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Hi Mr Historiograph, I'm trying to reach out to you to propose a business agreement: I would love to dub your videos to Italian and then re-upload them onto an italian Historiograph channel. I reckon there is a potential untapped market for italian-speaking wartime history videos. Your videos are shockingly well made and would face very little same-language competition. The revenue from those videos would then be split at some rate to be decided between the two of us. Let me know what you think, I belive this can be a profitable endevour.
This is my city! It's strange to hear what happened on the streets where I regurarly walk, 75 years ago. Thanks for the video! If you want make a video about an even greater Hungarian tragedy, I can recommend you the story of the 2nd Hungarian army around the Don bend in early 1943.
@@day2148 That's one thing, but forcefully conscripting middle school aged children and sending them to die is a different beast than one person signing up a couple years early.
My grandmother, 15 years old at the time, survived the siege with her family in an underground shelter right next to the Castle District. She once told me how they would send her out for water, as the men were too cowardly to leave the shelter, and how she had to crawl to avoid being fired upon by the soviet forces. To think, the sweet old lady still with us today, had to go through such hell. Anyway, amazing video. This is a song about the breakout, and Széna square, where it happened, made by a famous Hungarian singer, Tamás Cseh: ua-cam.com/video/dLo2MLNxV_s/v-deo.html
My grandfather and his family were in Buda during the battle and were stuck in the capital building. He described it as a living hell, they ran out of water, food, plumbing, and electricity all within the first 2 days and were there for over a week , he was only 6 years old at the time but says he has never forgotten what happened there, still to this day will not go into details on what he saw. They returned to their home (which was somehow completely untouched) they found 3 German soldiers hiding in their barn to escape the Soviets. Knowing they would be shot by the Soviets, my great grandmother gave them civilian clothing and burned their uniforms so they could escape back to Germany. Thanks for the great series, cool to learn the bigger picture of the battle but me having my personal connection makes it that much more engrossing.
@Redsand Overall vengeance if I had to guess. The Russians went through some deap shit thanks to the Nazis and from what I can remember, you had to be a Nazi in order to join the army. By that point though they were more likely fighting simply because they had no other choice on the matter.
"Congratulations Hungary, you are being rescued." -russia "No go away" -hungary *bang* *bang* *bang* "Congratulations Comrade, you are being rescued" -soviet russia "No go away" -hungary *boom* *ratatatatatatat* "Congratulations comrade Hungary, you are once more being rescued" -soviet russia *dies in hungarian*
Are you ignoring the part where Hungary attacked the Soviet Union in 1941? Where they fought in Stalingrad? They should consider themselves lucky Soviets didn't raze the entire country to the ground, which they had full right to do after hungary was assisting Nazi germany
@Rio Jose Cheeran Hungary tried to switch side - but the germans was already prepared - look into Operation Margarethe and u will know what happened exactly - but shortly: -the Hungarian army (full of pro-german officers at this point) refused the Governor's orders and arrested/shoot everyone who tried to switch side -An elite SS commando kidnapped the Governor last living son and blackmailed Horthy to abdicate if he want to see him alive -The Arrow-Cross Party was already planned a coup to overthrow the Horthy-regime, and so when all of this shit happened their are just went out and throw fuel to the fire - and the nazis in the end installed them as the new government. Now, let me ask: how do u want to switch side, when the army was more loyal to the germans than toward you, the hungarian nazis already making a coup against you and the germans even kidnap your last living son? For Horthy and for Hungary swtiching side was impossible after Romania swtiched side, and before that moment the front didnt even reached Hungary - making earlier side-switching impossible (unless you want to be hero for 72 hour - because that was all how long Hungary could hold out against the germans attacking from all direction - not even speaking about what would happen with the 1st Hungarian Army near Warsaw - which actively helped the rebels AGAINST the germans during this time, what do u think what the germans would do with that army for example?)
@@GhostKiller755 there is no right to anything Causing pain for inflicted pain achieves nothing We should be glad most despots, dictators and absolute monarchs can't move us around like chess pieces and cannon fodder
I like these battles we never hear about. I'm surprised that the Germans were still capable of offensive operations that late in the war, especially after the losses in Battle of the Bulge.
Just found your channel. I can't believe you've only got 100k subscribers, when your content is easily on par with channels having 10x more. Thanks for what you do, and you've gained yourself at least one more for that list.
My girlfriend's next door neighbour in a block of flats in Pest, is a sweet old man, who was a little kid during the siege. They sheltered themselves in an old house in Buda, near the castle, but during an artillery bombardment, the windows broke, and the shards of the glass damaged his eye. German medics couldn't help him, so the good old Karcsi bácsi (Uncle Charlie) has a glass eyeball. He told me that if there was a dead horse on the street, the civilians stormed it to have at least a little meat. But one day his father had to leave their shelter to collect food, because they were starving. He never returned. Still nobody knows what happened to Karcsi bácsi's dad.
