By Nino Oktorino
During World War II, hundreds of thousands of foreign peoples joined with Hitler's legions to bring theirs people into special status in Hitler's New Order. Tens of thousands among them were Muslims, where the majority of them came from Soviet Union. Under the banner of the crescent and the swastika, these Soviet Muslims believe to become holy warriors to liberated theirs land. But the end of this unholy alliance was a disaster for them.
The Pro Nazi Soviet Muslims
When the German Army invaded Soviet Russia on June 22, 1941 they saw many of their opponent inhabitants welcomed them as liberators. One of the group of Soviet citizens that felt had reason to rejoiced the coming of the Teutonic legion invaders were Soviet Muslims.
Many of Soviet Muslims hates domination of Russians upon them. They still remembered theirs golden age under the Muslim khans, emirs, and sultans before they fall into Russian Czardom between 17th and 19th centuries. Actually, when the Czardom liquidated during Bolshevik Revolution, the Muslim Soviet got a chances to liberated themselves from theirs Russian masters and formed some independent states with help from theirs Turkish brothers and her German allied. Even for a while they thought to build a Greater Turkey Sultanate like Pan-Turanian longing.
In Caucasus, an all-Islam army, composed of Azeris, Ajars, and other Caucasian Muslims, assist the Turkish army under Nuri Pasha, who was known for his Pan-Turanian ideas. They besieged many non-Muslims towns in Caucasus that refused surrender to them and starved it into submissions. Some of them implicated with the massacres of Armenians.
The same thing developed in Central Asia. In Kokand, a free government of Turkestan was proclaimed, while the emirs of Khiva and Bukhara asserted their independence. The Turkish-Tartar peoples in Crimea and Volga also arise against the Russians.
Unfortunately, after succeeded consolidated their power in Russia, the Bolshevist penetrated these areas. One by one centers of Muslim resistance to communism fell. The attempt to free these Muslim areas from Russian rule had failed, and the Soviet government succeeded in reestablishing its authority over the whole Caucasus and Turkestan. But the native peoples rejected this Russian-Communist authority. Some of them rise against the Moscow rule when the communist forced collectivized farms and atheistic attitudes upon them. One of the uprisings erupted in Chechnya, where the Cechens under an ex-communist named Hasan Israilov rise against the Soviet regime.
The unrest of these Muslim peoples didn't escape from Hitler intention. When many of Muslim Soviet POWs enthusiastic wished to join with the victorious Wehrmacht against theirs ruler, theirs aspirations get a green light from the German dictator. On December, 1941 a top secret memorandum ordered that the OKW was to create two Muslim units: the Turkestanisch Legion, consisted Muslim volunteers from Central Asia, like Turkomans, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghizs, Karakalpaks, and Tadjiks; and Kaukasisch-Mohammedan Legion from Caucasian Muslims volunteers, like Azeris, Daghestans, Chechens, Ingushes, and Lezghins. Beside a separated unit consisted Muslim Tartars, Wolgatatarische Legion, was formed in Poland on January 1942.
The German courting of the Soviet Muslims was part of Hitler's lunatic schemes for bringing Turkey into his side and for advancing to control the oil fields in Middle East and Baku. The Soviet Muslims fighting units were supposed to take part in bringing the whole Middle East into the German orbit. As Hitler said in December 1942, "I consider only the Muslims to be reliable...I see no danger in the establishment of purely Muslim units." As propaganda tools the Nazis attempt to revive and encourage Pan-Turanian tendency in Turkey and within Soviet Muslims population.
The Nazi's Muslim Project
When the German army marches into Caucasus, they bring with them theirs Muslim supporters to fire rebellions within Soviet Muslim peoples. That move made a great-worried within Soviet leadership. As Konstantin Oumansky, Soviet ambassador in Washington, said on one of the blackest days of the Black Summer of 1942:
"I must said that I am a little worried about the Caucasus...The Tartars in the Crimea are, to a large extent, disloyal... they never liked us. It is well known that during the Crimean War they gladly 'collaborated', as we'd now say, with the English and the French. And, above all, there are religious factors, which the Germans have not failed to exploit. Nor do I trust the mountain peoples of the Caucasus. Like the Crimean Tartars, they are Muslims, and they still remember the Russian conquest of the Caucasus which ended not so very long ago - 1863."
