Siege of Budapest

Siege of Budapest
Part of the Budapest Offensive (Eastern Front of World War II)
A Soviet soldier writing "Budapest" in Russian on a signpost after the siege
Date 24 December 1944 – 13 February 1945 (1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days) Location Budapest, Hungary Result Soviet victory Soviet forces capture the city
Belligerents
Germany Hungary	Soviet Union Romania
Commanders and leaders
Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (POW) Gerhard Schmidhuber † Dezső László Iván Hindy (POW)	Rodion Malinovsky Fyodor Tolbukhin Nicolae Șova [ro]
Strength
In the city:[1] 79,000 men 41,000 men (ration strength) 38,000 men (ration strength) 489 guns 125 tanks and assault guns 117 heavy anti-tank guns	In the city:[2][3] 177,000 men 1,000 guns
Casualties and losses
3 November–15 February: 137,000 men[4] 24 December–15 February: 114,000 men[4] City: 79,000 men 30,000 killed 11,000 captured 9,000 killed 29,000 captured Relief attempts: unknown	3 November–11 February: 100,000 - 160,000[5]
76,000 civilians dead[6] 38,000 civilians died in the siege (7,000 executed) 38,000 died in labour or POW camps

The siege of Budapest or battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was encircled on 26 December 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. During the siege, about 38,000 civilians died through starvation, military action, and mass executions of Jews by the far-right Hungarian nationalist Arrow Cross Party.^[7][8] The city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945. It was a strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin.^[9]