@@MrBigCookieCrumble There are girls on the internet, but that rule doesn't mean what you think it means. In real life, people treat you differently for being a girl. On the internet, that advantage is gone. And the only reason a girl using the internet would point out that they are a girl is if they wanted attention, for likes/comments/to get that advantage back. And it works because simps on the internet think girls will like them irl if they do that.
Horrible4 It’s was a joke but apparently more female are using internet like we men do. Still didn’t think many girls like history really, always good to see people like history.
I have a question; How do you get those lovely day-by-day battle lines? Aerial photography? Eyewitness accounts? Or using maps to guess likely lines of battle?
The soviet captains and squad leaders had to report to their supperiors also the captured hungarian/german captains, officers, soliders were a usefull source too.
11:18 Hmm maybe 700 reach German lines but it is not like 27300 are dead. USSR provide them good amount of motivation for trying this breakout. Overall chance to die in captivity at Sovie Gulag was 13.9%-35.6%.
This battle was insane, yet it is barely mentioned even in Eastern Front documentaries and history books. Hundreds of thousands killed in atrocities and nerve-breaking assaults and barrages, a medieval city (or rather, two) falling into the hands of a brutal communist dictatorship for 45 years... still, very little is told about it. They're like "oh and yeah, the Soviets took Hungary and Budapest and then moved to strike Vienna". Both this battle and the German offensive that followed are massively underreported in modern history classes.
You can still see the bullet holes in a lot of buildings in the city. They find american and soviet bombs every week. And dead bodies of germans and hungarian soldier are under us in the city by ten thousands. Last week is couldn't go home until they disarmed a huge american bomb, the area was closes in 500 meter radius. It was so crazy and it has a lot impact on our life today. My grandfather fougth in the Offensive Conrad.
@Tom Fury No, Hungary was a very unwilling ally of Germany. It's leader, Horthy Miklos, refused to help invade poland and even let Polish refugees escape through Hungary against Hitler's wishes. Also ask any Hungarian and he will say now under the non-dictatorial leadership of Orban that things are way better than under communism.
@Tom Fury they invaded only Romania and they did atrocities here, and yes, they invaded URSS, as did anyone else. Look, I don't want to be like the Hungarian guy here and say they you're idiot, because you're not, you simply don't understand eastern Europe. Romanians (we) and Hungarian have centuries of war and friendship in the same time. We can say that we hated them and we still do on certain subjects, and they feel the same about us. This siege of Budapest was a Victory for Romanian army too, a Victory not mentioned in history books, because, even if it was against them, our friendenemy, what the Russians did to them is considered a national shame even for us.
@@historigraph Seriously. If History Channel was full of dudes like you it would get frickin awards year after year. Keep up the good work man; we appreciate it!
I have attended the Kitörés Emléktúra - the hiking/marsh on the same route, as the soldiers were retreating. The longest route is 60 km, you can also go 25 or 35 km. Its being walked over night, and its being organised every year. Absolutely great event in Budapest, I recommend it to everyone.
My great-great uncle was killed defending Budapest, and my great grandfather was part of the failed relief forced in north Hungary. It’s sad, we are all Hungarians from Slovakia who fought and died, just to be pushed out as a minority all over again, as their parents did 30 years prior. But that saying goes again. Több is veszett Mohácsnál.
Terrific video. Thanks. Of course I'm interested in WWII (my grandmother advised me to "learn history, because it can kill you." Her family left (Poland)Russia in a hurry in August 1914) but not at this level of detail. Your presentation and visuals are so informative and clear it is absolutely captivating and interesting to watch and learn the larger lessons of war from it. I had an idea while watching. When the map changed scale I was briefly confused. (Sort of the way Poland kind of looks the same before and after WWII but of course it's been shifted west quite a lot). In a video like this one when a side advances, maybe leave a dashed line at the old position for a 'day' or two (or whatever time units would be the most clarifying) allowing it to fade away as it loses relevance. Multi-day advances would be a series of fainter dashed lines showing progress, completely fading away as they are no longer relevant. When the Germans recaptured territory, late in this video -- did they return to the old lines? (Might not be relevant to this siege, but I hope my point is understandable). One clear way this might be useful is when the Red Army advances across the entire front. A large image of the Soviet Union fills the screen and then the red area moves west, but our eyes can only actually focus on one small area (fovea) at a time. To see what just happened we need to scan along the changed front. If a dashed line remained, then as we scan we can see where the Red Army advanced, and didn't. In this way we would, I think, more easily understand that they advanced in 2,3 or more spots. I love these maps and how history is presented. I sometimes wonder if something positive might be also be mapped in this manner so we can not only appreciate the accomplishment but feel good about all of it. Maybe the Beatles or rocknroll conquering the world, the spread of bluejeans, the siege of Woodstock. Or, how the Berlin Wall was built, breached, plugged, but breached again and then disassembled...
