As the western world held their breath over the Battle of the Bulge, the equally important Siege of Budapest was unfolding, a herculean struggle for control over the southern half of Europe. The best units deployed on the Eastern front at that time clashed at Budapest, earning it the hellish name of Festung Evropa, in regard to its intensity and significance, it may as well be called the battle of Stalingrad on Axis territory.
Goals and significance
For Hungary, Budapest was not just a capital but a symbol of national sovereignty. Its fall would mean the loss of independence and the end of any hope for a negotiated peace with the Allies.
For the Third Reich, Budapest was the last major obstacle protecting the Hungarian oil fields at Nagykanizsa, which were vital to the war effort. Its loss would expose the southern flank of the Reich to Soviet invasion.
For the Soviet Union, capturing Budapest was a strategic and ideological imperative. A quick victory would secure Soviet dominance in the Balkans and beyond, demonstrating the Red Army’s invincibility to the Western Allies.
Prelude
The battle of Budapest was the climax of the battle for Hungary which were a series of operations, offensives and battles starting from August of 1944 with Romania´s betrayal of their former allies and ending with the Nagykanizsa-Körmend offensive in April 1945.
Though Hungary had participated in the war, their losses up until 1944 were relatively low and they were by August 1944 the only Axis nation with reserves left, that is because they never really committed themselves to this war until the war came to their borders.
The Soviets had hoped that countries in the region would turn against Germany one by one and that the Soviets could reach Austria before 1945.
These dreams however would soon break like glass as Hungary refused to surrender their freedom without a fight.
Hungarian and Romanian units clashed with eachother and as time went on the number of Soviet and German soldiers would increase. By October 1944 about half of front line troops were Hungarian and the other half were German while the Romanians were gradually less and less significantly involved in the fighting, getting almost completely replaced by Soviet and other units by May 1945.
The first phase of the battle for Hungary was mostly fought in Transylvania where Hungary resisted the combined Soviet and Romanian offensives largely thanks to the Árpád line, one of the most effective fortifications in modern history. This phase ended in October with Hungarians evacuating the region in an orderly fashion to avoid encirclement from the south.
The second phase is categorised by extensive unit movements across large open fields, difficult river crossings and brutal counter attacks by both sides.
The advancing Soviet units were counterattacked by the arriving German reinforcements which resulted in the tank clash of Hortobágy-Debrecen, the second biggest tank battle in history. Though both sides failed to achieve their objectives, the might of the German-Hungarian combined forces managed to inflict severe losses on the Allies that would have crippeled any army - any other than the Soviet red army! - In response the red army launched the Budapest offensive with their reserves while Hungarian and German tanks were under repairs or had to wait for fuel.
The Battle of Budapest
The Battle of Budapest started with operations outside of the city, with the Soviet Budapest offensive in October 1944, one of the red army’s most complicated and difficult multi-stage operations of the war. In the post war time it would become known as one of “Stalin’s ten blows”.
It’s actually not one cohesive operation but a series of separate “smaller scale” offensives which were treated as one for propaganda purposes.
The first stage was an overwhelming success in which the red army has successfully pushed
The Axis forces across the Danube, reaching the outskirts of Budapest. However the city (unlike Stalingrad) was made of stone, every house was essentially a castle and its defenders were zealous and unwavering. The civilians themselves gave every support they could too. The city´s flanks were protected by the natural barrier of the Danube river making encirclement difficult. The frontal assaults failed and the red army had to wait until reinforcements arrived.
The second stage was aimed at encircling the city with two well coordinated separate offensives that out flanked the defenders of Budapest to both the north and south by crossing the Danube.
The Axis sensing the threat requested OHK to allow a withdrawal but the request was denied, because at the same time Germany was preparing for the battle of the Bulge and a long lasting battle in Budapest would serve as perfect distraction for the Soviets while Germany focused on the west. However because of the terrain, even an orderly fighting retreat would have been too costly without ample reinforcements.
The Axis chose the only reasonable option: hold as long as possible and hope for the best, as on December 29 they became trapped in the city by the Soviets, thus the 50 day long siege of Budapest began. Soviet forces fell on the city from all sides with the support of the Romanian VII Romanian Army Corps.
The 50 day long siege of Budapest
In a grim twist of irony, the 6th army that had been trapped and destroyed in Stalingrad then reformed, was now partially trapped again in Budapest.
Much like in Stalingrad the Csepel factories were still producing weapons and ammunition even during the fighting, despite the Soviet shelling, workers continued to labour on their duty.
The sewer systems of the city were exploited as well, with both sides using them to bypass hard points, send supplies and set up ambushes.
The defenders barricaded streets with everything they could, tram cars, wagons, furniture, rubble of blown up buildings and even the stones the roads were laid with.
Pest was the first to fall and the five bridges connecting the Pest and Buda side were destroyed to prevent their use by the red army, including the famous Széchenyi Chainbridge from 1849, a gem of Hungarian culture.
