Lake Balaton offensive

Lake Balaton offensive

Part of: Second World War

date	March 6, 1945 to March 16, 1945
place	Hungary
output	German defeat
consequences	Stop the German advance and initiate a counter-offensive

Parties to the conflict
German Empire Hungary	Soviet Union Bulgaria
Commander
Heinz Guderian Otto Wöhler Maximilian von Weichs	Fyodor Tolbuchin
Troop strength
Army Group South ( 6th Army ) ( 2nd Panzer Army ) ( 6th Panzer Army ) Army Group E Air Fleet 4th	3rd Ukrainian Front 2nd Ukrainian Front 9th Guards Army 6th Guards Armored Army 4th Guards Army
losses
12,358 dead, wounded and missing approx. 600–700 tanks, of which only 31 were destroyed by enemy action	32,899 Man, 8492 Dead 24,407 wounded 152 tanks 415 Pak

The last large-scale attack operations by the German Wehrmacht in World War II are called the Lake Balaton Offensive . These include the companies "Spring Awakening" in the area of Lake Balaton - Lake Velence - Danube , "Eisbrecher" in the area south of Lake Balaton and "Waldteufel" in the south of the Drau-Danube triangle. Associations were brought from the western front to Lake Balaton in Hungary to stop the advance of the Red Army in the direction of Vienna . The unsuccessful enterprise lasted from March 6th until the start of the Soviet counter-offensive on March 16, 1945.

prehistory

The planned course of the offensive in Hungary in March 1945

Transport of wounded, Russian Liberation Army

By the end of 1944 the Red Army had succeeded in crossing the Danube and enclosing the Hungarian capital Budapest (→ Siege of Budapest ). It had advanced far to the west south of Lake Balaton. The German counter-attacks in January 1945 therefore had the main aim of the occupation of Budapest ( 13th Panzer Division , Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle , 8th SS Cavalry Division "Florian Geyer" , 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division as well numerous smaller German units and many units of the Hungarian army). Even the deployment of the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" and the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" was not enough to break through the containment ring. The company "Konrad 3", as well as the company "Südwind" in the area southwest of Budapest were at least temporarily able to prevent further action by the Red Army in the west. Despite the criticism from some German generals (including Heinz Guderian ) ordered Adolf Hitler , after the failure of the Bulge released 6th Panzer Army not to or for the defense of Berlin to relocate, but under the utmost secrecy to Hungary. This association under the leadership of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich had - at least on paper - the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler , the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" , the 9th SS -Panzer-Division "Hohenstaufen" and the 12th SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" over high combat value. In fact, however, these divisions were badly worn out and only poorly replenished with inexperienced replacements. The division “Das Reich” was effectively wiped out twice in the Soviet Union in the previous four years . From June 1944 to January 1945, she also had to cope with the particularly costly fighting on the invasion front in Normandy and the failed Ardennes offensive.

For reasons of secrecy, Sepp Dietrich was given the cover name "Higher Pionier Leader Hungary" (according to Hungváry) or "Higher Pionier Leader Heeresgr." South "addressed. The cover names were canceled on March 18th.

The main reason for the relocation of the 6th Panzer Army to Hungary was to secure the local oil wells and fuel reserves for the German war economy. According to the then armaments minister Albert Speer , large parts of the conveyor systems had long since been destroyed by bomb attacks. The refineries at Komárom and Pét were destroyed by Allied bombers on March 14 and March 16, 1945, respectively, and by then they had been able to supply fuel and oil for an offensive on the Hungarian front. Since there was hardly any possibility of transporting fuel because of the destroyed railway systems, it seemed plausible to carry out a large-scale tank offensive where there were fuel stores and oil reserves.

The Army Group South with its subordinate 6th Army (Army Group "Balck") , the 2nd Panzer Army , the 6th Panzer Army with five subordinate tank divisions, Army Group E and Air Fleet 4 were involved in the major offensive .

Structure of the opposing forces

course

The German attack

Panzerkampfwagen VI "Tiger 2" were used in large numbers and left behind during the retreat (1944)

With the Führer's order of February 25, 1945, the instructions about the "Operation in Hungary" went to the Chief of the Army General Staff, Heinz Guderian , Army Group South ( Otto Wöhler ) and the Commander-in-Chief Southeast ( Maximilian von Weichs ). The aim of the "Spring Awakening" company is to clear up the area between the Drava, Danube and Lake Balaton.

The 6th Panzer Army was to lead the main strike against the 3rd Ukrainian Front , southeast of the line Balaton - Lake Velence , under the command of General Fyodor Tolbuchin , and if necessary push it back across the Danube. This army was reinforced by further divisions of Army Group South ( 44th and 356th Infantry Division, 23rd Panzer Division , 3rd and 4th Cavalry Division ).

The Soviet High Command ( STAVKA ) ordered the preparations for the offensive of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts against Bratislava (Pressburg) and Vienna on February 17, 1945 . Three days later, information about the planned German attack was available and the 3rd Ukrainian Front was ordered to prepare for the defense. This completely eliminated the moment of surprise, as the Red Army was able to set up three lines of defense with several intermediate positions at the focal points of the threatened sections by March 3. In addition to the four war bridges, a cable car and an oil pipeline were run across the Danube in order to secure supplies during the defense and at the same time to provide the reserves for their own major offensive, which was planned for March 15.

