-SS
Rolf Michaelis - Die Kavallerie-Divisionen der Waffen-SS
Charles Trang - The Florian Geyer Division - La Division Florian Geyer
Paul J. Wilson - Himmlers Cavalry: The Equestrian SS 1930 - 1945
Richard Landwehr - Steadfast Hussars: The Last cavalry Divisions of the Waffen-SS
Rolf Michaelis - Die Kavallerie-Divisionen der Waffen-SS
The excellent historical websites http://www.Feldgrau.com and Axis History Forum.
Appendix 1 (Sources include Feldgrau.com and Axis History Forum)
Axis Forces Order of Battle
Order of Battle for the IX.SS-Gebirgskorps in December 1944.
IX.SS-Gebirgskorps.
• Korps Stab
o SS-Korps-Nachrichten-Abteilung 109
o SS-Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regiment 509
o Schwere SS-Beobachtungs-Batterie 509
o SS-Flak-Abteilung 509
o SS-Feldgendarmerie-Trupp 509
o SS-Feldpostamt 509
o SS-Feldlazarett 509
• 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division Florian Geyer
• 22.SS-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresa
• 13.Panzer-Division Feldherrnhalle.
• 60. Panzergrenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle
• 271.Infanterie-Division
• Flaksturmregiment Nr.12
• 4.SS-Polizei-Regiment
• 4 x ad-hoc Infantry battalions (comprising surviving elemets from other units)
Order of Battle 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division ‘Florian Geyer’, Budapest Jan 1945
• SS-Kavallerie Regiment 17
• SS-Kavallerie Regiment 18
• SS-Artillerie Regiment 8
• SS-Panzerjäger Abteilung 8
• SS-Aufklarungs Abteilung 8
• SS-Nachrichten Abteilung 8
• SS-Pionier Battalion 8
• SS-Flak Abteilung 8
• SS-Feld Ersatz Battalion 8
• SS-Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 8
• SS-Radfahr-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 8
• SS-Ski-Battalion
• SS-Verwaltungsstruppen 8
• SS-Sanitäts-Abteilung 8
• SS-Veterinär-Kompanie 8
• SS-Feldpostamt
• SS-Kriegsberichter-Zug (mot) 8
• SS-Feldgendarmerie-Trupp 8SS-Krankenkraftwagenzugr
Commander: SS-Brigadefuhrer Joachim Rumohr ( 1 July 1944 – 11 Feb 1945)
Manpower in September 1944 was 15,000
Order Of Battle, 22.SS-Kavallerie-Division ‘Maria Theresa’, Budapest Jan 1945
• 52nd SS Cavalry Regiment
• 53rd SS Cavalry Regiment
• 54th SS Cavalry Regiment
• 17th SS Cavalry Regiment
• 22nd SS Artillery Regiment
• 22nd SS Panzer Reconnaisance Battalion
• 22nd SS Panzer Jäger Battalion
• 22nd SS Pionier Battalion
• 22nd SS Nachrichten Battalion
• 22nd SS Division Nachschubtruppen
• 22nd SS Verwaltungstruppen Battalion
• 22nd SS Sanitäts Battalion
SS-Brigadeführer August Zehender (21 Apr 1944 - 11 Feb 1945)
Manpower in September 1944 was 12,000
Losses among personnel of 'Maria Theresa' losses were great and by 5 December 1944, the division strength was only 8,000 men.
Order of battle – Hungarian Forces of the Budapest Garrison, 26 Dec 1944
I Corps (Hungarian units)
10. Infantry Division
12. Infantry Division
1. Armored Division (parts of)
Hussar Division (parts of)
Group Billnitzer (surviving elements of 4 assault gun battalions)
1. Parachute Battalion
Budapest Watch Battalion
5 x Royal Gendarmerie Battalion
Budapest Air-Defense units
3 x Engineer Battalion
Budapest University Assault Battalion
Royal Life Guard Battalion
Arrow-Cross unit (1.000 - 1.500 men)
Budapest police
Appendix 2 Budapest – Statistics and Losses during the Siege
Note: I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the statistics quoted here as the casualty figures vary according to the source and the politics influencing the historical memory. I prefer to quote Hungarian post-Communist sources as I consider they are concerned with distancing themselves Soviet histrionics.
Civilian population in June, 1944.
1.200.000
Civilian population in December, 1945.
1.000.000
Total German soldiers killed
25.500
Total German missing presumed killed/murdered
13,000
Total Hungarian soldiers killed
16,000
The total number of Axis army casualties due to the siege.
54.500
Hungarian Civilians taken away by the Soviets as POWs (prisoner of war)
50.000
Hungarian soldiers taken POW by the Soviets
30.000
Hungarian soldiers taken POW by the Soviets and never returned.
14.000
Total civilians casualties in the months following the end of the siege as a result of murder, expelled or executed by the Soviets and Hungarian Communists – 19,000
Hungarian civilians casualties during the siege by armed conflict, disease, starvation or trying to flee to the West
50,000
Appendix 3 : Maps
Budapest Pocket – November 3rd to December 28th
German-Hungarian Front Lines December 28th
Budapest Pocket – December 28 to February 11th
This article was first published on Irish Axis Forum on 6th November 2008
