), 1st Separate Tank Battalion (Pz.IV Ausf. [50], The 6th Panzer Army was responsible for the primary thrust of the offensive, Frhlingserwachen. On 3 March, the 6th SS Panzer Army suggested that a naval assault across Lake Balaton itself could be implemented to help the 1st Cavalry Corps on the southeastern edge, but this turned out to be impossible as the spring storms had blown the pack ice against the southern shore. Such thaws had previously badly affected 3 other operations in the area: planned Operation Sptlese in December, Operation Southwind, and the Waldteufel attack forcing a change of location for the attack bridgehead from Osijek to Donji Miholjac. Pz.Art.Rgt 75 (Pz.Beob.Wg. The ground to the south was not only hilly, it was broken, wooded, and bounded on both sides by waterwayssomething that should have been foreseen when the original plan was made. The Das Reich Division had 27 Panthers, 22 Panzer IVs, 28 Jagdpanzers and 26 Sturmgeschtzes on hand (the number of those under repair is not available). In reaction to the 1972 Munich massacre, Israel carried out Operation Spring of Youth. On the 15 March, strength returns on this day show the Hohenstaufen with 35 Panther tanks, 20 Panzer IVs, 32 Jagdpanzers, 25 Sturmgeschtzes and 220 other self-propelled weapons and armoured cars. Artillery Battalion (SU-76M), 8th Separate Guards Air-landing Self-prop. In the sector of I Cavalry Corps, the 3rd Cavalry Division managed to seize a bridgehead over the Sio, five kilometers west of Mezkomarom, and the 4th Division encircled Enying. It proved impossible to fully refit Dietrichs divisions by January 30; personnel and material replacements continued to arrive during the loading for the move to the east, during the move itself, and even after arrival in Hungary. The failure of the operation resulted in the "armband order" that was issued to Sepp Dietrich by Adolf Hitler, who claimed that the troops, and more importantly, the Leibstandarte, "did not fight as the situation demanded. Bagration white, 11th Guards Separate Motorcycle Battalion, 864th Self-prop. The Third Ukrainian Front was to continue to defend south of Lake Balaton with two armies but was to be prepared to launch a major attack north of Lake Valencei with two reserve armies, one of which Tolbukhin had just requested. Soviet ISU-122 and IS-2 on one of the roads of Transylvania (Romania) In terms of personnel strength, the study claims that on March 6 the division was 70 percent below its authorized strength and that its regiments, with an average strength of only 665 men, had therefore been reduced to two instead of three battalions. From 27 January through 15 February, the Soviets conducted numerous successful counter-attacks, forcing the Germans to give up the greater portion of their territorial gains, pushing the front line back to the area between Lake Velence, the village of Cssz, and Lake Balaton. At that time, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary that failure of the offensive was likely. Morgenthau Plan Operation Southwind was a German offensive operation on the Eastern Front in Hungary, from 17-24 February 1945. The army was to advance from an area north of Lake Balaton on a wide front. One of its primary objectives was to safeguard German access to the oil fields of Romania. Artillery Battalion (SU-76M), 44th Guards Self-prop. [52] However, from 17 to 18 February, the 2nd Ukrainian Front noticed the 1st SS Panzer division Leibstandarte and the 12th SS Panzer division Hitlerjugend fighting at the Garam River (S:Hron) during the German Operation Southwind. white, 382nd Self-prop. IL-2m3. From Joni Nuutinen: by a wargamer for the wargamers since 2011. As if all this was not enough to contend with, the Soviets had a further 12 rifle divisions within 30 kilometers of the east bank of the Danube and three more between the west bank and Lake Valencei. Smallish map is right on for me. Occupation of Germany The immediate Soviet objectives were Tata and Gyr in the north and Varpalota and Veszprem in the south. On 30 March, the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front crossed from Hungary into Austria. Operation Spring Awakening (1945) - Wehrmacht's last panzer offensive in Hungary! German losses were heavy. Find Operation Spring Awakening stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. During March 15, I SS Panzer Corps continued to hold its slender bridgehead across the Sio, but it was now clear to most German commanders that Spring Awakening had failed. The following day, its divisions, Das Reich and the Hohenstaufen, were ordered forward to their final assembly areas for the new offensive, south and southeast of Szkesfehrvar. The Hungarian Third Army was to hold the area north of the attack and to the west of Budapest. Lots of variety in German divisions; King Tigers, Waffen SS, Panzer Grenadier, Mark IV, Stug III, Motorized infantry, Mountain Infantry, as well as Hungarian and Croatian