In Yugoslavia standing Army Group E should coincide with the attack of the 6th Panzer Army, the Drava exceed north and invade the plain between the river Drava (Drava) and the Danube. This company was named "Waldteufel" and was planned for March 4, 1945. One of the immediate objectives was to recapture the city of Mohács . For the attack, that was LXXXXI. Army Corps , which consisted of the 297th Infantry Division , the 104th Jäger Division , the 11th Air Force Field Division and the Division zbV Fischer.

The 2nd Panzer Army , south of Lake Balaton, was to attack under the cover name "Eisbrecher" near Nagybajom and bring about the unification of Army Group South with Army Group E. The 2nd Panzer Army began attacking Nagybajom in the direction of Kaposvár at 4 a.m. on March 6th . The main burden was borne by the LXVIII. Army corps with the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS". This unit had no main battle tanks, only assault guns and armored personnel carriers. A few kilometers east of Nágybajom, the attack stalled around nine o'clock in the morning due to strong resistance. Attempts by the army command to shift the direction of attack from east to south-east failed because of the rejection by the high command of Army Group South.

In the area of Army Group E , two bridgeheads with ferry service across the Drava could be formed, but the advance towards Mohács failed because of the defense by Tito's partisan units and attacks by the Soviet air forces .

The attack by the 6th Panzer Army began on March 6th after several postponements due to weather and failures in rail traffic. The I. SS Panzer Corps was supposed to force the crossing over the Siokanal, the II SS Panzer Corps was entrusted with the capture of Dunaföldvar. South of it, the Balck army group with the III. Panzer Corps to achieve the breakthrough at Seregelyes. Initially, the SS Panzer divisions in particular achieved small gains in terrain.

Only on March 9th did the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions break into the 135th Rifle Corps of the Soviet 26th Army. By evening the I. SS Panzer Corps was able to reach the Bozotpatak-Deg-Ujhodos-Ennying line. The II. SS Panzer Corps (2nd and 9th SS Panzer Divisions ) under SS-Gruppenführer Bittrich encountered swampy terrain east of the Sarviz Canal and made no progress. The losses were very high due to the fierce Soviet resistance and the unfavorable, muddy ground conditions, which prevented the tanks from being used effectively.

It was not until March 11 that the I. SS Panzer Corps was able to cross the 30-meter-wide Siokanal near Simontornya with heavy losses. The III. Panzer Corps advanced south of Lake Velence to Gardony and then got stuck. General Breith , who attacked with 153 tanks on March 6, now had only 63 tanks and assault guns. The Soviets relocated reinforcements from the 2nd Ukrainian Front, deployed north of the Danube, to the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Until the start of the great Soviet counter-offensive, the 6th Panzer Army could only record insignificant gains in terrain.

Successful Soviet counter-offensive

Overview map (schematic) 15. – 26. March 1945

German withdrawal in Hungary

On March 16, the Soviet counter-offensive began on the right wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. The freshly replenished 9th Guard Army , together with the 4th Guard Army already deployed there, attacked the fuses of the 6th Army (Army Group "Balck") , whose task it was to keep the back of the 6th Panzer Army clear. The Soviet attack was supported by the 17th Air Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the 5th Air Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. If the Soviet armies of the guards succeeded in breakthrough, the German forces advanced on the eastern bank of Lake Balaton were threatened with being cut off. The attack divisions of the German 6th Panzer Army, which had advanced further to the east, were in a dangerous position.

By March 18, the Soviets finally broke through at the front of the Balck Army Group . The freshly brought up 9th Guards Army under Lieutenant General Glagolew managed between Székesfehérvár and Mór the operational breakthrough. The decisive breakthrough was achieved by the Red Army after 42 Soviet divisions and eight rapid corps attacked the positions of the Wehrmacht. The northern attack wedge of the 4th Guard Army under General Zachwatejew broke through Felsőgalla and took Tata-Tóváros . The connection between the German 6th Panzer Army and the Hungarian 3rd Army was lost. The more powerful parts of the 6th Panzer Army were regrouped to the north and took over the combat section up to the Danube, while the 6th Army was now solely responsible for the southern section of the front up to Lake Balaton.

After the Soviet 6th Guards Panzer Army began their attack on March 19 , it pushed through to the west to Várpalota . The Soviet advance accelerated and the breakthrough widened 35 kilometers wide and 25 kilometers deep. The 6th Panzer Army narrowly escaped encirclement: the enemy was only three kilometers short of cutting off the way back for the divisions of this army. At the same time, the Soviet 7th Guard Army and the 46th Army south of the Danube surrounded the Hungarian 3rd Army in the area between Esztergom and Komárom. The gap that had now opened up between the 6th Panzer Army in the north and the 6th Army in the south could no longer be closed.

