In the late stage of World War II, the decline of the German army has appeared, although the German army attacked all over the country with blitzkrieg in the early stage, but the front was too long and its own resources were limited, and it gradually went downhill under the suppression of the Allies, especially the battle on the Eastern Front and the Soviet Union, so that the German armament was depleted, and the defense of Stalingrad completely became the grave of the German army and the starting point of the Soviet counteroffensive.
In the face of the attack of the Soviet Union and the Allies, Hitler naturally will not sit still, have organized a counterattack, many people think that the Ardennes battle in early 1945 is Hitler's last attack, but in fact the Battle of Lake Balaton is Hitler's last gamble, Hitler originally intended to disrupt the Soviet counteroffensive attempt by attacking, but this battle, code-named "Operation Spring Awakening", ended in the complete defeat of the German army, only holding out for nine days before defeat, completely losing the whole of Hungary, Incidentally, Austria, the last source of oil, also became a battlefield, and the countdown to the fall of Hitler's Third Reich had begun.
The muddy swamps of Lake Balaton rendered German tanks useless
Hitler's gamble
On February 13, 1945, the Soviet Union's 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts finally took Budapest, the capital of Hungary, after paying a price of 320,000 people, which cost Hitler's old life, to know that Hungary is Germany's most important source of oil, supplying 80% of Germany's oil, once the entire Hungary is occupied by the Soviet army, then Germany's proud tanks will be reduced to a pile of scrap iron, so Hitler is ready to concentrate all his elite to launch a counterattack, surround and annihilate the Ukrainian Third Front, and recapture Budapest. An optimistic Hitler could even hope that the campaign would sit down the Soviets to negotiate with themselves.
German-Hungarian soldiers captured in Budapest
As for Hitler's last elite, naturally the 6th Panzer Army of the Waffen SS, its commander is Hitler's heavy veteran Dietrich, in mid-February 1945, the German army in Lake Balaton concentrated a total of 431,000 people, including 5,630 artillery and pursuit guns, 951 tanks and assault guns, 900 armored delivery vehicles, and 850 combat aircraft.
German troops heading for Lake Balaton
On the evening of March 5, 1945, the Spring Awakening Operation officially began, the German army took the lead in attacking, with a certain advantage at the cost of heavy casualties, so that the Soviet army was defeated, but with the reinforcement of the Soviet reserve and other units, the total strength of the Soviet army reached 536,700 people, far more than the attacking German army, the Soviet army began to carry out a defensive counteroffensive, the Soviet army in Serigaeš gathered a large number of artillery fire to attack the Germans, resulting in a lot of slowdown of the German offensive.
At this time, the German army suffered great losses, and if it continued to fight, the whole army may be destroyed, but the German commander-in-chief still sent more troops to Lake Balaton, and even the last reserve was put into battle, and the two sides fought in Lake Balaton for nine days and ten nights, and the total strength here has exceeded 800,000, making Lake Balaton a place of bullets, and by March 15, the Germans had lost 40,000 people, and their proud armored forces had lost about 50%, and were forced to turn to a defensive state under unfavorable combat conditions. The German offensive on Lake Balaton lasted only nine days.
"Panther" tanks captured by the Soviets
Soviet counteroffensive
And the Soviet army naturally will not give up the opportunity to counterattack the Germans, taking advantage of the fact that the Germans have not had time to build fortifications, the Soviet army quickly counterattacked, because of the change of defense into attack, the morale of the Soviet army increased greatly, under the deployment of Soviet Marshal Malinovsky, concentrated the main artillery forces, trying to break through the German defense line, and then directly to Czechoslovakia and Austria, as of the evening of March 18, although the German defense line was opened, but the German army with other defensive positions was still resisting the Soviet army.
Dietrich was sent to prison after World War II
On March 19, the Soviet Panzer Group entered the battlefield, facing the superior enemy, the German army that held out for several days completely gave up resistance, a large number of German troops laid down their arms and surrendered, even if the German support troops came to the battlefield the next day, but there was no much point, only to delay the Soviet offensive, so that more German soldiers could return to Austria, it can be said that the Battle of Lake Balaton made Hitler's gamble a complete failure.
Why did the German attack fail?
