Siege of Budapest
Siege of Budapest | |||||||
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Part of the Budapest Offensive (Eastern Front of World War II) | |||||||
A Soviet soldier writing "Budapest" in Russian on a signpost after the siege | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Germany Hungary |
Soviet Union Romania | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (POW) Gerhard Schmidhuber † Dezső László Iván Hindy (POW) |
Rodion Malinovsky Fyodor Tolbukhin Nicolae Șova | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
In the city:[1] |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
3 November–15 February: 137,000 men[4]
Relief attempts:
| 3 November–11 February: 100,000 - 160,000[5] | ||||||
76,000 civilians dead[6] 38,000 civilians died in the siege (7,000 executed) 38,000 died in labour or POW camps |
The siege of Budapest or battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by
General situation
Having suffered nearly 200,000 deaths in three years fighting the
In October 1944, after successive Allied victories at Normandy and Falaise, and after the collapse of the Eastern Front following the stunning success of the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration, Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy again attempted to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies. Upon hearing of Horthy's efforts, Hitler launched Operation Panzerfaust to keep Hungary on the Axis side, and forced Horthy to abdicate. Horthy and his government were replaced by the far-right National Socialist Arrow Cross Party, led by "Hungarist" Ferenc Szálasi. As the new ultra-nationalist government and its German allies prepared the defense of the capital, IX SS Mountain Corps, consisting of two Waffen-SS divisions, was sent to Budapest to strengthen the city's defense.
Soviet offensive
The besieging Soviet forces were part of Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front. Formations that actually took part in the fighting appear to have included the 53rd Army, 7th Guards Army, portions of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, including the 46th Army, and the Romanian 7th Army Corps.[9]
Arrayed against the Soviets was a collection of
Encirclement of Budapest
The Red Army started its offensive against the city on 29 October 1944. More than 1,000,000 men, split into two operating maneuver groups, advanced. The plan was to isolate Budapest from the rest of the German and Hungarian forces. On 7 November 1944, Soviet and Romanian troops entered the eastern suburbs, 20 kilometers from the old town. The Red Army, after a much-needed pause in operations, resumed its offensive on 19 December. On 26 December, a road linking Budapest to Vienna was seized by Soviet troops, thereby completing the encirclement. The Nazi-supported "Leader of the Nation" (Nemzetvezető), Ferenc Szálasi, had already fled from the city on 9 December.
As a result of the Soviet link-up, nearly 33,000 German and 37,000 Hungarian soldiers, as well as over 800,000 civilians, became trapped within the city. Refusing to authorize a withdrawal,
Budapest was a major target for Joseph Stalin. The Yalta Conference was approaching, and Stalin wanted to display his full strength to Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He therefore ordered General Rodion Malinovsky to seize the city without delay.[10]
During the night of 28 December 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Front contacted the besieged Germans by radios and loudspeakers, and told them about a negotiation for the city's capitulation. The Soviets promised to provide humane surrender conditions and not to mistreat the German and Hungarian prisoners.[12] They also promised that the emissaries' groups would not bring weapons and would appear in cars with white flags.
The next day, two groups of Soviet emissaries appeared as expected. What happened to them later is unclear,(see here) but both leaders of the groups died. One possible version of the events is recounted below.
The first, belonging to the 3rd Ukrainian Front, arrived at 10:00 AM in the Budafok sector and was taken to the headquarters of General Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. Their negotiating effort was a failure; Pfeffer-Wildenbruch refused the surrender conditions and sent the Soviet agents back to the battlefield. While the emissaries were en route to their camps, the Germans suddenly opened fire, killing Captain I. A. Ostapenko. Lieutenant N. F. Orlov and Sergeant Ye. T. Gorbatyuk quickly jumped into a trench and narrowly escaped. Owing to heavy German fire, the Soviets were not able to retrieve Ostapenko's body until the night of 29 December. He was buried at Budafok with full military honors.[13][14][15]
The second group of emissaries belonged to the 2nd Ukrainian Front and arrived at 11:00 AM in the Kispest sector. When the emissaries arrived, the German garrison fired at them. The leader of the emissaries, Captain Miklós Steinmetz, appealed for a negotiation, but to no avail. He was killed together with his two subordinates when the German fire struck the Soviet car.[13][16]
First German relief attempt
The Soviet offensive began in the eastern suburbs, advancing through
Combat in the city
Fighting broke out in the
Second German relief attempt
On 18 January 1945, the IV SS Panzer Corps, whose relocation to the region north-east of Lake Balaton had been completed on the previous day, was again thrown into battle. This was Operation Konrad III. In two days the German tanks reached the Danube at Dunapentele, tearing the Soviet Transdanubian front apart, and by 26 January the offensive had reached a point roughly 25 kilometers from the ring around the capital.
