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World War II: Siege of BudapestMHQ | 6 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post 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. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II
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6 Comments to “World War II: Siege of Budapest”
This comment is for Peter B. Zwack who originally published the article Siege of Budapest.
Dear Peter: I am not a publisher, but I am considering writing a book and it is a work in progress. I need information about the siege of Budapest and I came across your article. Do I have to pay to use your article from this internet site? Or do I only need your permission?
Thanks,
Kathalin Horvath
By Kathalin Horvath on Jul 24, 2008 at 10:01 am
Dear Karhalin, I have no problem about your using my article for your work. All I ask is to see your final result (out of interest and not for oversight!) I only now found your comment from July – please excuse my late response.
With best regards, Peter Z
PS I am planning to write a military and social history of Hungary during the last war but won’t begin for several years. What theme is your work about?
By Peter Zwack on Dec 1, 2008 at 7:40 am
Dear Peter
My father, George Aczel, has written a book about his experiences as a Jewish boy growing up in Hungary during both the Nazi regime and the Russian occupation.
The book has been self published and my father would dearly like to get his book noticed. I have attached a brief synopsis of the book in the hope that you might
be interested in it or know some other people or organisation that could help him.
Thanking you for your time
Charlotte White
“WOLF” synopsis
Hungary 1931. It is George’s first birthday. The celebrating relations are discussing their favourite topic, the politics of the day. Uncle Ede wonders what deadly weapons will be used in the next war. “Not in our life time!” says Sandor. “But Mussolini, Stalin? You can’t trust a dictator,” argues his brother.
The boy’s father secures a good position as a chauffeur. “Two hundred and fifty pengos a month! And the Baron has some excellent cars.” The family move into a spacious flat in Angyalfold.
At school the boy enjoys the patriotic history lessons, the victorious kings and the injustice of the Trianon. Soon he is informed that he can no longer attend religious classes with his form but must go upstairs where a Rabbi would instruct him in the Jewish faith. George is dumbfounded.
When the German army occupy Hungary the proclamations against the Jews intensify. George finds his mother vacantly sewing on yellow stars. Father loses his job with the Baron.
They are ordered to leave their home to live in a special Jewish house. Families are encouraged to keep together – they are easier to trace. Father is able to bring his own father and step mother to share their allocated apartment. They hardly have time to settle in when George and his grandfather are told to report for labour service. George’s father is already working in a factory in a ‘necessary’ industry.
After swearing allegiance to the country they are marched to some army barracks, a labour camp, waiting further deportation to either the Russian front or the gas chambers. As they leave the barracks on their final march towards the railway station George sees an opportunity to make a run for it. He plunges through a bus queue hearing shots behind him.
Now the family have to go into hiding. Disguise and false papers help them survive until the Russian ‘liberation’. The liberators bring in another set of rules, meanwhile the Russian soldiers loot and behave in a barbaric manner. George witnesses men held at gunpoint while their wives are raped. Factories and banks are soon nationalised by the new Communist party, a puppet government formed by Rakosi, a Hungarian who had spent time in Russia learning how to condition the population. People were randomly arrested, often on false charges. They were jailed or sent away never to be seen again.
George joins a group of boys who in exchange for food take peasant women to the markets in a homemade cart.
Mother’s joy in seeing her son providing them with fresh food suddenly turns to tragedy. On her return from visiting her parents after such a long time, she is injured by shrapnel from mortar fire. The Germans had made a last stand across the river in Buda. Two weeks later she dies of tetanus.
George is sent to the Piarist school in Vac, and when he returns to Budapest he is surprised to find that his father has a profitable business repairing cars.
He goes to high school in the city. The high spirited boys play their jazz and make fun of the regime, but not for long. Father’s garage is taken away, the authorities have tightened their grip. Some of the schoolmasters disappear creating fear amongst the staff.
Father decides they will have to leave the country, but the border has been closed down. On their first attempt to escape they are caught and are imprisoned and badly beaten by the AVO (secret police). However they survive to try again, and with the help of a guide they cut the wires and step carefully over the mines to freedom.
By Charlotte White on Jan 9, 2009 at 6:30 am
Hi Charlotte, I just came across your note and read your father’s “Wolf” synopsis with interest. Let me chew on where to take this….for now i am really out of the Budapest history loop. I’m currrently in Afghanistan until July 09 and only intermittently check this page…when get back i hope to become reengaged. Take care, Peter
By Peter B. Zwack on Mar 1, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Peter
Just read Charltte White’s “Wolf” synopsis.
Am also in the very early stages of writing a novel – with one chapter in WWII Budapest and one during the 1956 revolution.
Could you assist with obtaining a copy of “Wolf” (assuminig it is English)
Regards
Brian Sims
By Brian Sims on Sep 29, 2009 at 3:49 am