Infantry. Across the Channel, Winston Churchill plays for time as he pursues a separate peace with Goerdeler. The Soviet Study says: Cruel fighting took place around Hill 159 where artillery played a significant role in the destruction of the enemy. [76] Hundreds of tanks and armored fighting vehicles were documented. When withdrawing from the Western Front, elements of the III. Early on but, unit counts and map size Russian AI are all so far so good. - YouTube 0:00 / 5:21 This area included some of the last oil reserves still available to the Germans. Tempest Early on but, unit counts and map size Russian AI are all so far so good. March 12 saw the status quo more or less continue on II SS Panzer Corps front. white, 1694th Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment (M-17 halftrack), 1st Guards Mechanized Brigade (BA-64, M3A1 Scout Car, e.g. tax increases, it is understood that these policies have never had any positive effect! [24], On 27 January, Guderian was tasked by Hitler to stop the 3rd Ukrainian Front in the vicinity on the Margit Line in order to protect the vital oil fields. For Operation Spring Awakening (Unternehmen Frhlingserwachen) you have been given third of all the Panzer formations on the Eastern Front: two Panzer Armies strengthened with King Tiger battalions to launch two spearheads from both sides of Lake Balaton, while the third weaker attack will be launched from the South. In early 1945, the Fhrer launched his final offensive operationin Hungary. It goes on to quote a figure of 114 guns and mortars, including six 122mm howitzers and 33 120mm mortars for the division, giving an average of 22 guns and mortars per kilometer of front, with up to 67 able to fire on the most important axes. Despite all the measures taken to disguise the arrival of the Sixth Panzer Army on the Hungarian front, units of I SS Panzer Corps were soon detected in the Gran bridgehead operation. Between 16 and 25 April, the Hungarian Third Army was destroyed about 40 kilometres (25mi) west of Budapest by the Soviet 46th Army which was driving towards Bratislava and on to the Vienna area. The offensive began in great secrecy on 6 March 1945 with an attack near Lake Balaton , the area included some of the last oil reserves still available to the Axis. Artillery Battalion (SU-76M), 122nd Separate Self-prop. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. [30] The commander of Army Group South, Otto Whler, chose Lsung B. Soviet counter-offensive (16 March15 April 1945): The operation, initially planned for 5 March, began after German units were moved in great secrecy to the Lake Balaton (German: Plattensee) area. If successful, the meeting of the southern spearhead and of Army Group E would encircle both the Soviet 26th Army and the Soviet 57th Army. Budapest is under siege, its garrison is trapped and fighting a desperate battle. Unbelievably, as late as 11 pm on the same day, General Whler still believed he could implement his plan to attack east with his three panzer corps, and that same night Headquarters Sixth Panzer Army issued orders for the relief of I SS Panzer Corps during the following two nights. white, 1952nd Self-prop. It's 1945 and you're in command of Axis forces tasked with securing the last Axis oilfields located in Hungary and Austria by both re-taking the town of Budapest and clearing the western aspect of the river Danube of the Red Army divisions which have shaped a large beach-head . On a tactical level, it highlighted the fighting qualities of the German army that still existed; however, within 24 hours of the Soviet counterattack, the Germans were driven back to the positions they held before the operation. [29] The operation would be considered a success if 1) Operation Konrad III could pin the Soviets between the Vrtes mountains and the Danube, 2) the 8th Army could secure its Front in Northern Hungary, 3) if the incoming panzer armies could be refitted during transit to create the advantage of surprise. The Soviet counteroffensive continued and these positions were soon overrun. There were numerous Soviet counterattacks, all supported by tanks and aircraft. Be happy with your sanity and life, forget the corrupt government as it will be removed soon. As the Frunze Military Academy Study describes it: From the morning of 9 March, the operational situation on the XXX Rifle Corps front [opposite II SS Panzer Corps] sharply deteriorated. Even regiments were redesignated as construction teams. With some 50 tanks, Jagdpanzers, and Sturmgeschtzes, the division was ordered to follow behind the Leibstandarte and to be prepared to cross the Sarviz canal and attack the Soviet forces in the rear of the II SS Panzer Corps in the Sarkeresztur area. (Pz)/SG 2), JGr.101 Royal Hungarian Air Force (Bf 109G, Fi 156), 102 Royal Hungarian Air Force (Fw 190F), 1951st Self-prop. The southern spearhead would move along the Si to link up with units from German Army Group E, which was to thrust