The Soviet authorities were, indeed, rather worried about the Caucasus Muslim nationalists there. The uneasiness extended, to some extent, also to certain Muslim nations of Central Asia, particularly the Uzbeks, among whom Muslim traditions were still strong.
The German did make contact with some of the Muslim nationalities in the Northern Caucasus. Toward the predominantly Muslim mountaineers of the Northern Caucasus - the Chechens, Ingushi, Karachai, and Balkarians - the German army adopted a 'liberal' policy. Promises were made for the abolition of the kolkhozes; mosques were to be reopened; requisitioned goods were to be paid for; and the confidence of the people was to be won by 'model conduct', especially in respect of women. Beside the local national committees got permission to be formed to help Germany Army in organize administration and law and order.
In Karachai region a 'Karachai National Committee' was set up under an anti-Soviet named Kaki Baieramukov. The high point of German-Karachai collaboration was the celebration of Bairam, the Muslim holiday, in Kislovodsk in October 1942. During the celebration, German high officials were presented with precious gifts by the local committee. Then the German announced the formation of a Karachai volunteer squadron of horsemen to fight with the German Army.
The same policy also applied in Kabardino-Balkhar area, although the Muslim Balkars were more outspokenly than the mostly non-Muslim Kabardinians. A national committee was formed under a local leader named Selim Shadov and has responsible to arrange the fields of religion, culture, and economy. The collaboration reached a highest-point during the Kurman ceremonies that held at Nalchik, the seat of the local administration of the Kabardino-Balkar area, on December 18. Again gifts were exchanged, with the local officials giving the Germans magnificent steeds and receiving in return Korans and captured weapons. An official from Reich Eastern Ministry named Braeutigam made a public address about lasting bonds of German friendship with the peoples of the Caucasus.
These pro-Muslim policies in Crimea and Caucasus gave Germany a trump card of major importance in her relations with Turkey. The Reich Foreign Ministry invited some Turks to aid in the administration as expert advisers. Germany showed a disposition to negotiate with Turkey about the future status of the areas in question. By conceding to Turkey the right to organize the liberated Turko-Tartar areas of the Soviet Union into a federation, German ambassador in Ankara, von Papen, and an influential group in the German Foreign Office hoped to secure Turkish collaboration during the war.
Actually, these inducements profoundly impressed Turkish Pan-Turanians and attracted the attention of some military leaders, including Marshal Cakmak. Unfortunately, the disaster in Stalingrad destroyed the German plan. The Turks changed theirs mind and continued embracing their neutral position while the German army retreat as quickly as possible from Caucasus to prevent another Stalingrad. Many Muslims collaborators followed them. The grandiose scheme for the conquest of the Middle East with the help of Soviet Muslims was off.
Nazi Muslim Legions at War
Although Hitler's ambitious plan for Soviet Muslims political role failed after the Stalingrad debacle, he still had tens of thousands of them to assist him militarily. The most numerous of the Soviet Muslims that served the Germans were the Turkestanis. First Turkestanis volunteers were integrated as one battalion of the 444.Sicherungs Division in November 1941 and became auxiliary to help the Germans to fight the partisan.
According Hitler's secret order on December 1941, a formation named Turkestanisch Legion was formed to command the Turkestanis volunteers. But it must be explained that name of a 'legion' in German's Eastern Legions was not synonym with a tactical formation. In fact, it only a training center where national units. mostly battalions, were organized and trained. During the war, 70,000 Turkestanis volunteers served within the German forces: 40,000 soldiers and 30.000 military workers. In 1943, the Turkestanis had 15 battalions and one year later grew-up to 26 battalions. Those battalions mainly were integrated as independent battalions within German divisions.
But there was also a full division of the Turkestanis volunteers: the 162.Turkestanisch Infanterie Division. Composed of Germans, Turkomans, and Azeris, the division commanded by General Oskar von Niedermayer, a self-stylish German's Lawrence of Arabia and a former military attaché in Persia. The division trained at Kruszyna in Poland and was transferred to Italy in 1943, where at a moment fought an American-Japanese regiment. According its commander, it was as good as a normal German division.
Crimean Tartar was not only gladly collaborating with the Germans, but was also supplying the Wehrmacht with 20,000 soldiers. These descendants of Mongols especially infamous during anti-partisan operations. In July-August 1943, Yalta mayor V.I. Maltzev formed a Tartars punitive battalion in Yevpatoria. Known as 'Khimi', the battalion fought the partisan in Yaila Mountains, where they burned several partisan bases and killed many civilians.