On March 21, the hotly contested Székesfehérvár (Stuhlweissenburg) had to be given up by Standartenführer Karl Ullrich ( 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" ) against the "Führer order" to fight to the last man on March 21st . The next day, the corridor between Lake Balaton and the Soviet 6th Guards Panzer Army, only about three kilometers wide, threatened to close and encircle several SS divisions. This pocket could only be evacuated in a hurry with the support of the 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" with heavy losses by March 23rd.

The 6th Panzer Army had to withdraw its units towards Northern Burgenland and Vienna, pursued by the three Soviet armies of the guards, while the 6th Army withdrew towards Southern Burgenland and Styria , pursued by the Soviet 26th and 27th Armies. This gap in the front gaped in the direction of Mittelburgenland, the district of Oberpullendorf . At the end of March, it formed the gateway to Austria for the divisions of the 6th Armored Guard Army, the 4th and 9th Guard Army.

After the end of the "Spring Awakening" operation, they temporarily slowed their advance (see Battle of Vienna # Prehistory ).

losses

Soviet war memorial and military cemetery in Székesfehérvár (Stuhlweissenburg)

During its last defensive operation in World War II, the Red Army suffered losses of 32,899 men between March 6 and 15, according to its own information, of which 8,492 were dead and 24,407 wounded, as well as 152 tanks and 415 anti-tank guns. In contrast, the Wehrmacht's losses in the same period totaled 12,358 dead, missing and wounded and 31 tanks. According to Ungváry, the strikingly low number of tanks lost up to March 15 can be explained by the fact that the tanks could not even be brought into battle due to approach problems and the ground conditions. Much of the tanks and other heavy weapons and equipment were left in Hungary, some undamaged, during the retreat. On the western bank of Balaton and in the Bakony Mountains , the Red Army fell into the hands of undamaged tank columns without a fight, from which tank companies could be formed. With over 700 battle tanks ready for action, around 30% of all German tanks were used at the “Spring Awakening” company. Only a few of them were still in the hands of the Wehrmacht after the uncoordinated retreat that was forbidden by Hitler and the OKW at the end of March 1945.

The situation for the civilian population of Hungary during the last fighting in Hungary was precarious. The Hungarians were treated by the Red Army as allies of the German Reich, several documents of military and private origin describe serious attacks by members of the Red Army against the civilian population, especially against women. With a total of approx. 590,000 civilian deaths (compared to approx. 350,000 military deaths), the number of losses suffered by the Hungarian population in the Second World War was extremely high. The majority of civilian deaths represent 440,000–490,000 Jews who were abducted, murdered or killed in forced labor by the SS and anti-Semitic Hungarian associations .

The Hungarians were also distrusted by the German armed forces, especially since the unsuccessful attempts by the Hungarian government of Horthy to secure an armistice with the Soviet Union. Occasionally soldiers from the Hungarian units followed the Red Army's loudspeaker calls to overflow.

literature

• Josef Paul Puntigam : "From Lake Balaton to the Mur", Verlag Hannes Krois Medienhaus, Feldbach 1993.
• Karl-Heinz Frieser (ed., Author), Krisztián Ungváry (co-author), among others: The German Reich and the Second World War . Volume 8: The Eastern Front: The War in the East and on the Side Fronts. , on behalf of the MGFA . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt DVA, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl-Heinz Frieser , Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War , Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 929.
2. ↑ Excerpt from the war diary of Army Group South, from: Paul Josef Puntigam, Vom Plattensee bis zur Mur , Hannes Krois Medienhaus, Feldbach 1993, p. 335.
3. ↑ Karl-Heinz Frieser , Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War , Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 926.
4. ↑ WI Festjkow / KA Kalaschnikow: Красная Армия в победах и поражениях 1941–1945, Moskwa 2003, pp. 150–160.
5. ↑ OKW War Diary Volume IV, p. 1886.
6. ↑ Percy E. Schramm (Ed.), War Journal of the OKW, Volume 4, Part 2, Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2005; P. 1423.
7. ^ Paul Josef Puntigam, From Lake Balaton to the Mur , Hannes Krois Medienhaus, Feldbach 1993, schematic map representation of Operation Spring Awakening
8. ↑ Paul Josef Puntigam, From Lake Balaton to the Mur , Hannes Krois Medienhaus, Feldbach 1993, p. 51.
9. ↑ Peter Gosztony: Final battle on the Danube, Molden Verlag, p. 228 f
10. ^ Franz Kurowski : Balkenkreuz and Red Star: The Air War over Russia 1941–1944 , Dörfler, 2006, p. 458.
11. ↑ GF Krivosheev, Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century, London 1997, p 110th
12. ↑ K.-H. Frieser, Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 942.
13. ↑ K.-H. Frieser, Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 948.
14. ↑ K.-H. Frieser, Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 943.
15. ^ Paul Josef Puntigam, From Lake Balaton to Mur , Hannes Krois Medienhaus, Feldbach 1993, pp. 81, 288, 362.
16. ↑ K.-H. Frieser, Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 955.
17. ↑ K.-H. Frieser, Krisztián Ungváry et al., The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 877.