Unity of Command II - Berlin 45. Hard Mode, Balaton #23

Описание: Hitler's last major offensive of World War II, launched in Hungary around Lake Balaton. The objective: to protect Hungary's oil fields at Nagykanizsa and potentially relieve Budapest (already fallen February 13). This was Germany's final gamble, throwing its last operational panzer reserves into a pointless attack while the Soviets prepared to take Berlin.

Sixth SS Panzer Army (Sepp Dietrich) with approximately 430,000 men, 900 tanks and assault guns including the last operational SS panzer divisions: Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf, and Wiking. Also committed were Second Panzer Army and Hungarian Third Army. This represented Germany's final operational armored reserve, elite Waffen-SS divisions pulled from the failed Ardennes Offensive and sent east.

SOVIET FORCES: Third Ukrainian Front (Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin) with approximately 400,000 men and significant armored reserves held back deliberately. The Soviets had advance warning through intelligence and prepared deep defensive positions with anti-tank ditches, minefields, and layered artillery positions across the marshy Balaton terrain.

On March 6, the offensive opened with German armor attacking through mud and early spring thaw. The rasputitsa turned the terrain into a morass. Tanks bogged down, supplies couldn't get forward, and the vaunted panzer divisions made minimal progress, advancing perhaps 20-30 kilometers at maximum before stalling completely by March 15.
Soviet defensive tactics were to absorb the attack in deep positions, inflict maximum casualties, preserve mobile reserves for counteroffensive. German forces became exhausted, running critically low on fuel. The attack achieved nothing strategically and wasted Germany's last armored reserve.

March 16, the offensive was called off. March 16-April 4, the Soviets launched their Vienna Offensive counterattack, smashing through depleted German forces. The Sixth SS Panzer Army was shattered. By April 13, Vienna fell to the Soviets.

German losses were approximately 40,000-45,000 killed and wounded, plus 500+ tanks destroyed or abandoned. Soviet casualties roughly 32,000-45,000.

Hitler was furious at the SS divisions' "failure" and ordered them to remove their cherished cuff titles as punishment, a symbolic humiliation. Dietrich reportedly refused to enforce this. The defeat opened Hungary and Austria to Soviet conquest and eliminated any German mobile reserve that might have defended Berlin. Hungary's oil fields were lost anyway within weeks.