This action is more crucial to the overall war effort than people realize. Those armored reserves committed by Hitler were also the last reserves that would have been available to help in the defense of Berlin, and probably the only one still capable of sustained offensive action. In the face of the final Soviet push to Berlin, the Germans‘ inability to mount any sort of response (even a weak one), famously bemoaned by Hitler, was in no small part related to the fact that his only armored reserves had been committed to the fight in Hungary. Given the rapidly deteriorating state of the regular German formations, they were completely incapable of mounting counterattacks or blunting the Soviet thrusts in any way, and this probably contributed a lot to how quickly the capital fell. Arguably, Hitler‘s reasons for prioritizing Hungary were, in theory at least, strategically sound. But the Soviet High Command exploited this fact very effectively, essentially using their thrust in the South to help clear their way to the German capital. It also showcases their extremely impressive ability to simultaneously mount different strategic offensives of this magnitude, which was a tremendous logistical challenge. Unlike the Western Allies, the Soviets were able to organize their offensives in such a way that they were basically always attacking somewhere.
@@gh87716 that‘s patently false and pretty much no serious Eastern Front historian would make such a claim today. The USSR built more tanks than the allies, and the same goes for a lot of standard weapons systems. Incidentally, they also had the most tanks and planes going into the war, when there was exactly zero support going to them from the West. By your logic, American support should also help the Ukrainians outproduce Russia and end the current war as the next greatpower and rival to the United States. But no imperial power is dumb enough to help build up their own rival, and if what you claim were true, the war would have ended with the USSR collapsing back into a third-world country (which Russia was before 1927), not becoming a super-power and entering the Space Age.
There is a very sad game called "This War of Mine" that highlights this depressing reality. You're basically just a guy trying to survive the siege of Sarajevo. When I played it as a teenager, it made me realize how much history tends to overlook the suffering of civilians.
Awesome vid! One thing to maybe add, as a hungarian. So this breakout at the end of the siege is commemorated every year here, starting from the castle, going through the same path for 60 kms into the mountins, visiting soldier graves, lighting candles. I think you could've added it too, as a connection to nowdays. Anyways, a nice finishing part of this small series!
@@historigraph this is a pro-war hitlerist commemoration taking the glorious-brave narrative admiring the meaningless siege and breakout. many of the participants dressing as nazis with swastikas and arrow-crosses.
@@kiff713 idk about that one c h i e f... I participated in one last year myself. Lemme tell you this: this isnt about politics, this is about men who died, because they knew surrendering would've resolved in them being slaughtered by the soviets. Yes lot of people commemorate them by wearing their uniforms, got any problem with reenacting? And no, the atmosphere as i experienced it, isnt some politically heated right wing showing off, most people are there to remember the fallen or just go on a historical themed hiking.
Recognition for what? It was pointless. They should have surrendered and spare children and civilians of suffering. It should be remembered and be full sorrow for the innocent casualties of the fascist fanatics who condemned their countryman to that suffering.
jpc1918 and that during forced collectivization MILLIONS of peasant farmers starved to death as their grain was forcibly taken away to be sold for money to buy industrial equipment.
Amazing vid!! It is a bit strange to see that the city where I now live, have been trough this hell. When he said, reinforcements--> a batalion of univercetystudents... pfff. I thank all those brave souls who died there for us! Isten áldd meg a magyart!
@@historigraph I confirm: this video's sound plays only on my left headphone. It's not a giant problem though, so I don't think that you need to reupload the video and lose all the comments likes, and watchtime because of it - just be more carefoul next time!
