"But most like Chaos": The Hungarian campaign - April 1944
The fighting in Hungary split into two separate campaigns in April 1944. Separate in terms of both geography and the nature of the combat. In central Hungary, Soviet armour manouvered almost unhindered inflicting heavy losses on the disrupted and demoralised axis forces. In eastern Hungary, the campaign was characterised by viciously fought rearguard actions and German counterattacks to hold open key retreat routes as 4 and 23 Armies sought to force the Carpathian passes and pocket the axis units falling back towards Belgrade.
The relative casualty rates put this distinction into context. In central Hungary, Soviet casualties were 6,659, the Germans lost 12,137, their allies 8,797 and a further 6,645 prisoners were taken in in encirclement battles. In east Hungary, Soviet losses were 17,464, the Germans lost 26,208, their allies 3,823 and 11,532 prisoners were taken.
With the fall of Budapest, 2 Tank Army and 26 Army spread out, taking vital towns such as Debrecen with almost no fighting on 10 April. Where the Germans tried to make a stand, such as Nove Zamky from 10-14 April, they took heavy losses for little gain.
(elements of 26 Army in action south of Budapest)
Equally their brief counterattack at Bekecsaba and Szeged in mid-April gained them little but high casualties.
(Katyusha battery in support of 2 Tank Army's operations)
With their front disrupted and the VVS dominant in the air, it was the first time the Wehrmacht had come close to complete defeat in the course of the war.
As with Bulgaria, the Hungarian regime opened talks even before surrender became inevitable. The informal 'national unity' government that had been set up at Kosice in late 1943 was a government in waiting but if the regime surrendered some 14 divisions (1 equipped with light tanks) and 5 squadrons equipped with German supplied Do-17 medium bombers would be added to the Red Army. The fall of Pecs on 22 April was the final catalyst and at midnight, the Hungarian army turned its guns on its previous allies.
By the end of April, 2 Tank had long outrun any infantry support but was pushing to the south of Balaton and had entered northern Croatia.
(26 Army pushing over the River Sava into northern Yugoslavia)
In the meantime the Carpathian campaign had unfolded in a very different way.
At the start of the month, German attacks at Iasi and Suceava allowed most of their forces falling back from the Dniestr to slip out of encirclement although a small force had been overrun at Botosani.
They even briefly stabilised their front with their victory at Vatra Donei but were forced to abandon these gains as 9 Army took Brasov and turned their position to the south.
With this the small junction at Toplita became key to both sides as the bulk of the German forces were falling back to Belgrade as 2 Tank Army overran central Hungary.
By the time the town was in Soviet hands on 29 April, their desparate defense had been enough to allow 15-20 divisions to slip away and to reinforce the Belgrade defense lines.
(IS-2s attached to 5 Army in the woods of the lower Carpathians)
The final acts of the Carpathian campaign saw the elimination of the few trapped axis formations at Ilta and Oradea.
However, despite being battered and having been desparately trying to evade encirclement for a month, the Germans now tried to construct what became known as the Belgrade defense position. Anchored on the rivers to the south and north and the mountains to the east, this was OKH's last chance to stem the Soviet offensive in the south.
They were to have a temporary respite as the rifle divisions of 26, 23, and 5 Armies were scattered across northern and eastern Hungary.
(Soviet supply convoys trying to keep up with the spearheads in Central Hungary)
Trying desparately to keep up with the Tank Divisions or caught up on reducing small bastions of resistance, it was not till 9-10 May that the battle of Belgrade opened.
(As part of the battle for Belgrade, Soviet river squadrons were deployed to the Danube from their original base on the Dniestr)
Equally some rifle divisions were allocated to 18 Army to bring the situation in Greece under control. However, the decision to strip 8 Mechanized Corp from 3 Tank Army and dispatch it to the Far East is perhaps the clearest statement of Stavka's optimism as to the progress of the Balkan Campaign and the growing hold that the Japanese threat had on Soviet military planning.
By early June, the independent 18 Mechanized Corp and the balance of 3 Tank Army were all entrained towards Vladivostock and the Trans-Baikal sector respectively.
(The Beograd sector, as the last Axis units slip out of Eastern Hungary)
I had to look it up to make sure I had the right meaning in mind.
