Battle of the Transdanubian Hills | |||||||
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Part of World War II | |||||||
Planned German attacks for Operation Spring Awakening |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of Bulgaria Soviet Union Yugoslavia |
Nazi Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Vladimir Stoychev Mikhail N. Sharokhin Kosta Nađ |
Maximilian de Angelis W. von Erdmannsdorff |
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Strength | |||||||
Bulgarian 1st Army Soviet 57th Army Yugoslav 3rd Army |
2nd Panzer Army LXXXXI Corps |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown | unknown |
The Battle of the Transdanubian Hills (also known in Bulgaria as the "Drava Operation") was a defensive operation of the Bulgarian First Army during Bulgaria's participation in World War II against German Wehrmacht forces, who were trying to capture the north bank of the Drava river as part of Operation Spring Awakening.
Combat in the Transdanubian Hills lasted from 6 to 21 March 1945. The German attacks failed to achieve their objectives and were then eclipsed by the large-scale Soviet offensive from the area of Lake Balaton to Vienna.
German forces south of Lake Balaton were organized into two groups. The northern group was General de Angelis' 2nd Panzer Army which had the town of Kaposvár as its objective. Facing the 2nd Panzer Army's northern flank was General Sharokhin's Soviet 57th Army. The area in front of the 2nd Panzer Army's southern flank was defended by the III Corps of General Stoychev's Bulgarian First Army.
The other German group was General von Erdmannsdorff's LXXXXI Corps of Army Group E in northern Yugoslavia. LXXXXI Corps had concentrated near Donji Miholjac and Valpovo. Across the Drava River at Donji Miholjac, the IV Corps of the Bulgarian Army defended the routes leading to Pécs and Mohács. Northeast of Valpovo and across the Drava, General Nađ's 3rd Army of Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav National Liberation Army defended the routes leading to northeast Yugoslavia. Named "Forest Devil" (German: Waldteufel), the LXXXXI Corps' operation had as its primary objective the town of Mohács.