Impressed with theirs action, the Germans later transferred the battalion to northwestern France to fought the French maquis. Once again, their atrocious behaviors become well known so that feed fears to French civilians. An example of theirs cruelty occurred in Dortan in Ain on July 21, 1944 where the Tartars soldiers punished the village because its hospitality to the Maquis. According the reports of eyewitnesses, they raped women that fall into theirs hand collectively, burned the village, and laugh wild while playing in the front of the flames with children bicycles.
The Germans tried hard to court these Muslim volunteers. One of Nazi officials gave a report about the perfect condition of Turkestanisch Legion camp. The commander of the legion himself has learned the Turkestan language, and the Turkestanis have accepted German military terms and have an anti-Bolshevist attitude. The legions of the Muslim Caucasians and Tartars have modeled on similar lines.
To raise morale of the Soviet Muslim volunteers, the Germans also issued some publications for them, like Gazavat (Holy War), Svoboda. Ezenedel'naja gazeta legionerov (Freedom. Weekly Newspaper for the Legionnaires), Milli Turkistan (The National Turkestan), Yeni Turkistan (The New Turkestan), Milli Adabijat (National Literature), Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural), Tatar Adabijat (Tartar Literature), and Azerbaican (Azerbaijan). These newspapers and magazine were edited by local journalists and only loosely controlled by the Germans from the Eastern Ministry and Wehrmacht's propaganda division.
The Soviet Muslims performance in the front lines itself different in one front to others. On Western Front, many of them disappointed theirs German master: like many of theirs Eastern colleague, Soviet Muslim volunteers didn't show any eagerness to fight the Western Allied. In contrast, in Eastern Front they show the tenacious fighting qualities. As an example, three Turkic battalions had fought to the last man at Stalingrad. The other saw how a Turkic battalion that had broken out of a pocket near Kharkov, reentered it again just to recover the body of their beloved German commander.
But, whatever their performance, the existence the Soviet Muslims in the rank of the German army got attention of the second most powerful man in the Third Reich, Heinrich Himmler. The Reichsfuehrer SS decided to recruited them into his private army, the Waffen-SS.
Soviet Muslims in the Himmler's Black Legion
Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler was known as Islam most willing promoter and collaborator among the Nazi leadership. Himmler's hatred the 'soft' Christianity was equal for his liking for Islam, which he saw as a masculine, martial religion based on the SS qualities of blind obedience and readiness for self-sacrifice, untainted by compassion for one's enemies. His admiration for Islam made him ready to throw-out his racial 'Aryan pure' fantasies to receive more Muslim volunteers for his sinister legion.
When the mass of Soviet Muslims collaborators followed the retreating German armies to avoid the reprisals that awaited them from the Russians, Himmler would probably not have objected to procuring them for the Waffen SS. He had decided that it was only the Slav and the Jews in the Russian stock who were sub-humans. There was a superior element in the Russian nation which come from Asia and which had produced Attila, Jenghiz Khan, Tamerlane, Lenin, and Stalin. The Soviet Muslims themselves were suited with these criteria. Many of them came from Caucasus (just like Stalin origin) or descendants and relatives of the Mongols (like Tartar and Turkestan peoples).
In November 1943, a certain Heer major name Andreas Meyer-Mader meet Himmler to offering his service to help raise and command a Turkic SS unit. Himmler approved the major plan and then transfers him into the ranks of the Waffen SS and promoted him to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer. On 14 December, another meeting was held in Berlin in present of the Grand Mufti of the Jerusalem, Hajj Amin el-Husseini. The Grand Mufti approved the plan to raise a Turkic-Muslim SS division and give his "spiritual leadership" to influence the Muslim volunteers.
Osttuerkischen Waffen-Verbaende der SS was formed on January 1944 as 1.Ostmuslemanische SS-Regiment. (Actually, the Reichsfuehrer SS plans to expand it into a division, Muselmanischen SS-Division Neu-Turkestan, but the plan never realized.) This new formation formed from the Turkic units in the Heer that was disbanded, i.e., 450th, 480th, and I/94 Turkic battalions, plus some new recruits from German POW camps. The recruits not only Turkestanis, but also Azeris, Kirghiz, Uzbek, and Tadjiks volunteers. The unit was formed in Trawniki, Poland, before they were transferred to Belorussia for further training. SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Andreas Meyer-Mader was appointed as its first commander.
