Merriam Press Siegrunen Monograph 2. 101 photos; 6 illustrations; 4 maps..
Contents: Chapter 1: Budapest: The City of the Unvanquished Heroes
Chapter 2: The Retreat from Eastern Hungary
Chapter 3: Development of the Budapest Defense Ring
Chapter 4: The SS Cavalry Division in the Karola Positions: November 1944
Chapter 5: The Budapest Bridgehead Takes Shape
Chapter 6: Budapest is Surrounded
Chapter 7: A Fight to the Finish: Budapest Will Not Surrender
Chapter 8: January 1945: The Hardest Month Imaginable
Chapter 9: The Final Struggle Begins
Chapter 10: Endkampf
Chapter 11: Breakout from Budapest
Chapter 12: The Formation of the SS-Totenkopf Reiterstandarten, 1939-1940
Chapter 13: Death of the Soviet Budapest Emissaries: Follow-up
Chapter 14: The Budapest Relief Attacks: Excerpts from the Diary of the 5th SS-Panzer Division "Wiking," 2-12 January 1945
Bibliography.
This work details the vicious struggle from beginning to end, a struggle in which 40, 000 defenders tied up almost half a million Soviet combat and support troops, buying the Germans much needed time. "Maria Theresia" in particular had the unfortunate distinction of being the only large formation of the Waffen-SS to be almost totally obliterated.
For IX SS Corps and the "Florian Geyer" and "Maria Theresia" Cavalry Divisions, Budapest was another Stalingrad.
The Waffen-SS troops involved constituted the backbone of the defensive effort and took the severest losses.
The battle for Budapest was the culmination of three and a half years of bitter, unequal struggle against Soviet Bolshevism and its capitalist allies.
Fifth Edition (January 2012).
Merriam Press Siegrunen Monograph 2