Stalin ordered his troops to hold their ground at all costs, and two
German troops could no longer hold their ground; they were forced to withdraw on 28 January 1945, and to abandon much of the occupied territory with the notable exception of Székesfehérvár. The fate of the defenders of Budapest was sealed.
The Battle for Buda
Unlike
The fighting on Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube, was particularly merciless. The island was still attached to the rest of the city by the remaining half of the Margaret Bridge and was used as a parachute drop zone as well as for covering improvised airstrips set up in the city center. The 25th Guards Rifle Division operated from the Soviet side in combat on the island (for losses see below).
On 11 February 1945, Gellért Hill finally fell after six weeks of fighting when the Soviets launched a heavy attack from three directions simultaneously. Soviet artillery was able to dominate the entire city and to shell the remaining Axis defenders, who were concentrated in less than two square kilometres and suffering from malnutrition and disease.
Despite the lack of supplies, the Axis troops refused to surrender and defended every street and house. By this time, some captured Hungarian soldiers defected and fought on the Soviet side. They were known collectively as the "Volunteer Regiment of Buda".
After capturing the
Breakout and surrender
Hitler still forbade the German commander, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, to abandon Budapest or to attempt a breakout. But the glider flights (DFS 230) bringing in supplies had ended a few days earlier and parachute drops had also been discontinued.
In desperation, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch decided to lead the remnants of his troops out of Budapest. The German commander did not typically consult the Hungarian commander of the city. However, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch now uncharacteristically included General Iván Hindy in this last desperate breakout attempt.
On the night of 11 February, some 28,000 German and Hungarian troops began to stream north-westwards away from Castle Hill. They moved in three waves. Thousands of civilians were with each wave. Entire families, pushing prams, trudged through the snow and ice. Unfortunately for the would-be escapees, the Soviets awaited them in prepared positions around the Széll Kálmán tér area.
Troops, along with the civilians, used heavy fog to their advantage. The first wave managed to surprise the waiting Soviet soldiers and artillery; their sheer numbers allowed many to escape. The second and third waves were less fortunate. Soviet artillery and rocket batteries bracketed the escape area, with deadly results that killed thousands. Despite heavy losses, five to ten thousand people managed to reach the wooded hills northwest of Budapest and escape towards Vienna, but only 600–700 German and Hungarian soldiers reached the main German lines from Budapest.[9][17]
The majority of the escapees were killed, wounded, or captured by the Soviet troops. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch and Hindy were captured by waiting Soviet troops as they emerged from a tunnel running from the Castle District.
Aftermath
The remaining defenders finally surrendered 13 February 1945. German and Hungarian military losses were high, with entire divisions having been eliminated. The Germans lost all or most of the
The Soviet forces suffered between 100,000 and 160,000 casualties. The Soviets claimed that they had trapped 180,000 German and Hungarian 'fighters' in the pocket, and declared they had captured 110,000 of these soldiers. However, immediately after the siege, they rounded up thousands of Hungarian civilians and added them to the prisoner-of-war count, allowing the Soviets to validate their previously inflated figures.[18]
Budapest lay in ruins, with more than 80 percent of its buildings destroyed or damaged, with historical buildings like the Hungarian Parliament Building and the Castle among them. All seven bridges spanning the Danube were destroyed.
