Tiger II B—509.sPz.Abt. Turret no. 300. Velence, Hungary
As the pitiful drama in Budapest was entering its final act, Dietrich’s Sixth SS Panzer Army was at last arriving in Hungary in some strength. The German offensive would be conducted in two phases. It was to kick off with a preliminary operation, codenamed South Wind, by I SS Panzer Corps to destroy the Soviet bridgehead on the western bank of the River Gran, which threatened the German left flank along the banks of the Danube. The Soviet bridgehead, held by seven infantry divisions and a number of armoured units, was to be bludgeoned out of existence by a head-on attack by the Leibstandarte and Hitlerjugend Divisions.
SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper, commanding the Leibstandarte’s panzer kampfgruppe, was to lead the attack, which was channelled by a series of wide water courses into a narrow 16km (10-mile) frontage. The battlefield was criss-crossed by numerous canals, which were heavily defended by Russian antitank guns and dug in T-34/85 tanks. The latter was the upgraded version of the famous Soviet tank, which now boasted an 85mm high-velocity cannon as its main armament. Peiper commanded all the Leibstandarte’s tanks, including its Tiger lIs, a battalion of panzergrenadiers riding in armoured halftracks, and a battalion of self-propelled artillery.
Army infantry units were initially committed to the battle during the evening of 16/17 February, after a corps fire mission by all the German guns facing the bridgehead. The attack achieved surprise, and the infantrymen were at first able to advance 8km (five miles) before they ran into the first enemy pak-front. Peiper ordered his King Tigers to motor to their assistance. When the heavy tanks rolled into the range of the Russian antitank guns, they started attracting heavy fire from the 76mm cannons. The shells just bounced off the front of the King Tigers, however, allowing the German tanks to destroy all the Soviet guns blocking the advance.
By evening, the Leibstandarte and Hitlerjugend Divisions were at Parizs Canal and making plans to expand the small bridgeheads they had seized. Hitlerjugend combat engineers built a bridge capable of bearing Panzer IV and Panther tanks, to allow them push another 16km (1 0 miles) into the bridgehead. During the day the Russians mounted repeated small-scale attacks against the Waffen-S5 incursion, inflicting casualties and delaying the advance. Armoured kampfgruppen from both divisions advanced on 19 February, employing panzerkeil tactics. With the heavy King Tigers and Panthers in the lead, any Soviet tanks or antitank guns that tried to block the German advance were quickly silenced by the panzers’ devastating firepower. By early afternoon the Waffen-SS tank crews were at the Danube, in the eastern bottom corner of the bridgehead.
The next day, the armoured spearhead was ordered to swing north to deal with the Soviet IV Guards Mechanized Corps that was still entrenched on the west bank of the Gran. Peiper decided that the attack should go in during darkness to protect the assault group of Panzer IV tanks from a huge Soviet artillery position on the east bank of the Gran. The panzers rolled into action with flares and burning tanks illuminating the battlefield. Several German tanks were lost, but the route north was opened. The Leibstandarte Division now halted its tanks to refuel and rearm. The Hitlerjugend’s 25th Panzergrenadier Regiment was then ordered into action against the northern flank of the IV Guards Corps’ bridgehead. Attacking southwards during the evening of 22/23 February, the combined panzer-infantry operation degenerated into confusion when German units failed to recognize each other in the darkness and started trading fire. This attracted Russian artillery fire, and the assault was stalled in no-man’s land for several hours. Then the assault tanks got stuck in a minefield, losing several vehicles. Only a daring flank attack by the division’s armoured personnel carrier battalion saved the day. By chance it found a route around the minefield, and was soon inside a village full ofT-34 tanks. The panzergrenadiers dismounted and stalked the Russian tanks though the village with Panzerschreck handheld antitank rocket launchers. With no infantry to protect them, the Russian tanks were soon fleeing from the village. This opened the way for the rest of the division to move through a path in the minefield, and clear the remaining Russian positions.
After a day recovering from this carnage, I SS Panzer Corps spent 23 February preparing for the final assault on the Soviet bridgehead. The two Waffen-SS divisions staged a concentric night attack, with King Tigers and Panthers leading the way. In only six hours of heavy fighting the position was cleared, and the Russians eventually withdrew, blowing up the last bridge across the Gran at 08:30 hours on 24 February. They left a trail of destroyed and abandoned equipment behind them. More than 2000 Russians had been killed, a further 6000 wounded and 500 captured by I SS Panzer Corps. Some 71 tanks and 180 artillery pieces were also lost in the week-long battle. The Waffen-SS paid a heavy price for the victory, though, losing almost 3000 casualties and a dozen tanks destroyed. Scores more tanks were badly damaged, and had to be pulled back from the panzer regiments for urgent repairs. Some of the manpower losses were replaced with more half-trained draftees from the Luftwaffe, indicating the low quality of the personnel now available to the Waffen-SS.
With the Gran bridgehead eliminated, Hitler was now able to order Operation Spring Awakening to roll forward to the south. Some 400,000 German troops, supported by 7000 artillery pieces, 965 Luftwaffe combat aircraft, and 400 tanks and self-propelled guns were to attack on 6 March. The schwerpunkt, or main effort, of the operation was between Lakes Balaton and Valencei, with the Sixth SS Panzer Army leading the way. It had the bulk of the German armour under its command. Gille’s IV SS Panzer Corps was to support the operation on the left flank of Dietrich’s army. For the first time ever, six Waffen-SS panzer divisions would roll forward into battle together. Not surprisingly, the Führer was very optimistic about Spring Awakening’s prospects. In Hungary, though, the Waffen-SS commanders were far from optimistic about the coming battle. They were expected to advance over waterlogged terrain, which was dissected by numerous rivers and canals. Of greater concern was the fact that the Russians knew they were coming.
In the month since Gille’s panzers had attacked, the approaches to Budapest were now protected by heavily dug-in antitank tank guns and infantry positions. To the south of the city, where Dietrich’s attack was to be made, the Soviets based their defensive plans on the network of canals that ran across the flat plain. The start of the spring thaw also worked in the defenders’ favour, because it made movement off road by any type of vehicle, even tracked ones, almost impossible. Some 16 Russian rifle divisions were in the path of Dietrich’s panzers, with two tank corps and two mechanized corps, with some 150 tanks, in direct support just behind the frontline southwest of Lake Balaton itself.
More ominously for the Third Reich, the Soviets were building up their armoured forces north of Budapest for their own offensive along the Danube valley – the Sixth SS Panzer Army would attack into the jaws of an overwhelming Soviet armada of more than 1000 tanks. The attack plan called for I SS Panzer Corps to advance southwards to link up with the Second Panzer Army advancing northwards. II SS Panzer Corps was to move directly eastwards towards the Danube, to protect the right flank of the Waffen-SS attack.
