The Swept Away City ETO (id:#61461)

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

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

Overview:

After the initial assault by the Soviet 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 320th Guards Rifle Division again launched an attack from the St. Janos Hospital area, this time along Kútvölgyi út. The main defenders of the Városmajor, the Vannay Battalion of the Royal Hungarian Army, had by this time erected three major lines of defense within the park. The first line, defended by Lt. Horváth’s 1st Company, was situated along the Cogwheel Railway embankment, which runs from the northwest portion of the park up to the top of Széchenyi-hegy to the west. This line was anchored by four German MG42 machineguns and supported by a band of mines, roadblocks, and razor wire. The Hungarians had also disabled a number of trucks on the overpasses crossing the Cogwheel Railway to further hamper Soviet access to the park. The second line of defense lay further east, zigzagging around three air raid bunkers located near Temes utca. This area was held by Lt. Biró’s 2nd Company, which was headquartered in the school buildings at the corner of Városmajor utca and Temes utca. The last line of defense was situated near Szamos utca toward the east end of the Városmajor. Finally, the Vannay Battalion units were supported by elements of the German Kampfgruppe Europa, headquartered in the Baár-Madas School located just to the north of the Városmajor Park. Aided by the expert marksmanship of Siberian snipers located on the roof of the St. Janos Hospital and the support of a flamethrower tank, the initial Soviet attack started off in good order. The Soviet assault succeeded in quickly capturing the White Villa and half of the strongly fortified twin apartment complex at 43-45 Olasz fasor. Then, under cover of smoke, the Soviets stormed across Olasz fasor and captured the Cogwheel Railway Station. They then proceeded to clear all of the Hungarian machinegun nests along the Cogwheel Railway embankment, and by day’s end Lt. Horváth’s 1st Company was forced to retreat 400 meters to the second defensive line along Temes utca, leaving behind their wounded in the shelter of the Cogwheel Railway Station building. The Soviets continued to pour reinforcements into the newly created “bridgehead” within the park and started to remove the anti-tank mines along Olasz fasor to enable further penetration of the armored forces.

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)