377 SIEGE OF BUDAPEST 1944-45: The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube

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Analyzes the background, chronology and consequences of the 52-day-long siege of Budapest in WWII from both a military and political perspective, and documents the huge losses in military and civilian casualties and material damage.

The Transdanubia region was strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw materials and industry, and because of the bridgehead it allowed into Austria. As a result, Hitler declared Budapest a fortress city in early December 1944. The battle for the city pitted 90,000 German and Hungarian troops against 170,000 Soviet (2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts) and Romanian attackers. The operations to take the city ran across several phases, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest commencing in late October 1944, through the encirclement of city first on the Pest side of the Danube, and then on the Buda bank, and on to the savage urban fighting that began in December 1944 for the Hungarian capital.