Great video with much details, thank you for making it. It's a shame this battle is somewhat forgotten. When the siege was ongoing, the Battle of the Bulge happened, so newspapers were not writing reports about Budapest then. During the communist era, the siege was a taboo and was barely researched. The soldiers who experienced the siege slowly died out, so historians had to work with what little has left after 1989. The only person who has researched the battle in depth is Ungváry Krisztián. His books are good, but I can't say the same about his opinions. He tries to remain neutral too hard and tends commit logical fallacies through denying his previous statement with a new one. The Breakout attempt is still remembered, there's a 60 km memorial hiking each year with historical themed stamps and checkpoints, controlled by the staff in historical uniforms of all sides. The memorial march is not political, but the media (and Ungváry) often tries to label it as far-right and revisionist (the organizers call the soldiers who attempted the breakout heroes), but despite this, it's getting more popular each year and number of participants constantly grows. Some participate because of their political views (they are a minority), some because they are history fans (like me) and some because they like extreme hikes in winter nights like this. Here's their website: kitorestura.hu/
"I'm gonna eat some gouda in buda" said the Hungarian soldier in the city as the Soviets assaulted. "I'm gonna take pisst in pest" Said the Soviet soldier as he Storms Pest.
Hello, do you have further information on the High School Battalion fighting in the Siege of Buda? I am currently researching about it and could not find any details online so far.
@@CommonSenzjust after 11 years after this siege, the citizens rebelled against the occupying russians, 14-16 years old bocs were fighting against tanks with molotovs, nobody sent them, hungarian bocs are ready to fight and die for country, before the 60s it was normal. Every hungarians were like this, the big revolutions always started and fought by teenagers. Of course after 40 years of soviet rule changed that, now hungarians are docile, sheep like, cowards.
The brutality against the soldiers is bad enough but when so many civilians are caught up in the mess, it just enters a whole new level of depressing albeit interesting history.
Hungarians are the last people to start bitching about own civilians at the end of war. In 1941-1942 they weren't taken as POWs by regular Soviet soldiers exactly for their behavior on the occupied territories and how they treated non-combatants and civilians. Very ironic when Soviet commisars have to save war criminals from quick and just execution by common soldiers.
My Dad was in the siege a young (22) infantry private, assigned to a Hungarian engineering corps, he often told me of the utter disdain they had for the Arrow Cross and goons like Szallasi, infact my dad was asked to detonate one of the main railway bridges that led across the Danube from the Pest side but knowing the war was lost and the destruction of infrastructure meaningless, he deliberately mis-wired the detonators, lucky for him that when the Germans discoverd his handywork they just thought him a dumb Hungarian, instead of shooting him on the spot they sent up the Hill across to Buda where he was holed up in the Citadel and Palace fortifications till the siege came to its inevitable end, saw terrible things up there, Germans were begging Hungarians for uniforms so they'd escape being sent off to the Gulags. - what incredible and terrible times to live through.
Today in Hungary, the siege, but especially the breakout effort is a very controversial topic, because ever since the 1990's, Hungarian neonazi groups and other far-right groups and movements across Central and Eastern Europe have been using the anniversary of the event to get together and protest each year, under the guise of an endurance trail. So let's make something clear: The brave soldiers defending Budapest deserve to be honoured and remembered. They are just as much casualties of the war as anyone else, and deserve to be remembered as such. However, what we cannot allow, is Nazi scum like the ones marching around every year in Budapest to claim them as their own. The ones responsible for the deaths of these soldiers and civilians are the very people whose flags these people are waving around today. Many of these soldiers were forced conscripts or people just trying to defend their homes from Soviet rule, rightfully so. But even if they were committed Nazis, that still does not change the fact that today, fascism and Naziism cannot be tolerated. Not even when it claims to be remembering a tragedy. (And for the people who will inevitably come to say I'm just accusing people with no proof, or diluting the term, I invite you to look at the pictures Hungarian newspaper Index took of the event a few years ago. People marching in full SS-uniforms, waving Swastika and Sonnenrad flags, the checkpoints during the tour manned by people also in SS uniforms, people showing up in droves from litteral neonazi gangs from Germany or Poland, those not in litteral nazi uniforms often showing up in shirts of well-known far right and fascist groups, or the fact that the first of these events was organized by a Hungarian neofascist who has since been convicted and imprisoned for the murder of a police officer. And to anyone who may have attended the tour at some point and actually is not a fascist and was just there to genuinely honour the dead and take part in the tour, fair enough. I have nothing against you. What you believe is between you and God alone. Kick the Nazis out of the event though. You're well within your right to honour these soldiers by trying to recreate their deed. But doing so together with litteral neonazis is not okay.)
The whole point of the endurance trail is historic preservation. Thats why the checkpoints are manned by SS and Wehrmacht soldiers AND SOVIET soldiers aswell. I took part in this a few times. Most people go there dressed just like everyone else would on a hike. Heck, even families with children took part, elderly. Nobody ever raised a Nazi flag except on a few checkpoints(as I explained above). The claim that this event is for Nazi glorifyng is simply false and ignorant.
