The Collapse of Army Group Center
Following our defeat in France, the Soviet Union launched an attack on Army Group North and Center.
The Red Army begun pushing Army Group North deep in to the Baltic States, cutting them of from Army Group Center in Riga. Army Group North was now completely cut off from the rest of Germany.
In Army Group Center, they aimed for the vital ports of Memel and Königsberg, potentially hoping for an encirclement.
On 15th December, The Red Army reached the ports, dividing Army Group Center in to two. The Divisions trapped in Lithuania would be assigned to the new “Army Group Baltic” (Heeresgruppe Baltisch), led by Field Marshal Wilhelm List.
With the encirclement of half of Army Group Center, Rundstedt was left with only two armies, or 26 Divisions to defend against the Soviet Union from Königsberg to Slovakia. Luckily, 21 new divisions had just been formed (16 regular Infantry, 4 Volkssturm, and 1 Heavy-panzer Division), so they were rushed to the front.
The divisions would be reforming the 6th Army, led by General Walter Krüger.
There was a total of (33) Divisions trapped in Lithuania, without any supplies, ports and only the ammo they carried with them, they had no other choice but fight to the last man.
The very extended frontline meant that the Red Army could now unstoppably march into core German states. Immediately, Volkssturm Divisions, a part of Goebbels “Total War” speech, was formed. The Volkssturm was comprised of men deemed to old or too young to fight.
In the middle of the Red Army’s advance, Italy surrendered. Heinz Guderian's army seemed to be trapped in Venice, but thankfully a successful rescue operation was launched and they all managed to land in Trieste, where they hurriedly established another frontline. The Allies were now only kilometers away from Austria.
On 21st November, Elements of the 20ya Tankovaya Korpus entered Budapest. Fierce city-wide fighting ensued, but the city was eventually lost. In response to this, Ewald von Kleist was ordered to commence a counterattack and attempt a recapture of the city.
The Waffen-SS Panzer-Division ‘Adolf Hitler’ and the 1. Panzer-Division, both at 50% strength, accompanied by various Romanian, Hungarian and German divisions, was involved. On the 24th November, they managed to reach and take control of Budapest. After that, Kampfgruppe Schulz, consisting of 9 Divisions was raised, specifically to defend Budapest.
Hungary was to be subjected to one of the last major fighting areas of the war, were brutal fighting ensued. All in all, an expected 1 million German troops were thought to be lost in the Battle of Hungary.
On the 25th November, High Command reported that the Axis losses was 6.4 million (German: 4.1 million), in comparison to the Soviets 13.63 million losses.
*Beware: due to the fast advancing Red Army, encirclements are bound to happen all the time. Therefore, I won't mention all, but only significant encirclements, or small, if it fits into the story.