by Rob - WSSOB on 22 Sep 2005 17:29
Part II (Unit History)
UNIT HISTORY
June 1944: Hitler orders the formation of 23rd Waffen SS Gebirgs Division Kama and the IX-Waffen Gebirgskorps (Kroatisches) to be formed at Bacsalmas, Hungary
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October 1944: Corps staff arrives in Croatia, stationed Zagreb.SS-Schwere Artillerie Abteilung 509 raised from cadre of artillerymen from the Bosnia Muslim 13th SS Division - artillery strength:
* 2 battalions of 12 75mm GebG36 mountain guns
* 1 battalion of 12 105mm GebH40 mountain howitzers
* motorized battalion of 8 sFH18 and 4 100mm guns (also described as 4 battalions with a total of 9 batteries)
Oct 20: Partisans and Soviet troops seize Belgrade.
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November 1944:
Nov 3: Szálasi meets with Friessner in Budapest, blaming the Germans and the previous Hungarian regime for the current military situation. Szálasi is unwilling to defend Budapest, and the Arrow Cross part is unpopular in the capital. Nov 4: Margarethe Bridge in Budapest blown up in a gas line accident.
Nov 18: Soviets launch major offensive with 35 rifle divisions & 7 armored corps
Nov 20: Soviets force a break between the 22nd SS and Hungarian 1st Royal Hussars division, directly threatening Budapest
Nov 22: IX-Waffen Gebirgskorps arrives Budapest just as the city is threatened by Soviet thrusts. The Soviets originally planned to have the city captured by November 7th, the Communist holiday.
Nov 23: Hitler orders Axis forces at Budapest to hold out at all costs.
Nov 26: Friessner asks that an SS general with internal security experience be appointed Budapest garrison commander. All Hungarians are sick of the war; many secretly anticipate the arrival of the Soviets. The Germans are concerned about civil unrest in the Hungarian capital.
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December 1944:
Dec 1:
Hitler declares Budapest a fortress and appoints SS-Obergruppenführer Otto Winkelmann commander of the garrison. He again orders that the city be held at all costs. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch and the IX SS Corps are subordinated to Winkelmann. The defensive chain of command is weak, with roles and responsibilities unclear between the Heer III Panzer Corps, the IX SS Corps and Winkelmann's SS police command - not to mention the Hungarian forces. Coordination between the IX SS and Hungarian Army commands is poor and limited to administrative matters. German Army Group South orders the evacuation of all German civilian and non-essential military personnel from the city. The Budapest population is an estimated 800,000.
Dec 4:
Hitler send out multiple orders (three times in one day) for the Budapest garrison to hold out at all costs. Hungarian Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi orders the house-to-house defense of Budapest
Dec 9:
Panzergruppe "Breith" falls back to Vecses; Soviets encircle Budapest from East, North & South
Dec 11:
Establishes HQ on Castle Hill - the governmental center of the Hungarian capital. Corps has at most 70 armored vehicles. Hungarian positions crumble at Alag; shored up by troops from the German 13th panzer and Feldherrnhalle divisions
Dec 13:
Panzergruppe Breith officially assigns control of Budapest to IX SS Korps
Dec 15:
Heer Pionier Battalion 751 assigned to corps; positions briefly quiet
Dec 19:
IX SS Corps Chief of Staff, Heer Lt. Col. Usdau Lindenau, arrives in Budapest. At age 30, Lindenau is one of the youngest staff officers in the entire German Army.
Dec 23:
Last reinforcements arrive at Budapest
Dec 24:
Gestapo and Hungarian Arrow Cross Party members and their families evacuate Budapest.. Budapest surrounded by 250,000 Soviet troops; SS units pull back to Buda on the west bank of the Danube river. Kampfgruppe Portugall stationed Adlerberg (Sas-Hegy) and Buda equipped with 88mm guns. Hitler personally concerns himself with the aerial resupply of the city. Ultimately 73 DFS230-type gliders from Luftflotte 4 attempt to resupply the trapped garrison, but only 43 land successfully.
Starting from Györ, commandos from SS-Jägerverband Südost sail a 40-ton motor barge down the Danube through 140km of Soviet occupied territory in an attempt to resupply the trapped Budapest garrison. The barge runs aground at Leányfalu, seventeen kilometers from Budapest. The SS commando crew, aided by Hungarian sailors, manage to sneak some of the supplies from the barge into the city in early January. Further attempts to resupply the city by barge end in failure.
Dec 25:
Pfeffer-Wildenbruch named commander of all military units in Budapest pocket, replacing HSSPF Otto Winkelmann. "At best, one could say that Budapest was being led by a politician" - Heer General Hermann Balck, commenting on Pfeffer's mediocre military abilites. Hitler orders Pfeffer-Wildenbruch to hold out at all costs so that Soviet forces will be diverted from advancing to the Hungarian oil fields. Supply issues plague unit; corps loses 450 tons of ammunition & 300,000 individual rations due to incompetitence.
Dec 26:
Hungarian General Hindy, chief of the Hungarian forces in the pocket, advises Pfeffer-Wildenbruch to break out.
Dec 27:
Soviets capture Vesces
Dec 28:
Gas utilities cease in Budapest. Hitler orders the garrison to hold out at all costs. Budapest resupply situation becomes critical; each 150mm guns of corp heavy artillery unit allowed to fire only 3 shells a day.
Dec 29:
German teenage volunteer glider pilots from the NSFK (National Socialist Flying Corps) are assigned to the Luftwaffe Fourth Air Fleet to resupply the trapped Budapest garrison. A Budapest racetrack is used as a landing strip. An estimated 32 of the 73 DFS-30 gliders will fail to reach Budapest during the resupply effort. In addition to the gliders, supplies are air-dropped, with red parachutes for ammunition containers and white parachutes for food supplies.
Soviet forces dispatch two separate parley groups to offer (reputedly rather generous) surrender terms to the Germans.
In Pest, Soviet Major Miklos Steinmetz and an orderly approach the Axis lines in Pest in a jeep flying a white flag. Steinmetz and his orderly are killed under unclear circumstances at intersection of of Ülloi and Gömbös Gyula Roads in front of Hungarian 12th Reserve Division positions before they can deliver their ultimatum. The jeep probably hit a mine, but may have been struck by shellfire fired by either side.
At Buda, Soviet Captain Ilya Ostapenko and 1st Lt. Nikolai Orlov successfully reach German defensive lines under a white flag of truce. Axis troops bring Ostapenko and Orlov to 8th SS Division headquarters at Gellert-Hegy Hill. 8th SS officers duly report the surrender offer and terms to Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, who declines the offer. SS troops return Orlov and Ostapenko safely back to no-man's land, but Ostapenko is killed by shellfire while crossing back to Soviet lines.
Dec 31:
Radio Moscow reports the deaths of the surrender delegates and blames the Germans. The OKW orders an inquiry into the circumstances. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch lies in a report to the Balk Army Group,* claiming that Soviet forces sent captured German POWs (a violation of international law) instead of Soviet officers to offer peace terms to the Budapest garrison. The OKW reports that the Soviet radio broadcast are perfidious Bolshevik propaganda.
Hungarian provisional government set up by the Soviets declares war on Germany.
* Exactly why Pfeffer-Wildenbruch lied in his report is not clear. Historian Krisztián Unguáry speculates that Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, worried that troops under his command deliberately killed the Soviet surrender party (a violation of international law), invented a credible alternate story that would put the Soviets in the wrong and give him political cover with his superiors.