The entire hike you describe is conducted in an orderly fashion, during which, leftist activists try to disturb the peace. 3000 people gather, remember and follow in the path of the soldiers who broke out 75 years ago. This event is annually organized for the past 15+ years, without ANY disturbance of the peace by the participants in the City or outside of it, under the watch of local officials and law enforcement. Whereas, the only actual criminal problem comes from the leftist AntiFa groups who try to protest, instigate violence and provocate people, the latter without much success really. The uniforms displayed are historically authentic, and what you forget to mention is that there are plenty of Soviet re-enactors in historically correct uniforms along with their flags, paraphernalia etc. at certain checkpoints, representing the history equally. Although most chair-revolutionaries dont know that, because these points are far out of the city, requiring some effort to get there.
Some people like to play dress-up, just let them be. They don't have real guns and it's a nice way to keep your body in shape. Are you scared od something?
Hungary should have negotiated a fair border with Romania , with an option for population transfers , but no , they had to call on big daddy Germany to give them half of Transilvania , of which more than half was not even Hungarian... If Romania had no beef with Hungary , they would not be tempted to switch sides on 1944 and eagerly jump on the attack to get back Transilvania.
After every war in the region, Romania is annexing some more new lands based on some secret agreement from Western powers. Watch out for Moldova, after the War in Ukraine will be closed!
Since Szekelyland is in the center of Transylvania and its 90% Hungarian, it was a pretty fair border. But I didnt hear anything that the Romanians wants to give up their territories, so I dont know where do you get these lunatic ideas, that they would just give lands because they are such a good guys. Romania would switch sides in 44 anyway since they had no other choice.
What if the air & ground forces sent to the Ardennes & Alsace Lorraine in December 1944 & January 1945 were instead redeployed to Hungary in December 1944 & January 1945? For example, the 6th SS Panzer Army (with its 1st SS & 2nd SS Panzer Corps) that was eventually used in Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945. Hmmm.
I'm looking for information on a Hungarian actress who died in Budapest on February 17, 1945. Her name was Ilka Palmay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilka_P%C3%A1lmay She was 85 and had been retired for many years, but I'm still curious about the circumstances of her passing. She could have died of natural causes, or old age, but chances are her death was related to the fighting. I'm sure old people were very vulnerable at times like that.
A query if I may. Last autumn I visited Budapest for the first time, and spent time in the Castle grounds. They are working hard to restore the place. My point is that a poster there, part of a description of the battle, shows USAF bombers over the Castle. My understanding was that the Soviets called in American help because the hill was a very hard nut to crack. Did I misunderstand? In the older parts of the city, one can find the holes from bullets and shrapnel in walls all over the place.
No, You understand well. There were more than massive USAF bombings before. But the main hit had happened in the east front much before... my grandfather said something like this: "When we faced the huge quantity of American weapons, after all this we started to think about/in it...."
USAF heavily bombed Hungary in 1944, especially Győr and Budapest. The main targets were industrial areas and railway stations, but when visibility was low, pilots blindly dropped their bombs, which often landed in civilian areas.
@@emeraldhunter1 my mother was born in March 1944 in Budapest. She said there were every day bombing of the city, they spent a lot of nights in the cellars.
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Hi Mr Historiograph, I'm trying to reach out to you to propose a business agreement: I would love to dub your videos to Italian and then re-upload them onto an italian Historiograph channel. I reckon there is a potential untapped market for italian-speaking wartime history videos. Your videos are shockingly well made and would face very little same-language competition. The revenue from those videos would then be split at some rate to be decided between the two of us. Let me know what you think, I belive this can be a profitable endevour.
I always find sieges so sad. But still is very interesting to see the perspective of the defenders and frustration of relief units.
Mariupol :(
Most battles in ww2 were sieges tbh it basically renamed the meaning off a siege
@@r-saint Slava Ukraine :ua:
historigraph:
makes poster about the siege of Budapest
me, an hungarian:
i'll take your entire stock!
Glad to hear it!
Save some for the rest of us lol
Sorry ur country got fucked for like 40 years after this
This is my city! It's strange to hear what happened on the streets where I regurarly walk, 75 years ago.
Thanks for the video!
If you want make a video about an even greater Hungarian tragedy, I can recommend you the story of the 2nd Hungarian army around the Don bend in early 1943.
*** So happy to know that Horthy lived to see Budapest sieged two times by Romanian army! 😆😆😆
@@StefanGabrielRoHu" besieged" would be the proper term there, good sir. A peculiarity of the English language
@@tremainetreerat5176 Don't care, I'm not an English teacher.
@@StefanGabrielRoHu Gypsy thief.
туда им и дорога. 2й армии. Падонки коих поискать. Üdvözlet Voronyezsből.
