The history of the Hungarian theater of war from late August 1944 to the
end of March 1945 is a special chapter of the history of the Eastern
Front during World War II. The Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts had
encircled Budapest by Christmas 1944, after very heavy combat. However,
this was just the first phase of a period of intense combat, as Adolf
Hitler and the German High Command planned the relief of the Hungarian
capital. The reinforced IV. SS-Panzerkorps was designated for this task
and its units were transferred rapidly from Polish territory to Hungary.
Two operational plans were swiftly devised by the Germans, before they
chose the codenamed "Konrad". This was an armored strike from the
Komárom region through the mountains south of the river Danube to the
Buda side of the Hungarian capital.
The first day of Operation Konrad was 1 January 1945, and marked the
beginning of a series of fierce clashes that lasted for nearly six
weeks, a very special period in the history of the Battle for Budapest.
Both sides employed significant numbers of armored forces in these
battles, including heavy tanks. The German-Hungarian forces tried to
break through to Budapest three times in three different locations, but
each time they struck relocated Soviet tank, mechanized, rifle, cavalry,
artillery and anti-tank units from 3rd Ukrainian Front's reserve. In
January 1945, furious tank battles developed in the eastern part of
Transdanubia in Hungary, especially in the areas of Bajna, Zsámbék,
Zámoly, Pettend, Vereb, Dunapentele and Székesfehérvár. After the third
and strongest German attempt (code-named "Konrad 3"), which also failed,
the Soviet troops launched a counter-offensive in late January 1945 to
encircle and eliminate the advancing enemy forces. But the German
armoured Kampfgruppen managed to blunt the Soviet attack, which
eventually wound down and fragmented, mirroring the German offensives
before it.
This work is based mainly on German, Soviet and Hungarian archival
records (e.g. war diaries, daily and after-action reports, etc.). In
addition, a number of rare unit histories, contemporary private diaries
and reliable personal memoirs, from generals to enlisted men, have also
been used by the author. The combat actions are extremely detailed, and
provide a day-by-day account. The author analyzes the command and
control systems at operational and tactical levels and the losses of
both sides. For a better understanding of the events the book includes
many detailed specially-commissioned color battle maps.
