Pearl of the Danube ETO (id:#61460)

(HASL 8 - Festung Budapest ID: FB CG I)   [next]   [previous]

Buda, Hungary 1945-01-19 (7 others)

Overview:

Following the near total destruction of Army Group Center during Operation BAGRATION and the subsequent capitulation of Romanian forces at the end of August 1944, Russia had pushed Germany and its last remaining ally, Hungary, to the breaking point. Motivated by a desire to secure as much of central Europe as possible, Stalin initiated efforts to seize Budapest, the capital of Hungary, by no later than the end of the first week of November. This task fell upon Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and his 2nd Ukrainian Front. Malinovsky, leery of jumping off immediately given his Front’s near continuous employment for the last several weeks, requested an additional five days to resupply and refit his spent troops. Given the political situation in Europe, Stalin refused Malinovsky’s request and ordered him to begin operations the next day, 29 October. Spearheaded by General I.T. Schlemin’s 46th Army, Malinovsky’s main objective seemed to be within reach as Schlemin’s 2nd and 4th Guards Mechanized Corps were fast approaching the southern suburbs of Budapest followed closely by the infantry of the 23rd Rifle Corps. In order to counter the Soviet threat to Budapest, German 6th Army commander, General of the Artillery Maximil-ian Fretter-Pico, shortened his entire defensive line, thereby giving him the reserves necessary to launch a series of counterattacks against Schlemin’s right flank. Although some Soviet armor units were able to advance as far as the suburbs of Budapest, they were met and successfully checked by ad hoc German defense groups. After this first assault failed to secure Stalin’s primary objective, 2nd Ukrainian Front was reinforced at the end of November by Marshal Fedor Tolbukhin’s 3rd Ukrainian Front. It would still take until Christmas day before Soviet forces were finally able to fully encircle the city when the 18th Tank Corps linked up with forward elements of the 6th Guards Tank Army northwest of Budapest near Estergom. Initial penetrations by Soviet reconnaissance elements toward the heart of the Axis defenses — the Várhegy area — were stopped near St. Janos Hospital in northwest Buda on 25 December by Hungarian University Assault Battalion forces and city gendarmes. On the morning of 1 January, units of the Soviet 108th Guards Rifle Division supported by SU-76Ms from the 1897th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, operating from the St. Janos Hospital area, followed up on the initial reconnaissance effort by launching their first attack on the nearby Városmajor.After the initial assault by the 108th Guards Rifle Division failed to capture the Városmajor on 1 January, the Soviet 320th Guards Rifle Division, supported by a half dozen armored vehicles, was ordered to try again to seize the park area. On the morning of 19 January, the Soviet 320th Rifle Division launched its attack from the area around the new St. Janos Hospital along Kútvölgyi út toward the railway embankment bordering the west edge of the park.

Defender: German (SS) / Hungarian (Vannay) (1st and 2nd Companies, Vannay Battalion and Central Hungarian Combat Group with SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division 22 "Maria Theresia" and SS-Kavallerie-Regiment 16, SS-Kavallerie-Division 8 "Florin Geyer" and Kampfgruppe Europa)  

Errata (source)