Though the Allies had 10 times more artillery, the Axis enjoyed technological edge, better artillery positions on hill tops and excellent observation positions. Due to the nature of close quarters fighting artillery fired directly at enemy positions, often fighting among the first line, which made them easy targets for counter attacks that had inflicted catastrophic losses on artillery units, forcing even heavy artillery in the first lines of fighting to make up for the lost light and medium guns.
Supplies were landed on the large avenue streets of the city as well as on Margit island which would become the battleground for the city’s most intense fighting.
At the same time Germany was organising a relief attempt with the best units they could gather from the eastern front and redeploying them in the Operation Konrad series.
Operation Konrad I attempted to reach Budapest by breaking through to the north west of Budapest, but due to slow progress, new plans were drawn.
Operation Konrad II was a good success that had broken through Soviet lines in the north through the Mountains and forests of Pilis and Vértes to the north west of Budapest, however only about 20 km away from Budapest the Panzer divisions halted their advance, because the Soviets suddenly launched an attack in Poland, once again redirecting Germany´s focus.
A new relief attempt was organised: Operation Konrad III which would make good progress through the open fields to the south west of Budapest, but not good enough to make it to the defenders that were running dangerously low on ammunition. In desperation the Axis attempted to break out towards the mountains in hopes of reaching friendly lines. On February 11th thousands of soldiers and civilians -entire families- would move in large groups taking advantage of the heavy fog, however the Soviets anticipated this move and only a few men were successful with thousands perishing as the Soviets relentlessly shelled civilians, Axis and Soviet soldiers alike.
The rest of the defenders fortified themselves in Gellért hill, especially the Buda castle holding out until their last bullet before finally surrendering on February 13th.
Though victorious, the Red Army paid a heavy price, suffering horrendous casualties especially in war material, all infrastructure critical to maintain advance were destroyed and during this time a strong independent Yugoslavia had cemented itself thus preventing a pan-slavic Soviet empire encompassing all of the Balkans.
The Soviets tried to cover up the pyrrhic victory by claiming that they had trapped a large army of Axis “fighters” inside the city and even taken thousands of civilians as prisoners to make sure that their imaginary number matched, still Stalin’s anger at the prolonged resistance led to harsh reprisals, including the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians to the GULAGs.
Today the siege of Budapest is still remembered, with many people taking part in the breakout, now a yearly night time hike to honour the memory of the victims and brave soldiers that fought in the city.
Battles fields that has to be included:
Gellért hill - Buda castle
Margit island
South railway station (Déli pályaudvar)
Csepel factories
Vértes mountains (part of Op. Konrad)
Attila III. defense line
Szél Kálmán tér
Istenhegy
Other interesting locations:
East railway station (Keleti pályaudvar)
Üllői street
Ferenc József barracks
Budafok
Cegléd (Budapest offensive)
Danube bridgehead (Budapest offensive)
Székesfehérvár (part of Op. Konrad)
Vác (part of Op. Konrad)
Esztergom (part of Op. Konrad)
Because most Eastern front battlefields on high BRs are urban battles, the campaign should include multiple battlefields on the city outskirts or surrounding towns around Budapest for more diverse battlefields.
All of these battles would take place during the winter, a great opportunity to explore both Hungarian and Soviet late war winter uniforms.
Naturally we expect to get tank camouflage changing based on seasons and theatre of war alongside the release of this campaign.
Notable units of the campaign
Hungarian
“Szent László” division
20th infantry division
Inside Budapest:
1st armoured division
10th infantry division
12th infantry division
Operation Konrad:
1st cavalry division
Arrow Cross militia
While formally not an actual military unit, many volunteers under the command of the Arrow Cross party fought in the city, they were the most ferocious among the defenders, making up for their lack of formal training with unbreakable will and knowledge of the urban landscape.
These men should be the Axis guerrilla squads in this campaign.
SS
Inside Budapest:
8th SS “Florian Geyer” cavalry division
22nd SS “Maria Theresia” cavalry division
Note: many of these soldiers were Hungarians or ethnic Germans from Hungary.
Operation Konrad:
3rd SS “Totenkopf” Panzer division
5th SS “Wiking” Panzer division
Heer
Inside Budapest:
13th Panzer division
60th “Feldherrnhalle” Panzergrenadier division
Operation Konrad:
1st Panzer division
509th Heavy Panzer Battalion
Soviet
10th guards airborne division
25th guards rifle division
59th guards rifle division
110th tank brigade
170th tank brigade
Inside Budapest:
5th guards tank corps
25th guards rifle division
66th guards rifle division
68th guards rifle division
18th guards howitzer artillery brigade
49th guards cannon artillery brigade
115 guards anti-tank artillery regiment
23rd tank corps
14th assault engineer brigade
151st rifle division
95th howitzer artillery brigade
27th mortar brigade
48th “Katyusha” regiment
Romanian
Inside Budapest:
2nd infantry division
19th infantry division
9th cavalry division
Note: considering how integrated Romanian equipment already is into the Axis faction, it would be difficult to give them proper representation in the game, other than a premium/event squad fighting on the Soviet faction´s side.
