| Operation Konrad III | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Budapest Offensive | |||||||
 Counterattacking Soviet infantry and T-34-85 tanks of the 18th Tank Corps near Lake Balaton, 1945 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany Hungary |
 Soviet Union | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Hermann Balck |
Fyodor Tolbukhin | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
6th Army |
3rd Ukrainian Front | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Initial attack sector on 18 January: 376 operational AFVs[1] |
Initial attack sector on 18 January: 250 operational AFVs[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 164 tanks, assault guns, and tank destroyers destroyed (all of January for 6th Army)[2] | 804 tanks, assault guns, and tank destroyers destroyed (all of January for 3rd Ukrainian Front)[2] | ||||||
Operation Konrad III was a German military offensive on the Eastern Front of the Second World War. It was the third and most ambitious of the three Konrad Operations and had the objective of relieving the siege of Budapest and recapturing the entire Transdanubia region. Achieving complete surprise, the German offensive began on 18 January 1945. Supported by the Luftwaffe, the IV SS Panzer Corps, the principal German attack formation, overran the Soviet 4th Guards Army in two days, destroying hundreds of Soviet tanks along the way, reached the Danube river on 19 January and recaptured 400 square kilometers of territory in four days. After nine days of combat, and the destruction by the SS of two-thirds of Soviet tanks in the entire 3rd Ukrainian Front, the German offensive was stopped by Soviet reinforcements 25 kilometers short of Budapest on 26 January.[3][4][5]
- ^ a b Frieser et al. 2007, p. 912.
- ^ a b Nash 2020, p. 382.
- ^ Ungváry 2003, p. 168.
- ^ Frieser et al. 2007, pp. 916–917.
- ^ Frieser et al. 2007, p. 942.