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The Battle for Budapest 1944 - 1945
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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The desperate struggle between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army for Budapest in 1944 and 1945 was as lethal and destructive as any of the urban battles fought during the Second World War. The losses of men and equipment sustained by the Germans were so great that they hastened the collapse of Hitler’s regime. Yet what happened in Budapest is less well remembered today than other flash points in the conflict on the Eastern Front. Anthony Tucker-Jones’s photographic history is a fascinating and graphic introduction to this neglected episode in the closing months of the war.
The battle began with Operation Panzerfaust in October 1944 when the Germans seized Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy to prevent his country defecting to the Soviets. Red Army advances then left German and Hungarian units trapped in the city and sparked fifty days of intense fighting. Then in March 1945 Hitler launched Operation Spring Awakening, the reckless final German offensive of the war, designed to recapture Budapest and stabilize the Eastern Front. It failed spectacularly, opening the road to Vienna for the Red Army.
The selection of archive photographs gives a sharp insight into every aspect of the fighting in and around Budapest and records the ravaged city the battle left behind.
The battle began with Operation Panzerfaust in October 1944 when the Germans seized Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy to prevent his country defecting to the Soviets. Red Army advances then left German and Hungarian units trapped in the city and sparked fifty days of intense fighting. Then in March 1945 Hitler launched Operation Spring Awakening, the reckless final German offensive of the war, designed to recapture Budapest and stabilize the Eastern Front. It failed spectacularly, opening the road to Vienna for the Red Army.
The selection of archive photographs gives a sharp insight into every aspect of the fighting in and around Budapest and records the ravaged city the battle left behind.
Author
Anthony Tucker-Jones
ANTHONY TUCKER-JONES spent nearly twenty years in the British Intelligence Community before establishing himself as a defence writer and military historian. He has written extensively on aspects of Second World War warfare, including Hitler’s Great Panzer Heist and Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration.
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Book preview
The Battle for Budapest 1944 - 1945 - Anthony Tucker-Jones
Chapter One
Hungarian Turning Point
As the war on the Eastern Front progressed, the Hungarian government sought to reduce its military commitment to Hitler. For some time it managed to deploy only relatively modest forces against the Red Army. Between 1942 and 1943 this had consisted of the Hungarian 2nd Army, numbering some 200,000 men. At the same time it had also been engaged in secret negotiations with America and Britain as it sought to disentangle itself from the Axis Pact. In response Hitler occupied Hungary in March 1944 to ensure that it did not defect and appointed SS Brigadeführer Edmund Veesenmayer as Reich representative in Hungary.
In Eastern Europe things went from bad to worse for Hitler’s Third Reich as the Wehrmacht was driven from Byelorussia and Ukraine. In August 1944 Romania changed sides, which proved a disaster for Hitler’s Army Group North Ukraine. Some 211,000 men were killed or captured. Romania’s defection completely exposed Hungary’s eastern frontier. While the Allies had been contained in Italy, the loss of Romania undermined German defences in southern Europe. The defection of Romania cost Hitler sixteen irreplaceable divisions. As the Red Army overran western Romania and entered Bulgaria there was nothing between them and Budapest, and then nothing between them and the rear lines of the German Balkan front. The only way to plug the gap was by withdrawing forces from elsewhere.
In Budapest the pro-German government agreed to the full mobilisation of the Hungarian Army to fight the Soviets. The better units were deployed to the Pre-Carpathian region, where they held Colonel-General Ivan Petov’s 4th Ukrainian Front for six months. Under unrelenting pressure from the Red Army, by the end of 1944 the Hungarian 1st Army had withdrawn into Slovakia, while the 2nd Army, smashed at Stalingrad, had to be re-formed. Units were also transferred to the battered Hungarian 3rd Army south of Lake Balaton, or to the German 6th and 8th Armies in northern
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