In January 1945, 32,000 ethnic
With the exception of
After the city's surrender, occupying troops forcibly conscripted all able-bodied Hungarian men and youth to build pontoon bridges across the Danube River. For weeks afterward, especially after the spring thaw, bloated bodies piled up against these same pontoons and bridge pylons.[18]
Impact on civilians
According to Krisztián Ungváry, some 38,000 civilians died during the siege: about 13,000 from military action and 25,000 from starvation, disease and other causes. Of this number, 15,000 were killed in mass executions of Jews by the far-right Hungarian nationalist Arrow Cross Party.[7][8] Although the Soviet staff gave orders prohibiting ill-treatment of prisoners of war and civilians to almost every unit[26] and took harsh measures against the violators,[27] after the end of hostilities Budapest was flooded by Soviet deserters living on pillage and fighting against the Soviet security service and police,[28] and excesses such as looting and mass rape were carried out by Soviets and Hungarian criminals.[29] Despite the fact that the Soviets often took children and entire families under their protection and had a taboo on hurting children,[30] a high number of women and girls were raped,[31][32][a] although estimates vary from 5,000 to 200,000.[34] Norman Naimark argues that Hungarian girls were kidnapped and taken to Red Army quarters, where they were imprisoned, repeatedly raped and sometimes murdered.[35] Professor Andrea Pető argues that "uncertain, wild estimates" were used for political purposes in Hungary to divert public attention away from the crimes committed by that country, including rapes committed against Soviet women by Hungarians.[36]
Memoirs and diaries
The events in the
The memoirs of Heinz Landau, Goodbye Transylvania, present a German soldier's view of the battle. Pinball Games: Arts of Survival in Nazi and Communist Eras, written by George F. Eber, a richly detailed account of a 20-year-old Hungarian and his family living through the siege, was published posthumously in 2010.[39] It chronicles the clever strategies employed for survival and outlined the boredom and terror of a family that was trapped, but would not capitulate. Eber, who had become an internationally known architect, included sketches with the memoir. One of them depicts a Russian soldier silhouetted against a Budapest wall on the first night the Germans were driven out of his neighborhood. The memoir also includes an account of World War II and the post-war transition of the country into Soviet-style Communism.
The memoirs of the 14-year-old dispatch runner of the Vannay Volunteer Battalion, Ervin Y. Galantay, give an insight into the battle and urban combat. The diary of the young runner describes day-to-day life and survival of both civilians and soldiers. It was published in English by the Militaria press in Budapest in 2005, under the title Boy Soldier.
Joseph Szentkiralyi, who had worked in the United States prior to World War II, had been deported to Hungary as an enemy alien after the war began. During the siege, he and his family endured constant artillery bombardment and street-by-street tank and infantry battles between the Germans, the remnants of the Royal Hungarian Army, and the attacking Romanian, and Soviet forces. Szentkiralyi, wanted for questioning by Hungarian army officers, hid on the upper floors of buildings during bombing raids to avoid capture. To prevent starvation and help keep their families alive, Szentkiralyi and others risked their lives to leave their bomb shelters at night and butcher frozen horse carcasses they found in the streets. At the end, daily rations consisted of melted snow, horse meat, and 150 grams of bread. Szentkiralyi worked for the Allies after the war ended. Learning that he faced imminent arrest, he fled to Switzerland to avoid detention and likely execution by the Soviets.[40]
See also
- Budapest offensive
- Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union
- Hospital in the Rock
- Budapest Ghetto
- Operation Konrad
- Operation Spring Awakening
- Operation Southwind
Notes
References
- ^ Frieser et al. 2007, p. 897.
- ^ Frieser et al. 2007, p. 898.
- ^ Ungváry 2003, p. 324.
- ^ a b Ungváry 2003, pp. 331–332.
- ^ "The Siege of Budapest". 25 July 2022.
- ^ Ungváry 2003, p. 330.
- ^ a b "Szita Szabolcs: A budapesti csillagos házak (1944-45)[The Star Houses in Budapest (1944-45)]". Remeny.org. 15 February 2006. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
- ^ a b "The Arrow Cross - Persecution of the Jews". Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ a b c Ungváry 2005, p. 512.
- ^ Deak, István (Autumn 2005). "Endgame in Budapest". Hungarian Quarterly.
- ^ Schneider 2004.
- ISBN 978-0898756036.
Советское командование стремилось избежать ненужного кровопролития, сохранить для венгерского народа все то, что было создано руками замечательных мастеров прошлого. 29 декабря противнику, окруженному в Будапеште, были направлены ультиматумы командования 2-го и 3-го Украинских фронтов, предусматривавшие гуманные условия капитуляции. Венгерским генералам, офицерам и солдатам гарантировалось, например, немедленное возвращение домой. Но парламентер 2-го Украинского фронта капитан М. Штейнмец был встречен огнем и убит, а парламентеру 3-го Украинского фронта капитану И. А. Остапенко от-ветили отказом капитулировать и при возвращении выстрелили в спину.
- ^ a b Andrushchenko 1979, pp. Chapter 5.
- ^ Serikh 1988, pp. Chapter 3.
- ^ Samsonov 1980, pp. Chapter 18, Section 7.
- ^ Russiyanov 1982, p. 188.
- ^ Frieser et al. 2007, p. 922.
- ^ a b Zwack, Peter B. (June 12, 2006). "World War II: Siege of Budapest". HistoryNet. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
- ^ Wasserstein, Bernard. "History: European Refugee Movements After World War Two". BBC.
