Hola guys,
Envar and me are doinf a diorama from this battle, I been searching the net the past couple of hours for good gistory reference and maybe a picture or two. Havent had all that much luck So I thought Id post this here:
What units were involved (German)
Weather Conditions?
Who won?
Any thing else?

Thanks guys!

"Three weeks afterwards, we were formed into a platoon and sent to the vicinity of Budapest. The city had already been surrounded. We were a special assault brigade. We were given cannons, submachine and machine guns, nothing else. And we used to be sent into the weakest points of our circle around Budapest. As our fresh forces arrived, we were moved to another point, then to another one. In March the Germans made an attempt to break out of Budapest through the sewer system under the city. The German troops were coming like an avalanche. They were approaching without shooting, but we kept firing at them. Then they started to throw their guns on the ground. I don't know exactly, but the number of dead Germans was enormous. We had a rest and went further. We saw piles of dead Germans in the forest, five soldiers in a pile. There were mortal battles in Budapest, there wasn't one undamaged building to be found in the whole city. Everything had been destroyed, absolutely everything! When we were having a rest in Pest we looked around the city--it was absolutely ruined! Everything! It's like a nightmare. Just a hair stands upward, did we do that? Yes, we did it, because the Germans resisted. I met my friend from the artillery reconnaissance then. He says,
-- Your reconnaissance has been killed in the city's underground, in the sewers. The commander of the division ordered them to take a building and they bumped into the Germans. They wiped out the Germans but perished themselves too.
-- Everybody?
-- Yes, even the soldiers from the combat trains."

Found this piece from [url=http://www.iremember.ru/infantry/zimakov/zim1.htm]www.iremember.ru[url]
Great site, a lot of Russian Soldiers stories!

Hi Anders - This was the end of the line for most Germans troops.
Skorzeny led a coup against the Hungarian Government, because they were going to abandon Germany and negotiate with the Russians for surrender. Hitler said no way !
So Skorzeny struck !
Budapest was garrisoned by elements of 8.SS Calvary Div.Florian Geyer - 22. SS Volunteer Calvary Div.Maria Theresia - 18.SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Div.Horst Wessel.
THEY WERE SURROUNDED on 24 Dec. by the Russians.
4.SS Pz.Corps ( Wiking & Totenkopf ) was sent to to relieve & retake Budapest on New Years Day 1945. The Russian 4th Guard Army & 6th Guard Tank Army drove them back.
This battle & counterattacks by both Russian & German kept going back
and forth until 27 Jan.
The Russians assemble 26th & 46th Armies, counterattack again, and 4th Pz.Corps retreated and lay wait in the Bakony Forest near Lake Balaton.

Well Hitler was furious, so he now sends Sepp Dietrich's 6th SS Pz.Army from which was just defeated in the Ardennes.
6th SS Pz.Army which is made up of remnant's of Liebstandarte - Das Reich and Hohenstaufen, don't arrive until March. - This is code name Op.Spring Awakening which is suppose to drive the Russians from the Hungarian oil fields in German possesion near Lake Balaton, knock the Russians back across the Danube River and the Germans retake Budapest which fell to the Russian's on 11 Feb.
The Operation / Offensive opened on 6 March in heavy snow. On 13 March the battle is halted due to heavy Russian resistance & the thaw which had turned the roads to quagmires of mud. Now on 16 March the offense shift's in favor of the Russian's, and the 3rd Ukranian Front attack's the exhausted 6th SS Pz. Army and 9th Guard Tank Army smashes Totenkopf & Wiking ( 4th SS Pz.Corps ) and surround's them.
Those that were left of the 4th SS Pz.Corps along with Dietrich & 6th SS Pz. Army withdraw & retreat into Vienna despite Hitler's hysterical orders that they remain & fight.

Well there you go Anders. the rest is history which eventually led to surrender. I tried to include everything. It's actually a short but pretty accurate version. You can probably find
more, but these were definitely the elements of both Armies that were involved.
It really was a total last ditch effort by the Germans
I HOPE THIS HELPS YOU
- ralph

Wow. Sounds like you are a professor of some kind! Great info and suits just what we were planning with Anders. I´ll send Anders a sketch today and let´s see if he can put it here also...

Toni

Hi Toni , I just read up on a lot of W.W.II history.
Good Luck to you and Anders with the dio !
- ralph

Ralph!
Thanks a Million, thats exactly what I needed! No I can proceed and search for the acctual units and see markings etc for tanks and their collars!
Thanks again Ralph!
Anders

Budapest Garrison - Order of Battle
26 Dec 1944

I Corps (Hungarian units)
10. Infantry Division
12. Infantry Division
1. Armored Division (parts of)
Hussar Division (parts of)
Group Billnitzer (surviving elements of 4 assault gun battalions)
1. Parachute Battalion
Budapest Watch Battalion
5 x Royal Gendarmerie Battalion
Budapest Air-Defense units
3 x Engineer Battalion
Budapest University Assault Battalion
Royal Life Guard Battalion
Arrow-Cross unit (1.000 - 1.500 men)
Budapest police
IX. SS-Gebirgs-Korps
8. SS-Kavallerie-Division
22. SS-Kavallerie-Division
13. Panzer-Division
60. Panzergrenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle
271. Infanterie-Division
Flaksturmregiment Nr 12
4. SS-Polizei-Regiment
4 x Infantry battalions (surviving elemets from other units)

Some more info I found!

Fortress Budapest



http://www.feldgrau.com/357i.html

Hi Anders. - No problemo. It's my pleasure to help any of my brother
modelers if I can.
I wish you & Toni all the best with the dio. Please let us know when
it's done & post pic's.
- ralph