I thought sending university students into battle was bad but highschool kids? That’s heartbreaking
its so cool tho !
@@cumpanions8105 not at all it's a war crime. Using child soldiers is NOT OK
@@cumpanions8105 What is cool in using litteral children in a war?
@@day2148 That's one thing, but forcefully conscripting middle school aged children and sending them to die is a different beast than one person signing up a couple years early.
@@ragalyiakos I agree. But you said "using child soldiers" not "conscripting child soldiers". There are plenty of legitimate reasons to use them.
My grandmother, 15 years old at the time, survived the siege with her family in an underground shelter right next to the Castle District. She once told me how they would send her out for water, as the men were too cowardly to leave the shelter, and how she had to crawl to avoid being fired upon by the soviet forces. To think, the sweet old lady still with us today, had to go through such hell.
Anyway, amazing video.
This is a song about the breakout, and Széna square, where it happened, made by a famous Hungarian singer, Tamás Cseh:
ua-cam.com/video/dLo2MLNxV_s/v-deo.html
Thanks for sharing this story
My grandfather and his family were in Buda during the battle and were stuck in the capital building. He described it as a living hell, they ran out of water, food, plumbing, and electricity all within the first 2 days and were there for over a week
, he was only 6 years old at the time but says he has never forgotten what happened there, still to this day will not go into details on what he saw. They returned to their home (which was somehow completely untouched) they found 3 German soldiers hiding in their barn to escape the Soviets. Knowing they would be shot by the Soviets, my great grandmother gave them civilian clothing and burned their uniforms so they could escape back to Germany. Thanks for the great series, cool to learn the bigger picture of the battle but me having my personal connection makes it that much more engrossing.
My father too. 2nd army
@Redsand more likely normal whermacht
@Redsand Overall vengeance if I had to guess. The Russians went through some deap shit thanks to the Nazis and from what I can remember, you had to be a Nazi in order to join the army. By that point though they were more likely fighting simply because they had no other choice on the matter.
@Redsand Again I might be wrong but that is my opinion.
@Redsand still, it was guess. They were still probably conscripts.
"Congratulations Hungary, you are being rescued." -russia
"No go away" -hungary
*bang* *bang* *bang*
"Congratulations Comrade, you are being rescued" -soviet russia
"No go away" -hungary
*boom* *ratatatatatatat*
"Congratulations comrade Hungary, you are once more being rescued" -soviet russia
*dies in hungarian*
Normie
Are you ignoring the part where Hungary attacked the Soviet Union in 1941? Where they fought in Stalingrad? They should consider themselves lucky Soviets didn't raze the entire country to the ground, which they had full right to do after hungary was assisting Nazi germany
@Rio Jose Cheeran Hungary tried to switch side - but the germans was already prepared - look into Operation Margarethe and u will know what happened exactly - but shortly:
-the Hungarian army (full of pro-german officers at this point) refused the Governor's orders and arrested/shoot everyone who tried to switch side
-An elite SS commando kidnapped the Governor last living son and blackmailed Horthy to abdicate if he want to see him alive
-The Arrow-Cross Party was already planned a coup to overthrow the Horthy-regime, and so when all of this shit happened their are just went out and throw fuel to the fire - and the nazis in the end installed them as the new government.
Now, let me ask: how do u want to switch side, when the army was more loyal to the germans than toward you, the hungarian nazis already making a coup against you and the germans even kidnap your last living son? For Horthy and for Hungary swtiching side was impossible after Romania swtiched side, and before that moment the front didnt even reached Hungary - making earlier side-switching impossible (unless you want to be hero for 72 hour - because that was all how long Hungary could hold out against the germans attacking from all direction - not even speaking about what would happen with the 1st Hungarian Army near Warsaw - which actively helped the rebels AGAINST the germans during this time, what do u think what the germans would do with that army for example?)
@@GhostKiller755 there is no right to anything
Causing pain for inflicted pain achieves nothing
We should be glad most despots, dictators and absolute monarchs can't move us around like chess pieces and cannon fodder
@AuspiciousToad Woot? The Soviets barely damaged any countries unlike the Anglo allies who bombed Germany into oblivion.
The level of detail is just amazing, thanks as always for your videos
this channel is incredibly underrated, i never comment on videos but i really want to thank you for putting out such high quality videos
Cheers mate
Awesome content! Thank you for making such a good series about the siege of our capital.
You're very welcome!
Knowing the warm hospitality of soviet pow camps, I'd rather take my chance with the most futile effort to break out.
Same here
@LUNAR BLOODDROP for those who thought so during WW2 really ended up dead.