- ^ Ther 1998, p. 21.
- OCLC 646024457. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- ^ Isaev 2008, pp. 196, 199 & 201.
- ^ "Yad Vashem database". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
...who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during World War II ... and put some 15,000 Jews into 32 safe houses.
- ^ "Raoul Wallenberg's arrest order, signed by Bulganin in January 1945". Searching for Raoul Wallenberg. 17 January 1945. Archived from the original on 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
- ^ a b Nadler, John (May 19, 2008). "Unraveling Raoul Wallenberg's Secrets". Time. Archived from the original on May 28, 2008.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, p. 278.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, p. 295.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, p. 294.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, pp. 286 & 294.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, p. 293.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, pp. 348–350.
- S2CID 162539651.
- ^ Ungváry 2005, p. 350.
- ^ Petö 2003, p. 129.
- ^ Naimark 1995, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Petö 2003, p. 133.
- ^ "Deseő László naplója" (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on January 27, 2007.
- ^ András, Németh. "Buda". Mostohafiak (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2014-12-01.
- ^ Eber 2010.
- ^ St. Clair, Joe; Phelps, Brian; Bánáthy, Béla (1996). "White Stag History Since 1933". Retrieved 2008-08-03.
Bibliography
- Andrushchenko, Sergey Aleksandrovich (1979). "5: For Hungary's Capital". Начинали мы на Славутиче [We began at Slavutych] (in Russian). Moscow: Institute of History of the USSR.
- Eber, George F. (17 May 2010). Pinball Games: Arts of Survival in Nazi and Communist Eras. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-42693-688-3.
- )
- Isaev, A. V. (2008). 1945-ĭ ... : triumf v nastuplenii i v oborone ot Vislo-Oderskoĭ do Balatona [1945: Triumph both in offence and defence: from Vistula-Oder to Balaton] (in Polish). Moscow. pp. 196, 199, 201. )
- Naimark, Norman M. (1995). The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949. Cambridge: Belknap. ISBN 0-674-78405-7.
- Petö, Andrea (May 5, 2003). "Memory and the Narrative of Rape in Budapest and Vienna in 1945". In Bessel, Richard; Schumann, Dirk (eds.). Life after Death: Approaches to a Cultural and Social History of Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 129–148. ISBN 0-521-00922-7.
- Russiyanov, Ivan Nikitich (1982). "17: The Fight for Hungary". В боях рожденная [In the Battle Born]. Moscow: Institute of History of the USSR.
- Samsonov, Alexander Mikhilovich (1980). "18 Helping the European people — Section 7: The Red Army at Hungary". Крах фашистской агрессии 1939-1945 [The collapse of the invading fascists 1939-1945]. Moskva: Institute of History of the USSR.
- Schneider, Wolfgang (2004). Tigers in Combat I. Stackpole Books. OCLC 502220933.
- Serikh, Semyon Prokofievich (1988). "3: The Immortal Battalion". Бессмертный батальон [Immortal Battalion]. Moskva: Military Publishing.
- Ther, Philipp (1998). Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945–1956 [German and Polish displaced persons: IDPs society and politics in SBZ/DDR and Poland, 1945-1956] (in German). Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. OCLC 185654102.
- ISBN 1-86064-727-8.
- OCLC 1124264644.
Further reading
- Gosztonyi, Péter (1964). Der Kampf um Budapest 1944/45. München: Schnell & Steiner. OCLC 559562921.
- Mark, James (2005). "Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944-1945". Past & Present. 188. Oxford University Press: 133–161. .
- Montgomery, John F. (1947). Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite (Reprint: Simon Publications, 2001 ed.). New York: Devin-Adair Company. OCLC 753984253.
- Shefov, Nikolai (2002). Russian fights. Lib. Military History.
- "Будапештская операция 1944–1945 годов" [Budapest Operation 1944–1945 (Source about Soviet casualties, estimated at 80,000, not 160,000)]. n.d. Archived from the original on 21 December 2012.
- Galantay, Ervin Y. (2005). Boy soldier : the defense of Budapest 1944-1945 : the rise and fall of the Hungarian Vannay battalion (With photos, sketches and footnotes). Militaria. OCLC 79430020.
- Mihályi, Balázs (2014). Budapest battlefield guide, 1944/45. OCLC 908729383.
- Mihályi, Balázs (2022). Siege of Budapest 1944–45: The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube. Bloomsbury USA. OCLC 908729383.