75: Siege of Budapest

Siege of Budapest

(Budapest after the siege - 1945)

The Siege of Budapest was a siege of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. 

The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. The siege ended when the city was unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945. The Soviet forces besieging the city were part of Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front. Arrayed against the Soviets was a collection of German Army (Wehrmacht Heer), Waffen-SS, and Hungarian Army (Honvédség) forces. The Siege of Budapest was one of the bloodiest sieges of World War II. 

(Soviet Soldier writing the word "Budapest" in Russian Cyrillic after the siege - 1945)

The Siege of Budapest was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of WWII. Between the appearance of the first Soviet tank and the final capture of Buda Castle, 102 days were to pass. In comparison, Berlin and Vienna fell after 2 weeks and 6 days respectively, while no other European city, with the exception of Warsaw, was the scene of a major battle. Even those German units that persevered the longest, like Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad) and Breslau (Wroclaw), resisted the attackers for 77 and 82 days respectively. The fierceness of the battle of Budapest can be compared only to the sieges of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Stalingrad (Volgograd) and Warsaw. 

Casualties and Losses:

German Soldiers : 30,000 killed and 11,000 captured

Hungarian Soldiers: 9,000 killed and 29,000 captured

Soviet Soldiers: 15,000 killed and 60,000 wounded

Hungarian Civilians: 76,000 civilians killed (38,000 civilians died in the siege with 7,000 executed and 38,000 died in Labor or POW camps)

https://worldhistoryproject.org/1944/12/29/siege-of-budapest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Budapest