Damnation Game ETO (id:#66786)

(ASL 16 - Twilight of the Reich ID: 296)   [next]   [previous]

Budapest, Hungary 1945-01-10 (11 others)

Overview:

With the breakthrough of the right flank of the Soviet 18th Guards Rifle Corps into Népliget Park area on the evening of 8 January, the rear area of the Axis troops fighting in the southern portion of the Pest bridgehead had become seriously exposed. To counter being cut off and defeated in detail, Axis Command decided to withdraw all troops from Kispest and Pestszentlorinc and reform their defensive perimeter further towards the city center. To the north, the Axis had stiffened their resistance to further Soviet advances by entrenching along a series of naturally defensible terrain features. These hardened barriers included the heavy manufacturing facilities of the Ganz-Danubius Works and the adjoining Magyar Királyi Állami Vas-, Acél- és Gépgyárak (MÁVAG) factories. North of these complexes, the Hungarians and Germans had fortified both the Józsefvárosi railyard and station and the neighboring Kerepesi Cemetery. Finally, north of these areas, the Hungarian 10th Infantry Division had ensconced itself in the fortress-like Keleti (Eastern) Railway Station. By 9 January, elements of the Soviet 297th Rifle Division had pushed to near the eastern side of the Józsefvárosi railyard and the Kerepesi Cemetery, while elements of the 66th Guards Rifle Division, commanded by Major-General Sergi Frolovich Frolov, had advanced opposite the western entrance of the factory complexes. With the Axis running out of room to retreat in Pest, the close-quarter nature of the battle for control of Pest was about to substantially escalate.

Defender: Axis ((German) Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66 and Panzer-Regiment 4, Panzer-Division 13 with (Hungarian) Group "Morlin" and Kampfgruppe Kundiger, Volksgrenadier-Division 271)  

Errata (source)