Waffen-SS: Spring Awakening, 1945

Background

The last major German offensive of World War II took place in Hungary. Codenamed Spring Awakening, the Third Reich's final reserves were gambled on a misconceived plan to seize Hungary's oil fields. The Sixth SS Panzer Army was earmarked to conduct the offensive, which commenced on 6 March 1945. However, after some initial gains the Red Army hit back with a vengeance.

Hitler's strategy

In his Berlin bunker in February 1945, an all-out offensive led by six Waffen-SS panzer divisions to secure Hungary's oil fields seemed very logical to Adolf Hitler. Almost to a man, however, the Führer's generals thought it was madness. Huge Soviet armies were at this time on the eastern bank of the River Oder, less than 160km (100 miles) from Berlin itself. The Third Reich's élite armoured forces were needed for the last-ditch battle to defend its capital from the Russians, or so it seemed to General Heinz Guderian, the penultimate chief of staff of the German Army.

Operation Konrad

The Waffen-SS panzer divisions started concentrating in Hungary in December 1944, after a Soviet offensive had pushed deep into the country and surrounded its capital, Budapest. By Christmas Day 1944, the city was surrounded. In response, Hitler ordered IV SS Panzer Corps to be moved from Poland to spearhead the rescue mission with the Totenkopf and Wiking Divisions. SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Gille's men spent four days on freezing trains moving down to Komorno on the River Danube. They unloaded their 100 tanks and headed east to intercept Russian spearheads advancing westwards along the south bank of the Danube. Operation Konrad got under way with a night attack on New Year's Day, which initially caught the Soviet XXXI Rifle Corps by surprise. The Waffen-SS Panthers and Panzer IVs crashed through the unprepared Russians and drove eastwards for almost 48km (30 miles), knocking out 200 enemy tanks as they did so.

The Totenkopf Division advanced directly eastwards on the left flank, along the banks of the Danube, while the Wiking Division moved southeastwards directly towards Budapest. When the Totenkopf hit a strong pak-front, it, too, turned southwards to join Wiking's push. Lacking the strength to batter his way past Soviet defences, Gille used his veteran troops to try to dodge past Soviet strongpoints and find a way through to Budapest. With the route south blocked, he sent Wiking's Westland Panzergrenadier Regiment on a march deep behind enemy lines after it found a route over the Vertes Mountains. With the Soviets now alerted to the German intentions, though, it was not long before they moved reinforcements up to close off the northern route into the Hungarian capital.

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