World War II: Siege of Budapest

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On Christmas Day 1944, the trams stopped running in Budapest. Cadet Ervin Galantay, a dispatch runner for the recently mustered Hungarian paramilitary Vannay Battalion, was headed for home to partake in holiday celebrations when he saw a throng of civilians surrounding a group of tram conductors in Buda’s central Szell Kalman Square.

He went over to ask what was going on. The conductors’ answer stunned everyone: ‘The Russians are at the Budagyongye Tram Depot.’ Galantay promptly rebuked the conductors for spreading false rumors but joined some gendarmes and soldiers hurrying to investigate. Approaching the grounds of the imposing Janos Hospital, they were surprised by a hail of small-arms fire. In the ensuing chaos a rapidly withdrawing German tank recovery vehicle almost ran Galantay down. It was true; the Soviets had somehow entered the back door into Budapest and were just two miles from the Royal Palace.

So began the Siege of Budapest and the destruction of Central Europe’s ‘Pearl of the Danube.’ Unimaginable to all who lived in Budapest during this unfolding drama was that this first skirmish near the hospital would soon turn into one of the most frightful urban battles of World War II.

Since June 1944, the Axis forces had been steadily pushed back from the southern Ukraine, through Romania, and into central Hungary. The fighting had been bitter and costly. In August, Germany and Hungary’s erstwhile ally, Romania, abruptly changed sides during the devastating Soviet Jassy-Kishenev offensive, which led to the collapse of Army Group South Ukraine in Bessarabia. By mid-September, after a fighting retreat through Transylvania, the Germans and Hungarians managed to cobble together a sufficient armored force to fight the Soviets to a standstill near Debrecen in eastern Hungary.

The rapid buildup of Soviet forces, combined with heavy losses and the chronic German shortage of infantry to hold recaptured ground, however, meant that any defense based in the broad plain east of the centrally located Tisza River was doomed to failure. Additionally, an entire Soviet front, the Third Ukrainian, commanded by Marshal Fedor Ivanovich Tolbukhin, the ‘Liberator of Belgrade,’ appeared from the south after a brilliant wheeling maneuver through the Balkans.By late October, the Soviet offensive slowed as it approached historic Budapest. Bisected by the broad Danube River, this strategically located city had always been an important outpost and trading town within the fertile Danubian basin.

Hilly Buda, on the Danube’s west bank, is key military terrain, especially for defending against forces attacking from the east. Dominated by Castle Hill, site of the imposing Hungarian Royal Palace, Buda is a natural bastion. In contrast, highly urbanized Pest, situated on the Danube’s flat east bank, was exposed through the centuries to a host of invaders from the east — most notably Mongols, Ottomans, Russians, and Romanians. Kati Marton vividly captured how Budapest was then in her book Wallenberg:

Budapest is a dramatic, theatrical kind of place. More than anything else it resembles a stage set. Buda perched on steep hills, her sprawling Royal Palace, and her Citadel carved into jagged cliffs which plunge into the river, craves the attention of the visitor arriving down the Danube from Vienna. Pest on the flat plain that is the continuation of the Puszta, is all business, commerce and intellect, all conversation and art. Fantastic amalgams of Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine straining to find their Magyar soul face boulevards which are unabashed imitations of both Paris and Vienna. The Parliament, ostentatiously outdoing Westminster, spire for spire, Gothic arch for Gothic arch, faces the dirty gray Danube, the heart of the city.

For Adolf Hitler, Budapest was vital. It was the capital of Germany’s last remaining ally in Europe and the gateway to Vienna and southern Bavaria. In addition, the Axis’ only remaining crude oil plant was in southwest Hungary. Hitler believed that strong counteroffensives in Hungary coupled with a stout defense in Poland would keep the Soviets off-balance and prevent them from massing their forces against Berlin.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II

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