Unfortunately, this unit suffered from poor discipline and poor morale, especially after theirs beloved commander, Meyer-Mader, killed during a skirmish with partisans in Yuratishki, near Minsk, on March 28, 1944. The situation became worse when the replacement commander, SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Billig executes 78 unit members for insubordination. This incident made Himmler angry and Billig relieved.
On July 1944, the unit transferred back to Poland. When the SS tried to quell the Warsaw Uprising, the unit--with two Azerbaijan battalion from Heer--attached to the notoriously SS Dirlewanger Brigade, where they were participated in brutal actions that killed 200,000 Polish civilians.
Himmler decision to appointed SS-Standartenfuehrer Harun-el-Raschid-Bey, an Austrian officer who converts to Islam, didn't made many good progression within the formation. In contrary, during his leadership the morals of the Turkestanis drop until a low ebb. Even a mutiny broke-up when on Christmas Eve 1944, 450 members of the 1st Battalion, led by Waffen-Obersturmfuehrer Gulam Alimov and Waffen-Untersturmfuehrer Asatpalvan, killed some NCOs and went over to the partisans. Himmler's reaction was fired Harun-el-Raschid-Bey and reorganized the formation, where the Azerbaijan contingents in the formation transferred to the Kaukasicher Waffen-Verbande der-SS.
Meanwhile, another Soviet Muslim SS formation came into being during the summer of 1944, when all of the Crimean Tartar Schuema battalion were gathered together and formed into a new unit, Waffen-Gebirgs-Brigade der-SS (Tatarische Nr.1). But because the shorts of weapons and equipment, the unit was disbanded on December 1944, and the men were ordered to join with Osttuerkischen Waffen-Verbaende der SS.
In the final days of the war Osttuerkischen Waffen-Verbaende der SS operated in Slovenian-Italian borders. There were possibility that the unit participated in some anti-partisan operations in Slovenia, serving under HSSPF Adriatic Coast. During April-May 1945, the unit stationed in Lombardy, Italia. They stayed in there until the end of the war.
The Bitter End
The disaster that fell into the Third Reich began to take a turn for the worse and made a worse impact among the Soviet Muslims that served within the Germans armies. When Himmler finally tried to assembled a united front against the Bolshevik among the Soviets dissidents under General Vlassov, many of non-Russians voiced against it.
One of the oppositions came from Turkestani National Committee which longing independence of Turkestan. The committee that headed by Veli Kayum Khan, head of the Turkestani "government in exile", had been in charge of the political and national leadership of Turkestani volunteers. It had successfully raised the morale of the Turkestani volunteers by supporting independence for Turkestan and, with the aid of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the SS-FHA, setting up schools at Dresden and Goetingen to train religious imams for the Muslim military units in the Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht. Their’s stand supported by some leaders from Caucasus, like Khedia, Mischa, Kantimer, Alibegow, and Tschamalja.
But the situation in front lines decided their fate, not the Germans. The Allied high tides sweeps and swallow the Third Reich. Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945. One week later, Germany surrenders. Like many of theirs Eastern comrade-in-arms that supported the Nazis, Soviet Muslim volunteers who surrender to Western Allied were shipped back to Soviet Union, where many of them were executed or dumped into the Gulags as traitors.
Even Stalin ordered deportations to the east some of Soviet Muslim nationalities whose representatives had fraternized with the Germans - like Chechens, Balkars, Ingushi, Karachais, and Crimean Tartars. The first four of these nationalities - or what was left of them - were allowed to return to their homes after Stalin's death, while the Crimea Tartars - the most notoriously collaborator - could return only after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Bibliographies
Books
Buttler, Rupert. Legions of Death. Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1983.
Cookridge, E.H. Gehlen: Spy of the Century. Transworld Publishers Ltd., 1972.
Deschner, Guenther. Warsaw Rising. Ballantine Books, 1972.
Munoz, Antonio J. Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen-SS. Axis Europa Books, 1991.
Reitlinger, Gerald. The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922-1945. Arms and Armour Press, 1985.
Werth, Alexander. Russia at War, 1941-1945. Pan Books, 1965.
Articles
Anders, Wladyslaw, and Antonio J. Munoz, "Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in World War II". www.feldgrau.com
De Lanoy, Francois. "Les Allemands et le Caucase". 39-35 Magazine, November 2000.
