Budapest offensive

Budapest offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Soviet IS-2 tank in action (Battle of Budapest)
Date29 October 1944 – 13 February 1945
108 days
(3 months, 2 weeks and 1 day)
Location
Budapest and northwestern Hungary
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union Soviet Union
Kingdom of Romania Romania
Nazi Germany Germany
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky
Soviet Union Fyodor Tolbukhin
Nazi Germany Johannes Friessner
Nazi Germany Otto Wöhler
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) Károly Beregfy
Units involved

Soviet Union 2nd Ukrainian Front

Soviet Union 3rd Ukrainian Front

Nazi Germany Army Group South

Casualties and losses
Soviet:
80,026 dead and missing
240,056 wounded and sick
Total casualties:
320,082 (including 260,000 combat casualties)
1,766 tanks destroyed
4,127 guns and mortars
293 aircraft
135,100 small arms[1][2][3]
Siege of Budapest: 125,000 combat casualties[1]
(48,000 killed, 26,000 wounded, 51,000 captured)
Total: ~270,000 combat casualties
76,000 civilian dead[4]
38,000 civilians dead in the siege (7,000 executed)
38,000 died in labour or POW camps

The Budapest offensive was the general attack by Soviet and Romanian armies against Hungary and their Axis allies from Nazi Germany. 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 out in Central Europe. It resulted in a decisive victory for the USSR, as it greatly sped up the ending of World War II in Europe.[5]

  1. ^ a b Frieser et al. 2007, p. 922.
  2. ^ Glantz, David M., and Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1995. ISBN 0-7006-0899-0) p. 298
  3. ^ Krivosheev, G. F. Soviet casualties and combat losses in the Twentieth Century. (London: Greenhill Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85367-280-7) p. 152
  4. ^ Ungváry 2003, p. 330.
  5. ^ Самсонов, Александр Михайлович Крах фашистской агрессии 1939-1945. — М.: Наука, 1980. (in Russian)

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