Still way better than being a Soviet PoW in german hands
Dying would be a better option than being a slave in siberia for 10 years
@@stc3145
Dying would be a better option than being a slave. Period.
I like these battles we never hear about. I'm surprised that the Germans were still capable of offensive operations that late in the war, especially after the losses in Battle of the Bulge.
To be fair the offensives here were more due to the defenders being unprepared rather than German troops being still offensively strong.
@@DP-qm6qe to be fair thats bullshit and an excuse to the soviet side
Just found your channel. I can't believe you've only got 100k subscribers, when your content is easily on par with channels having 10x more. Thanks for what you do, and you've gained yourself at least one more for that list.
My girlfriend's next door neighbour in a block of flats in Pest, is a sweet old man, who was a little kid during the siege. They sheltered themselves in an old house in Buda, near the castle, but during an artillery bombardment, the windows broke, and the shards of the glass damaged his eye. German medics couldn't help him, so the good old Karcsi bácsi (Uncle Charlie) has a glass eyeball.
He told me that if there was a dead horse on the street, the civilians stormed it to have at least a little meat. But one day his father had to leave their shelter to collect food, because they were starving. He never returned. Still nobody knows what happened to Karcsi bácsi's dad.
I'm a simple girl, I see Historigraph upload, I like.
That's weird, i was told growing up that there were no girls on the internet!
Normie
@@MrBigCookieCrumble There are girls on the internet, but that rule doesn't mean what you think it means.
In real life, people treat you differently for being a girl. On the internet, that advantage is gone. And the only reason a girl using the internet would point out that they are a girl is if they wanted attention, for likes/comments/to get that advantage back. And it works because simps on the internet think girls will like them irl if they do that.
@@Horible4 Holy shit calm down, he's likely just a dude trolling around lmao
Horrible4 It’s was a joke but apparently more female are using internet like we men do. Still didn’t think many girls like history really, always good to see people like history.
I truly and deeply love your style of videos. The amount of research that have to be made must be impressive, bravo !
Thank you from Hungary.
The germans did there best with what they had to relief the city.
We tried
~from Germany
*** So happy to know that Horthy lived to see Budapest sieged two times by Romanian army! 😆😆😆
When command says "defend until the end", you should stop hoping for a breakout. You're there until you die. You've been abandoned.
I mean, if you think about it, they did break out... but the rest just were dead before they did breakout...
When I was this early Ruskies were in Romania.
Normie
I have a question; How do you get those lovely day-by-day battle lines? Aerial photography? Eyewitness accounts? Or using maps to guess likely lines of battle?
Go to a college library they usually have the books and stuff.
Or go to your city's main library.
Ungváry Krisztián did a huge study on it. Yes interviewing witnesses, participants, studying military documents.
The soviet captains and squad leaders had to report to their supperiors also the captured hungarian/german captains, officers, soliders were a usefull source too.
This was really good. Great work. You earned a subscriber.
Ohh I’ve been waiting for this upload!! Happy Saturday everyone!!
You should do all the major sieges, next Stalingrad, Leningrad, Sevastopol; and of course we CANT forget BERLIN!!! Keep up the great work man!!
11:18 Hmm maybe 700 reach German lines but it is not like 27300 are dead. USSR provide them good amount of motivation for trying this breakout. Overall chance to die in captivity at Sovie Gulag was 13.9%-35.6%.
Ironically a German POW has a hugher chance of survival than that, they cared more for their invaders than their citizens. Typical commie stuff
Boy, have I waited long for this one. Thanks for the upload
Love your video style! thank you for keeping this up I know its hard work
This battle was insane, yet it is barely mentioned even in Eastern Front documentaries and history books. Hundreds of thousands killed in atrocities and nerve-breaking assaults and barrages, a medieval city (or rather, two) falling into the hands of a brutal communist dictatorship for 45 years... still, very little is told about it. They're like "oh and yeah, the Soviets took Hungary and Budapest and then moved to strike Vienna". Both this battle and the German offensive that followed are massively underreported in modern history classes.
You can still see the bullet holes in a lot of buildings in the city. They find american and soviet bombs every week. And dead bodies of germans and hungarian soldier are under us in the city by ten thousands. Last week is couldn't go home until they disarmed a huge american bomb, the area was closes in 500 meter radius. It was so crazy and it has a lot impact on our life today. My grandfather fougth in the Offensive Conrad.
@Tom Fury considering the current government is attempting to keep people out instead of in, yeah
@Tom Fury No, Hungary was a very unwilling ally of Germany. It's leader, Horthy Miklos, refused to help invade poland and even let Polish refugees escape through Hungary against Hitler's wishes. Also ask any Hungarian and he will say now under the non-dictatorial leadership of Orban that things are way better than under communism.