"Eastern Troops: Die Ostruppen". www.angelraybooks.com
Jemeljanenko, Igor. "Ostlegion". www.ostlegion.com
Kadari, Yanis. "La Rebellion Oublie des Tchetchens". www.1939-45.org
Kilic, Armand. "Militaergesichte Bosniche un Tuerkische Freiwillige in den Verbaende der Waffen SS". http://jungefreiheit.de
Pye, Evelyn, "Les 'Mongols' a lete 1944". www.memoire-net.fr.com
Trifkovic, Srdja. "Multiculturalism and Islam: Liberal Fiction and Historical Truth". www.earlhamedu.htm.
Forums in the Internet
Axis History Forums
Feldgrau Forums
Disaster in Budapest
1944. Hitler's once mighty empire crumbles on every front. On the West, Wehrmacht could not stop the Allied while in the East the Red Army moved without stopping to the eastern border of the Reich and plunged into the Balkan. In August, the Soviet offensive forced Romania and then Bulgaria to switch from Germany to supporting the Soviet Union. This event made a third door to the Reich lay open and a new front had to be created in Hungary and Croatia by German divisions. The situation gave the SS an opportunity to grab the last power for them as Hitler's praetorian guards. But in the end, they must pay it with the greatest defeat for the Waffen SS
Coup d'etat in Budapest
Disaster that struck German in Balkan in 1944 made Hungary tottering too. It didn't a surprise: since Stalingrad, the Hungarians had been withdraw theirs troops from the front line and practically become a neutral country in the rear of the German front, a land of night-clubs and white bread, where the privileged could live without rationing or conscription. As a pragmatic people, the Hungarians aware that the Allied will be won. So, in October 1944 the Hungarian government of Admiral Horthy attempted to follow Romania and Bulgaria examples to leave the sinking ships.
Unfortunately, Hitler had been prepared for such treachery and there were sufficient German units in Hungary to prevent a disaster. Hitler's distrust to his Balkan allies made him decided that as far as possible the Hungarian and the Romanian divisions must replaced by the Volksdeutsche (the racial Germans) of those countries, who had been conscripted into the Waffen SS. This gave the SS a far more important role than they had fulfilled on the eastern and western fronts.
While the Red Army only less than 100 miles from Budapest, Horthy figured it was of last time to surrender in payment for political considerations. To stop this treachery, Hitler sent a well-known SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Otto Skorzenny and a special parachute-battalion to Budapest to bring Hungarian leaders back in line.
Skorzenny moved quickly. He kidnapped Horthy's son who tried to make agreement with Tito's Yugoslavian partisan and sends an ultimatum to his father to surrender. Meanwhile, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Otto Winkelmann, the HSSPF Hungary, had taken control of Budapest. To threatening rumble of 40 German tanks, SS-Untersturmfuehrer Kernmayr occupied the Budapest radio station and proclaimed the new pro-Nazi regime. Skorzenny also alerted 22.Freiwilligen-Kavalleriedivision der SS 'Maria Theresa' which cordoned off all approaches to the Burgberg, Horthy's fortress and then attacked that place. Horthy surrenders and offered his abdication. Ferenc Szalasi, the leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross party, replaced him.
The Unternehmen Panzerfaust--as the coup d'etat operation named--raise the Waffen-SS prestige in Hitler's eyes. But the victory was a short live. The sequel to the operation was a Stalingrad for them.
The Birth of the Disaster
On October 20, 1944 the Red Army under Marshal Malinovski captured Debrecen in eastern Hungary. Then, on Stalin's order, Malinovski initiated the attack on Budapest on October 29, 1944. On November 3, the first Soviet tanks rolled into Vecsés, Kispest and reached Ferihegy airport. But the Russian advance in Hungary, though rapid at first, was then slowed down by very stiff German and Hungarian resistance, especially the incoming German reinforcements.
To stop the Red Army advance, 'Maria Theresa' Division was sending to southeastern of Budapest defense ring at Dunaharztil and Taksony. On November 5, they were attacked by Soviets at Karola Positions. The division throws back the attackers and then mounted counterattack.
