Take Budapest!: The Struggle for Hungary Autumn 1944

by Kamen Nevenkin

Describes the failed attempt of the Red Army to capture Budapest and Vienna in late 1944, in order to forestall the Western Allies in Central Europe—with previously unpublished photographsOctober 1944: Soviet troops launched a powerful attack on Budapest from the south, the culmination of a series of military, political, diplomatic, and underground moves undertaken by Hitler, Stalin, and Churchill since the collapse of the Axis front in the Balkans two months earlier. However, what had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Hungary out of the war and bring the Red Army as far as Munich quickly became a stalemate. The end result was that Stalin's forces failed to reach Bavaria, but the dictator was not disappointed: Soviet pressure against the German southern flank forced Hitler to transfer a considerable number of his armored reserves to Hungary, and thus largely facilitated Zhukov's drive on to Berlin. Here, Kamen Nevenkin tells the fascinating story of this "Market Garden"-like operation using a number of never before published German and Russian archival documents, including German papers exclusively held in the Russian military archive. Along with a detailed tactical narrative, this book also uses first-person accounts to render a human tale of war, creating an ultimately fascinating read.

Genres: Hungary, World War II, Russia, Germany, Nonfiction, Military Fiction

469 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written summary of a two month period in the fall of 1944.

The author begins by explaining the importance of Hungary for the economy of the Reich, and in the jockeying for postwar strategic position between Stalin and Churchill. An essential chapter; the resources, agriculture, and industrial capability of the area south of the Carpathians is not widely understood by North American readers.

The book then proceeds through a discussion of the military operations of the two month period of Malinovsky's first attack toward Budapest. The author does a good job of coordinating his sources so that most chapters have points of view from both sides. This makes the story interesting, and also makes it clear that both sides were operating on a shoestring in very difficult conditions.

The book also does a good job of displaying the tensions in alliance warfare (Soviet with Romanian and Bulgarian; German with Hungarian). In particular some of the backbiting between the Axis allies is shown from both points of view.

A solid piece of writing. "The Maps are Inadequate" is a standard tale of military history and it is a challenge for me with a new geographic area; I intend to go over the book again with the aid of a good map of Hungary.

The last 20% or so of the book is an excellent collection of tables and supporting documents that gets at the details of the correlation of forces and at some of the evidence of looting and war crimes by both sides.

For the military history buff this book is well worth the time and, if you are not already familiar with the Hungarian campaign, will give you new insights.

[Lloyd King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provides great overview

Provides great overview of the 2nd Ukrianian Front's drive on Budapest beginning in late October and stopping in November 1944 and the overly ambitious time table to take Budapest given to its front commander Malinovsky by Stalin. The time table of taking Budapest in just a few days was thwarted by effective German counter attacks. Using this book as a primer for bigger reads concerning the same battle. It has succeeded in doing that.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

good technical history

Good technical description of the battle however some better in depth maps would be good to have a better overview of where units were.

[Steve Switzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb account of a battle for a major city
It's really nice to hear about one of the non major battles of the eastern front
Here the soviets are not a nameless horde you get full or bats down to company level
It's nice to see how the Germans plugged holes on the eastern front in the tottering days of late 44 and
Beat off a string Russian thrust
First class

[J. Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a slow start -- the entire first chapter is an explanation of Hitler's late-war obsession with maintaining control of Hungary in general and Budapest in particular -- this looks like it's going to be an interesting book. That first chapter was pretty academic in tone, but perhaps that will fade as the Human Story takes over ....

... Okay, so I didn't ACTUALLY finish it, but I may come back to it.

[Norbert Mach]

nothing