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World War II: Siege of BudapestMHQ | Single Page | 7 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
Adding to the combatants' woes was the fact that the winter of 1944-1945 was unusually cold. Most troops lived in buildings and large apartment blocks. However, those who manned positions in parks and large open areas suffered badly from the cold, particularly in daylight, when the ubiquitous Soviet snipers pinned them down. In Buda, Soviet marksmen on the rooftop of the Janos Hospital, just eight hundred yards to their front, plagued defenders deployed across Városmajor Park. Some were deadly accurate Siberian riflemen.
Not only did snipers unnerve the garrison. The Soviets, masters at infiltration and small-unit patrolling, were sometimes able to penetrate behind the urban defense lines to acquire intelligence, snatch prisoners, and kill officers. For example, a six-man patrol of Soviet marines was able to penetrate deep behind German defenses near Buda's Royal Palace by slithering through a narrow sewer main. They emerged and waited for hours in the shadows, letting several German soldiers pass by. Their patience was eventually rewarded when they were able to surprise two German officers, killing one and dragging the other back through the sewers to Soviet lines.
The subterranean war in Budapest worked both ways, however. Although the subway tunnels were blocked early in the siege, the city was laced with countless sewer mains, maintenance tunnels, and passages. The Hungarian paramilitary Vannay Battalion, which was made up of municipal workers who knew the city's underground well, worked deep in the city's bowels to counter the Soviets. They emerged phantom-like in captured buildings' cellars to query cooperative Hungarian civilians as to the Soviets' whereabouts.
When uncertain if the enemy were lurking at the other end of a dark tunnel, they would throw a urine-soaked tennis ball down the passageway and release dogs trained to fetch them. In theory the dogs would bark or draw enemy fire if they encountered any Soviets. On one occasion Vannay members infiltrated Soviet lines near Janos Hospital and carved up several Hungarian defectors, who were broadcasting propaganda over Soviet-provided loudspeakers.
On January 11, Malinovsky, pressed by Stalin, who was clearly irritated by the sluggish nature of the assault, ordered a reorganization of Soviet forces. A special combat group equipped with flamethrowers, heavy weapons, and sappers commanded by Maj. Gen. Ivan M. Afonyin was formed. Budapest would be reduced by brute force. Rifle divisions were assigned attack sectors between four hundred and eight hundred yards wide, with regiments pushing on 150- to 300-yard-wide fronts, several soldiers advancing per yard. Heavy artillery, including 122mm, 152mm, and 203mm guns, was brought up to support this steamroller with direct fire.
The German battle group defending Csepel Island, Budapest's industrial heart, was forced out after a bloody fight through its many factories and machine shops. The munitions factories founded by the great Hungarian Jewish industrial magnate Manfred Weiss, the 'Hungarian Krupp,' continued to fabricate artillery rounds, small arms ammunition, and Panzerfausts for the defense of Budapest until literally the last moment.
The pressure on Pest intensified as the Soviets closed in on the contracting German and Hungarian positions. Varosliget Park and Millennium Square, the last wide-open area in northwest Pest, fell on January 12 after bitter fighting. From the park, the tempo of the Soviet advance quickened, passing the many embassies and ornate villas on the broad Andrassy Boulevard. By January 14, Hungarian infantry and assault guns were locked in mortal combat for the Eastern Railway Station with most of General Nicholae Sova's Seventh Romanian Rifle Corps. Whereas in most instances Hungarian units had fought halfheartedly during the Battle of Budapest, here — faced with their Romanian arch-nemesis — they fought savagely. 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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7 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
Peter, its monty…serving in Korea. Just came across this by chance. Encourage you to get on with the book, to this day my visit and tour of Hungary remains a highlight of my experience in the army.
By Porfirio on Feb 11, 2010 at 9:26 am