By the end of 1944, the Soviets had rushed out of the country and swept through Eastern Europe. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other countries became the battlefield of the Soviet and German armies. Although the German army was caught in the dilemma of two-front combat, its combat effectiveness was still fierce, and it resisted desperately in many battles. In the autumn of 1944, on the line of the Vistula River in Poland, whether in Warsaw or Sandomierz, the Soviet and German armies, which had been fighting for several months, fell into silence due to excessive blood loss.
The Soviets crossed the Danube River
The focus of the battle began to shift to the southeastern European region. After the Soviets swept through Romania, they quickly developed victories in the Balkans on the one hand, and rushed into Hungary on the other. The Hungarian region had large oil fields that were last controlled by the Germans, and the fighting was getting darker. In October 1944, the Soviet Second And Third Ukrainian Front launched a surprise attack on the Danube region, with the goal of capturing Hungary's largest city: Budapest, completely dismantling the resistance of the German and Hungarian armies, and developing victory in Austria!
The Soviets were fighting
But after the initial smooth breakthrough, the Soviet army was in big trouble. A large number of reinforcements mobilized by the Germans withstood the overwhelming Russian offensive, and the two sides fell into a tug-of-war in the Budapest area. In December 1944, the Soviets completed the siege of the city with another large-scale offensive, and the two sides fell into a fierce street battle on the Danube River. This beautiful European city was reduced to rubble by rounds of artillery fire.
Budapest was reduced to rubble
However, to the great displeasure of The Commander of the Second Ukrainian Front, Malinowovsky, because of the stubborn resistance of the enemy, the Soviet offensive schedule had fallen far behind the plan of the High Command, for which he and the Front command troops were severely reprimanded. And because of the huge consumption of the offensive battle, the front army had to ask the high command again and again for reinforcements, ammunition replenishment and siege heavy artillery. In January 1945, the First Belorussian Front and the First Ukrainian Front, in the main direction of attack, launched the Battle of the Vistula-Oder River, which won another major victory, not only annihilating a large number of German troops, but also approaching the city of Berlin. But Budapest hasn't even beaten down yet!
German reinforcements of tiger king tanks
After heavy losses and bitter fighting, on February 18, 1945, the whole city of Budapest fell into the hands of the Soviets, and the German-Hungarian army was annihilated except for a partial breakthrough. From October 1944 to the capture of the city, the Soviets paid about 400,000 casualties and a large number of technical equipment losses in the Budapest area. The total German losses (including the relief troops) were 180,000. But after taking the city, the Soviets probably only captured less than 30,000 German and Hungarian prisoners.
In order to boast about the results of the battle in front of the Supreme Commander, and to make their losses look better, the Soviets exaggerated their own achievements. For example, at Malinovsky's behest, the Second Ukrainian Front reported that it had captured 100,000 enemy prisoners, which seemed to be a completely successful victory.
Escorting "captive" Soviet troops
But embarrassingly, the High Command sent a special results verification team. If many of the killings are unproven, then the captives are alive, what to do? At the behest of Marshal Malinovsky, the Soviets began to arrest Hungarian civilians on a large scale – a total of 70,000 people. Either with a gun, or under the guise of food relief when you are hungry, you are a soldier in a military coat anyway. These "captives" were later sent to cold Siberia to serve as hard laborers as real German captives, digging mines, building roads, or building cities for the Russians. It was not until the early 1950s that he was repatriated. The harsh living environment and poor supplies have prevented most of them from returning to their homes.