Another Waffen-SS division was sending to defend the Budapest, 8.SS Kavelleriedivision 'Florian Geyer'. The division was a veteran of many combat missions on the Eastern Front. On November 1944, they were assigned as part of Budapest garrison. When Soviets reach Ocsa on November 3, the Germans forced back due to Hungarian units routing on their flanks. 'Florian Geyer' was send to counterattacks and succeeded to recaptures Vesces and Ullo.
But the Waffen SS divisions success was a short live. On November 20, Soviets force a breach between the 'Maria Theresa' and the 1st Honved Cavalry Division, which endangers the Budapest suburbs. 'Maria Theresa' losses was great and on December 1944, the division strength only 8,000 men. All divisional units sent to Budapest to act in the city's defense, leaving their horses behind. As a result of this, more than 30,000 horses were left wandering around Budapest, and many ended up providing essential nourishment for the inhabitants and the army.
To defend the Hungarian capital, Hitler send the IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS under SS-Oberstgruppenfuehrer Karl von Pffefer-Wildenbruch. This corps included 'Maria Theresa' and 'Florian Geyer'; another five supporting battalion from Waffen SS; a regiment SS-Police; two panzer division from German army; with another supported battalion; plus remnants of several Hungarian divisions. On December 11, von Pffefer-Wildenbruch establishes his HQ on Castle Hill - the governmental center of the Hungarian capital. The Corps itself has at most 70 armored vehicles.
Hitler and Szalasi decided at their meeting early in December to hold Budapest at "any cost". Why? First of all, Hitler hoped to retain Hungarian oil fields, the last one that he still has for his industries and motorized units. Secondly, the Hungarian capital was an important point to defend Austria's frontiers. Lastly, for Hitler personally, Budapest still has a large Jewish community and he eager to exterminate all of them for his Final Solution.
On 14 December, the Red Army had begun a terrible pounding of German positions in Budapest on both sides of the Danube. That very night twelve thousands guns angled at forty-five degrees and amassed all round the Hungarian capital, were fired simultaneously.
The darkness dissolved in apocalyptic flashes as the twelve thousands guns began to pulverize the city in a deluge of steel.
Then at dawn on 22 December, the Cossack cavalry struck. Three thousand heavy tanks and fifteen infantry divisions hurled themselves at Budapest.
On Christmas Eve, 1944, Russian tanks burst into the suburbs of Buda - on the west side of the Danube; Pest was on the east. These were from the spearheaded of Marshal Tolbulkhin's Third Ukrainian Front, which had pushed across the Danube below the Budapest. Although the German's Tiger tanks succeeded to stop them, Tolbulkhin increased the pressure from the south while Malinovsky's Second Ukrainian Front was crossing the Danube above Budapest. On December 27 the two great forces met in Esztergom in west of the city. The Germans had therefore lost the defense line of the Danube and the IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS were encircled, together with 800,000 civilians.
Budapest Pocket
The actual street combat in Budapest started simultaneously with the complete surrounding of the city on December 24. Battles fought for cities and towns usually differ from conventional warfare. Surrounded by large buildings, orientation becomes difficult, defense is easier. Central control often ceases and small cells operate independently. The commanders of units not larger than 50-250 soldiers become responsible for setting the direction of combat. The significance of heavy artillery diminishes in favor of hand-to-hand combat. While an open field battle usually ends with the rapid collapse of the enemy, the agony of city battles can drag on for weeks and months.
After heavy fighting against the Soviets, SS units pull back to Buda on the west bank of the Danube river. "Kampfgruppe Portugall" stationed Adlerberg (Sas-Hegy) and Buda 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
On December 25, Pfeffer-Wildenbruch named commander of all military units in Budapest pocket, replacing HSSPF Dr. Otto Winkelmann. "At best, one could say that Budapest was being led by a politician", said Heer General Hermann Balck, commenting on Pfeffer's mediocre military abilities. Hitler orders Pfeffer-Wildenbruch to hold out at all costs so that Soviet forces will be diverted from advancing to the Hungarian oil fields.
Meanwhile, Budapest experienced a continuous and gradual withdrawal of the defending troops. However, the situation in Buda was quite different: the front barely moved a few hundred meters at a time. The defending troops were vulnerable on Városmajor, Rózsadomb and Sas-hegy, yet their stations at the Farkasrét cemetery were especially lethal to the attacking Soviet troops. The SS soldiers took over the crypts, dug up the graves, threw out the coffins and with things looted from the neighboring houses, set up their positions. Later, many met their death in this cemetery.
