Siege of Budapest 1944
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 24 December 1944 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1944 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Hungary | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Budapest offensive, World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 47.4983, 19.0408 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest, was a major battle fought between Soviet and Romanian forces and Hungarian and German forces for the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. The Budapest Offensive began on October 29 1944, while the siege lasted from December 26 1944 to February 13, 1945. The Soviets began advancing into the suburbs of Pest in November and encircled Budapest on December 26. The besieged defenders resisted the Soviets for approximately fifty days, although they had already exhausted most of their supplies in the first days of the fighting. The civilian population, numbering 800,000, was not evacuated, and consequently many civilians fell victim to the fighting, the intensity of which contemporary observers compared to that of the Battle of Stalingrad. During the siege, about 38,000 civilians died through starvation, military action, and mass executions of Jews in the Budapest Ghetto by the far-right Hungarian nationalist Arrow Cross Party. The city unconditionally surrendered on February 13, 1945. It was a major strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin.
On 29 December 1944, Soviet envoys delivered an ultimatum demanding the surrender of Axis forces defending Budapest. After the ultimatum was rejected, fighting within the city proper began.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Budapest (revision 1379298016), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the World War II
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- Operation Garlic 1943
- Siege of Turjak 1943
- Smolensk operation 1943
- Third Battle of Kharkov 1943
- Action of 14 February 1944 1944
- Action of 17 July 1944 1944
- Air battle over the Ore Mountains 1944
- Allied siege of La Rochelle 1944
- Battle for Hill 140 1944
All 178 battles of the World War II →
Browse more: battles in Hungary · Europe · World War II era battles