Budapest Offensive

Budapest Offensive
Part of Soviet-German Front of World War II
Date 29 October 1944 – 13 February 1945 (108 days) Location Budapest and northwestern Hungary Result Soviet-Romanian victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union Romania	Germany Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Rodion Malinovsky Fyodor Tolbukhin Ivan Afonin Ivan Managarov	Johannes Friessner Otto Wöhler K. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (POW) Iván Hindy (POW) Gerhard Schmidhuber †
Units involved
Allied armies 2nd Ukrainian Front 1st Guards Army 6th Guards Army 7th Guards Army 27th Army 40th Army 46th Army 53rd Army 1st Romanian Army 4th Romanian Army 3rd Ukrainian Front 4th Guards Army 57th Army	Axis armies Army Group South 1st Panzer Army 2nd Panzer Army 6th Army 8th Army 1st Hungarian Army 2nd Hungarian Army 3rd Hungarian Army
Casualties and losses
Soviet: 80,026 dead and missing 240,056 wounded and sick 1,766 tanks destroyed or damaged	Soviet claim (Budapest city area only): 49,000 dead 110,000 captured 269 tanks destroyed or captured Total casualties: unknown
40,000 civilians dead

The Budapest Offensive was the general attack by Soviet and Romanian armies against Nazi Germany and their Axis allies from Hungary. The offensive lasted from 29 October 1944 until the fall of Budapest on 13 February 1945. This was one of the most difficult and complicated offensives that the Soviet Army carried on in Central Europe. It resulted in a decisive victory for the USSR, as it disabled the last European political ally of Nazi Germany and greatly sped up the ending of World War II in Europe.

Having secured Romania in the summer Iasi–Kishinev Offensive, the Soviet forces continued their push in the Balkans. The Red Army occupied Bucharest on 31 August, then swept westward across the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary and southward into Bulgaria, with parts joining the Yugoslav Partisans in the Belgrade Offensive. In the process, the Red Army’s forces drew German reserves away from the Warsaw-Berlin central axis, encircled and destroyed the German 6. Armee (for the second time) and forced Army Group South Ukraine’s shattered 8. Armee to withdraw west into Hungary.

From October 1944, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Fronts advanced into Hungary. After isolating the Hungarian capital city in late December, the Soviets besieged and assaulted Budapest. On 13 February 1945, the city fell.

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