north through Mohcs. These are the main units that were a part of the Army Groups/Front which saw combat in Operation Spring Awakening. Territorial changes of Germany [41] Some units necessary for the major offensive did not arrive in Hungary until just a few days before its start, the last being the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen arriving in Gyr at the beginning of March. In addition, Hitler expected to push the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front back to the Danube River and prevent Soviet General Rodion Malinovsky from continuing his army's advance into Hungary. Already approaching and encircling the Austrian capital city were the Soviet 4th Guards Tank Army, the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army, the Soviet 9th Guards Army, and the Soviet 46th Army. The developer provided this information and may update it over time. Between 25 April and 4 May, the Second Panzer Army was badly mauled near Nagykanizsa during the NagykanizsaKrmend Offensive. Comparative military ranks Neptune As per the selected "Lsung C2", the Germans planned to attack Soviet General Fyodor Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front. Artillery Regiment (SU-76M, e.g. Whler proposed, therefore, to leave the 23rd Panzer Division where it was in the Saregres sector and, after relieving I SS Panzer Corps on the Sio with I Cavalry Corps and a Hungarian Division, to move it north to a position behind II SS Panzer Corps and III Panzer Corps. J, StuG III.). The offensive failed in the face of Soviet resistance, and the ensuing Red Army offensive . [29] Interestingly, an additional side-objective was the hope that serious pressure on the Southern Soviet Fronts in Hungary would force the Soviet Command to divert some forces from its northern offensives headed to Berlin towards Hungary. When this news reached Hitler, he immediately began to plan a major offensive on this Front. WikiMatrix. The Leibstandartes attack on the town of Simontornya on March 12 was launched from the high ground north of the Sio canal. After a short artillery preparation, to thrust from the north, to destroy the enemy in the Gran bridgehead.. Plastic Soldier Battlegroup Spring Awakening Book is a general overview of the war in Hungary in 1945. A detailed Russian study of the Lake Balaton offensive gives full details of the strength and dispositions of one of the divisions forming the Soviet defense, the 233rd Rifle Division. [1] Just over seven weeks later the surviving men of these once elite corps would be prisoners of warbut not of the Sovietsof the Americans. The only natural oil deposits in German-controlled territory were those around Nagykanizsa in southern Hungary and, with Allied air attacks disrupting and often neutralizing the synthetic gasoline production sites for long periods, it was essential to protect them. Some 1.5 to two kilometers farther back was another position made up of one continuous and one intermittent trench and then, three to five kilometers from the frontline lay a final trench line and strongpoint. Operation Spring Awakening was the last major attack the Wehrmacht conducted during World War IIand the most hopeless crapshoot of all Germany's final offensives. [61] A prime example of the scale of defensive installments can be seen in the 26th Army's 135th Rifle Corps. The study says that between February 18 and March 3 the 233rd Rifle Division had dug 27 kilometers of trenches, 130 gun and mortar positions, 113 dugouts, 70 command posts and observation points, and laid 4,249 antitank and 5,058 antipersonnel mines, all this on a frontage of 5 kilometers. Another somewhat surprising success on the 12th came in the I Cavalry Corps sector, where the 3rd Cavalry Division managed to cross the Sio canal and secure a bridgehead to the west of Mezkomarom while the 4th Cavalry Division closed up to Balatonszabadi. The initial attack by Tolbukhin was to be made as soon as the Sixth Panzer Armys offensive had been halted. Operation Spring Awakening represented Nazi Germany's last major attack in World War Two. [33], Army Group South and the OKH could not agree on how to best utilize the 1st Cavalry Corps. Belgrade Tannenberg Line In January 12, 1945, Adolf Hitler received the news he had been dreadingthe Soviet Red Army had launched its winter offensive. Select from premium Operation Spring Awakening of the highest quality. ( , . The southern spearhead would move along the Sio Canal to link up with units from German Army Group E. Army Group E was to thrust through Mohcs and, moving north, meet up with the southern spearhead of Sixth SS Panzer Army. The aim of this attack was, as Dietrich had feared, to strike the rear of the Sixth Panzer Army. However, the commanding staff of Army Group E was pessimistic about the LXXXXI Corps' ability to reach Mohcs due to the unfavorable terrain and sole dependence on infantry. 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