** World War II -- Hungary Final Operations: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen








World War II Hungary: Final Operations: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen (March 1945)


Figure 1.--The last German armored offensive of the War was fought in Western Hungary. This and other engagements left wrecked armor after the War. Here we see Hungarian civilians photographed sitting on a dismantled German Pz.Kpfw. IV. tank (summer 1946). Among other broken armored vehicles, on the right are Sd.Kfz.124 'Wespe' self propelled guns. Notice the newly constructed metal structures in the background (upper right hand corner). There is another structure beside them that we cann not make out.) We are not sure if the new metal structures are oil tanks or grain silos, but both oil and grain were both important Hungarian contributions to the NAZI war effort.

The last surviving German and Hungarian units within Budapest surrendered (February 13). This largely defeated the German forces in Hungary. There were, however, some German units in western Hungary as well as die-hard Arrow Cross units. These units laubched the surprise Lake Balaton/Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakeniung) Offensive (March 6). Hitler genius that he was sent some of thev last Panzers forces left to support the offensive. This meant that as the Red Army drive toward Berlin, Hitler moved the major units capable of defending the city south to western Hungary. Col. Gen. Gotthard Heinrici who Hitler would reluctantly turn to derfend Berlin was agast. He confronted Hitler who insisted that anyone who thought that any one who thought that the Red Army was preparing to attack Berlin was an 'idiot'. Frühlingserwachen would ptove to be the last German World War II offensdive of any size (March 6-15). The purpose was to secure the last oil field still supplying the collapsing NAZI war effort and to block the Red Army drive on Vienna. The major German force was 6th Panzer Army and its subordinate Waffen-SS divisions. Both had been ithdrawn from the failed Bulge offensive in ythe West. The over-wealming superior Red Army forces defeated the German offense in 2 weeks and had retaken lost ground (March 19). [Dollinger, p. 182.] The Soviets destroyed remanents of the Hungarian Third Army 50 km west of Budapest (March 16-25). The last operation in Hungary of consequences was a joint Soviet-Bulgarian Nagykanizsa–Kermend Offensive which destroyed other Hungarian remnahts and what was left of the 2nd Panzer Army (March 26-April 15). With this, the last Germans along with the Arrow Cross retreated out of Hungary into the collapsing Reich. Arrow Cross leader Szálasi escaped with the Germans, but it was short escape from justice. Szálasi would be captured by American troops and returned to Hungary to be tried by a People's Tribunl. The Soviets drove the remaining Germans from Hungary just as preparations were being finalized for the final assault on Berlin (April 4).







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Created: 3:08 PM 1/25/2022
Last updated: 3:08 PM 1/25/2022