The German army that was missing from the army
Although the Waffen SS 6th Panzer Army was regarded by Hitler as the last elite, this unit was no longer the invincible and well-equipped elite force of the past, and after several years of fighting, there were few veterans of these units, filled with other personnel from various fields such as sea, land and air and even German personnel from different regions, and what was more frightening was that many troops had serious shortage problems, and seriously lacked command and grassroots backbones.
The German army at this time was no longer the German army at the beginning of World War II
For example, the officers of the "Hitler Youth Division" are short of 205 people, accounting for as much as 32%, and these missing personnel can only be supplemented by ordinary non-commissioned officers, and ordinary non-commissioned officers are also very lacking, and there are 1953 non-commissioned officers needed, which means that the lack of non-commissioned officers and officers in the Hitler Youth Division adds up to 2185 people, so it can only be filled by ordinary soldiers, so that the strength of this unit that can fight on the front line is only 9,058 people, and the lack of grassroots officers is very affecting the combat effectiveness of the troops.
If there is a lack of personnel, it is okay, but many of these supplementary personnel are only simple training to enlist, many do not even have any combat experience, some of the new drivers can not drive alone, greatly weakening the combat effectiveness of the entire unit.
Armored equipment with more monks and less porridge
The previous battle of the Ardennes greatly damaged the vitality of the German army, and the armored equipment of the SS Panzer Division was lost too much, although it was replenished for a while, but there were many monks and porridge, of which the 68 tank crews of the Imperial Division did not have tanks, and of the armored equipment owned by the Second Panzer Regiment of the Imperial Division, 27 Panther tanks and all No. 4 tanks were still in full repair, which also led to the regiment not catching up with the initial attack.
As for the Hohenstaufen Division, after the outbreak of the fighting the division consisted of only 19 No. 4 tanks, 24 Panther tanks, 10 Cheetahs, 16 assault guns, 16 early and 17 late-type No. 4 tank destroyers, and 15 heavy anti-tank guns. Of the only 141 transporters, 41 require short-term repairs, 38 require major repairs, and only 72 can be used.
A Cheetah tank destroyer abandoned by the Germans in Hungary
In addition, there was a serious lack of fuel, and many SS tanks were forced to abandon because they ran out of fuel.
"Panther" tank abandoned by the Germans
Wrong judgment
Although Hitler wanted to launch Operation Spring Awakening, he did not get information about the topography of Lake Balaton, knowing that the terrain between Lake Balaton and Lake Verence, except for a few limited roads, was almost swampy, and March was also the thawing season in Hungary, it was difficult for tanks to play their due role, many tanks were stuck here, becoming fixed batteries, unable to allow armored forces to play a role.
The opponent Soviet army is not vegetarian, the Soviet army has a large depth of defensive positions, strong reserves and superior firepower equipment in the later period, and at this time the combat effectiveness of the Soviet army has reached the quality of the German army in the early stage of World War II, and far exceeds the German army in the use of artillery firepower. In addition, before the "Spring Awakening Operation", the German army launched the "South Wind" operation in order to clear the flank threat, which completely exposed the German army's combat intentions, and it can be said that the German offensive was doomed to failure before it began.
Soviet artillery positions in the Battle of Lake Balaton
Hitler's anger
After the complete defeat of the Battle of Lake Balaton, Hitler realized that he had lost the last gamble in the sixth year of the war, and he was completely angry, constantly reprimanding the command of the troops, especially the SS units, and even his own Guards, who he thought were no longer worthy of wearing his name, and in a fit of anger, ordered the stripping of "Adolf Hitler's Guard Flag Division", "Reich Division", "Hohenstaufen Division" and "Hitler Youth Division" The honorary armband on the left cuff of the officers and men of the four SS Panzer Divisions, this is the German "armband" incident.
The Fuhrer's anger
After the meeting, Hitler proposed that Guderian carry out this "armband" order, although he was not happy with the SS, but he thought a lot, and finally proposed to let Himmler do it, and then Himmler went to Hungary to carry out this order, but the order could not be implemented, in order to launch the battle of camouflage needs, the SS troops had already removed those obvious symbols of the SS troops armbands and numbers, plus the fierce battle, there was no time to carry out this useless order.
However, the "armband-stripping" incident dealt a great blow to the spirit of the SS troops, and also made them lose the last bit of morale, and they only wanted to escape, which directly led to the subsequent loss of Vienna, which also meant that the end of the Third Reich entered the countdown.