Initially, it was possible to repel the heavy Soviet artillery because the German troops were well supplied with a large number of small arms. Furthermore, the defenders' small number demanded unorthodox tactics that took advantage of the terrain. This was referred to as "chess-board" tactics: the defenders held their positions at the various villas of the area. The Buda hills were scarcely populated at that time, houses were 50 or more meters away from each other. This was to the advantage of the German troops: while they were forced to retreat from the attackers, the Soviets were often caught in the undefended areas in between the houses. They were then fired at from the villas and sharpshooters prevented reinforcements from reaching them. Although this amounted almost to blasphemy for those who held orthodox views on military strategy, this practice worked well even for poorly trained and poorly armed troops who could use their creativity and knowledge of terrain to their advantage.
Given the special characteristics of the Buda hills, even when the Soviets advanced and the front retreated back to Alkotmány street, adventurous Hungarian units carried out diversionary actions in Ráth György street and Városmajor. Again, this was possible only because the now Soviet positions were concentrated around various houses and there was no continuous front line. By this time, both the German-Hungarian and Soviet troops were decimated. Thus the terrain and the distribution of buildings gave rise to guerilla-type warfare on both sides.
But Soviet troops enjoyed a numerical superiority fifteen to one. Wave after wave of Sturmovik assault aircraft all but scraped the rooftops. The Germans faced the Red Army attack with a grim determination. To prevent their encirclement a bitter battle was fought south and west of the city shortly before Christmas. Each district, street and building were fought for beneath a shower of high explosives and incendiaries. Fruitless opposition was waged from a succession of ruined houses.
The Soviet High Command wanted to capture Budapest as soon as possible. On the 29th of December, with the consent of Stalin, they called upon the German-Hungarian garrison to surrender. The Soviets send a delegation to German lines. The offer was rebuffed and on their return to Soviet lines the negotiators were killed when their jeep is machine gunned or hits a mine (accounts differ) The Soviet news agency TASS labels the incident a serious war crime. Soviet troops encircling Budapest will offer no quarter and the fate of the defenders became grim.
The Failed Counter-attack
To save his troops in Budapest, Hitler, without consulting his Chief of Staff, ordered SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Herbert Gille's IV.SS-Panzer-Korps to leave the severely threatened Warsaw front and move four or five hundred miles south to Lake Balaton.
The counter attack (named as Operation Konrad) began on New Year's day. First phase of the operation started by a German's surprise attack without artillery preparation at Pilis heights and Gerecse launched against the 4th Guards Army. Then, a drive from Komarno towards Ezstergom and along the railways to Buda developed, led by Gille's 'Totenkopf' and 'Wiking' panzer divisions, supported by an infantry division. They made attack after attack in effort to find a weak spot in the Soviet defenses.
On January 7, the Germans started the second phase of Konrad. It begins with 'Wiking' attempt to continue the advance in a more northeasterly direction. After heavy-attacks, Tolbulkhin was forced to evacuate Ezstergom. However, the Germans progress became more slowly. That made Hitler furious and calling the operation "utterly pointless".
Gille, under increasing pressure from Himmler and General Balck of the Fourth Army, forced his men to move on. After heavy fighting, on January 11, 1945 Gille's force reached Budapest airport and the rescue of forty-five thousands German soldiers, half of them fellow SS men, seemed assured.
But fate seem didn't sided with the poor Budapest garrison. Although Gille's men was within 21km of Budapest and the corps signals units can hear the desparate pleas of the garrison on the radios and can see the distant spires of the city in their field glasses, Hitler calls off the operation. He have another idea.
General Balck hoped to surround ten Russian divisions north of the lake. Hitler supported the General and switches the attack 70 miles to south in third phase of Konrad. So, Gille's corps was withdrawn to Balck's sector.
However, It was a tactical error, for Russian resistance stiffened. By the end of January, after suffers 51 senior SS officers KIA and 157 WIA and an estimated 7,000 men are casualties, Gille's Corps got order to call off their's attack and abandoned the relief efforts. Thus, the fate of Budapest garrisons had been sealed off.
To the Bitter End
On January 10, Malinovski continued his advance on Pest and cleared eight city districts with the help of Rumanians who had switched sides. This was achieved mainly by hand-to-hand fighting because the Red Army did not want to endanger the city's waterworks with all-out bombing or artillery barrage.
On January 15, IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS radios Army Group South: "Artillery munitions are all used up....fuel is at an end. The supply situation is critical. The position of the wounded is catastrophic." The Luftwaffe managed to successfully drop only six tons of supplies to the garrison that night.
Early in the morning of January 17 the defenders of Pest retreated into Buda across the Danube. The Hungarian soldiers refused to blow up their historic bridges; they said that the ice over the Danube was thick enough to hold tanks, anyway. The Germans replied that it was no time for history and blew up the bridges themselves.
The defenders fate become worst. The wounded soldiers has already surpassed of combatants. All non-combatant troops of corps sent to front lines while military decorations parachuted into the pocket in an effort to raise morale. But it is clear that the fate of the defenders has already sealed. On January 30, the Corps send a message to Hitler: "The people have lost all hope."
On February 5, the Red Army captures Adler Hill. The surviving 88mm guns of Kampfgruppe Portugall withdrawn to the Castle Hill/government center area. The SS Corps have over 11,000 wounded in pocket. Hungarian troops begin to desert to Soviets.
By February 11, the battle for the west side of the river had turned into a bitter siege. Securely entrenched in Buda's hills, German-Hungarian troops shelled any attempts to cross the ice-covered Danube. But the 70,000 defenders were trapped on a pocket roughly one kilometer long and one kilometer deep; other Russian forces were closing in from the west.
Explosive bullets and phosporus tumbled onto the defenders, who refused even to contemplate defeat. The Russians eventually had little to do but mop up the bodies.
The German commander in Buda, Pfeffer von Wildenbruch, ordered his men to try and break through the Soviet ring in three separate groups. It was obvious that there was almost no chance of escaping, but few objected. It was better to die fighting than to be exterminated. The odds for escape were even slimmer than imagined. The Red Army commander knew all about the breakout and was already covertly withdrawing his men from the first buildings surrounding the German-Hungarian troops.
As the three groups were about to move off in different directions, Russian rockets began blasting the recently evacuated buildings. Nevertheless, they surged out of their hiding places armed only with machine pistols and met a withering wall of rocket and artillery fire. Most of them were cut down in the first few minutes. The others kept coming, desperately trying to break through. Those surviving the rockets and artillery were met by such masses of Russian infantrymen that it seemed impossible for single man to survive, let alone escape; but in the darkness and confusion almost 5000 German-Hungarians filtered through.
The SS members were among the most desperately men to escape. The Russian especially hates them and didn't have any doubt to kill the SS men on the spot. Hungarian lieutenant Gyula Litterati told after the war how four of his SS friends that captured by Russians were forced to naked before a line of Red Army soldiers who laughing at some jokes. Then, almost casually, the Russians fired theirs SS prisoners.
Of Pfeffer-Wildenbruch's 70,000 men, little more than 700 escaped to the German lines. They included 170 men of the 'Florian Geyer' Division, whose commander, the thirty-four-year-old Joachim Rumohr committed suicide during the sortie after he had been wounded. Most of the rest SS men were killed in battle or murdered, including SS-Brigadefuehrer August Zehender, the commander of 'Maria Theresa' Division.
On 13 February all resistance in Buda ceased with the surrender of SS-Oberstgruppenfuehrer Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. During the siege, which had last seven weeks, some 50,000 German-Hungarian troops had been killed and a few thousands made prisoners. Three Waffen SS divisions - 'Florian Geyer', 'Maria Theresa', and a new SS Hungarian's cavalry division, the 33.Waffen-Kavalleriedivision der SS (ungarische Nr. 3) - plus some supporting units destroyed. The IX.Waffen-Gebirgs-Korps der SS was written off from the SS units' list. Budapest had become a Stalingrad for the Waffen SS.
Bibliographies
Books
Buttler, Rupert. Legions of Death. Middlesex: Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1983.
Hammerstein, Sir John, dan Sir Charles Gwynn. The Second Great War, vol. 9. London: The Waverly Book Company Ltd., 1946.
Hoehne, Heinz. The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. London: Pan Books, 1972.
Reitlinger, Gerald. The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922-1945. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1985.
Simpson, Keith. Waffen SS. New York: Gallery Books, 1990.
Toland, John. The Last Hundred Days. New York: Bantam Books, 1967.
Werth, Alexander. Russia at War, 1941-1945. London: Pan Books, 1965
Whiting, Charles. Skorzeny. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.
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