@Tom Fury they invaded only Romania and they did atrocities here, and yes, they invaded URSS, as did anyone else.
Look, I don't want to be like the Hungarian guy here and say they you're idiot, because you're not, you simply don't understand eastern Europe.
Romanians (we) and Hungarian have centuries of war and friendship in the same time.
We can say that we hated them and we still do on certain subjects, and they feel the same about us.
This siege of Budapest was a Victory for Romanian army too, a Victory not mentioned in history books, because, even if it was against them, our friendenemy, what the Russians did to them is considered a national shame even for us.
@Tom Fury I can bet my entire fortune that in 50 years Barbarossa plan will be seen as a preemptive strike against Soviet Union.
One of the best videos I’ve ever seen! Can you do more like these.
stay tuned for something in October that will be similar to this
Hells yeah big dawg. Your content is just excellent; you deserve 20x the subscribers.
Thank you!
@@historigraph Seriously. If History Channel was full of dudes like you it would get frickin awards year after year. Keep up the good work man; we appreciate it!
I have attended the Kitörés Emléktúra - the hiking/marsh on the same route, as the soldiers were retreating. The longest route is 60 km, you can also go 25 or 35 km. Its being walked over night, and its being organised every year. Absolutely great event in Budapest, I recommend it to everyone.
if you can keep a straight face among flags with swastikas proudly waved by some participants... that is.
Is the hike taking place in each February?
@@mulapare2593Yes. Its regular event.
@@mulapare2593 popular event of local neo nazis. Important info
Definately buying the poster for my Hungarian dad!
You should do more of these kinds of videos, theyre very high quality and i formative
Historiograph- great content (including lots of emphasis on the Navy) and great voice!
Amazing job! Keep it coming
This was a great series, he should do more like this.
absolutely loved these vids
wow! just wow! great video man!
My great-great uncle was killed defending Budapest, and my great grandfather was part of the failed relief forced in north Hungary.
It’s sad, we are all Hungarians from Slovakia who fought and died, just to be pushed out as a minority all over again, as their parents did 30 years prior. But that saying goes again.
Több is veszett Mohácsnál.
A történelem kerekei fordulnak! Nem lehet mindig szerencséje a környező rablóhordának! ;)
My grandfather deserted and were drinking wine in a Badacsony vineyard. Otherwise i wouldnt ve here today.
Love your videos, keep up the good work
Love your work man
Very good work on this video
Plz upload more these are great!!
Will be more eastern front content coming later in the year
Terrific video. Thanks. Of course I'm interested in WWII (my grandmother advised me to "learn history, because it can kill you." Her family left (Poland)Russia in a hurry in August 1914) but not at this level of detail.
Your presentation and visuals are so informative and clear it is absolutely captivating and interesting to watch and learn the larger lessons of war from it.
I had an idea while watching. When the map changed scale I was briefly confused. (Sort of the way Poland kind of looks the same before and after WWII but of course it's been shifted west quite a lot). In a video like this one when a side advances, maybe leave a dashed line at the old position for a 'day' or two (or whatever time units would be the most clarifying) allowing it to fade away as it loses relevance. Multi-day advances would be a series of fainter dashed lines showing progress, completely fading away as they are no longer relevant. When the Germans recaptured territory, late in this video -- did they return to the old lines? (Might not be relevant to this siege, but I hope my point is understandable).
One clear way this might be useful is when the Red Army advances across the entire front. A large image of the Soviet Union fills the screen and then the red area moves west, but our eyes can only actually focus on one small area (fovea) at a time. To see what just happened we need to scan along the changed front. If a dashed line remained, then as we scan we can see where the Red Army advanced, and didn't. In this way we would, I think, more easily understand that they advanced in 2,3 or more spots.
I love these maps and how history is presented. I sometimes wonder if something positive might be also be mapped in this manner so we can not only appreciate the accomplishment but feel good about all of it. Maybe the Beatles or rocknroll conquering the world, the spread of bluejeans, the siege of Woodstock. Or, how the Berlin Wall was built, breached, plugged, but breached again and then disassembled...
This action is more crucial to the overall war effort than people realize. Those armored reserves committed by Hitler were also the last reserves that would have been available to help in the defense of Berlin, and probably the only one still capable of sustained offensive action.
In the face of the final Soviet push to Berlin, the Germans‘ inability to mount any sort of response (even a weak one), famously bemoaned by Hitler, was in no small part related to the fact that his only armored reserves had been committed to the fight in Hungary. Given the rapidly deteriorating state of the regular German formations, they were completely incapable of mounting counterattacks or blunting the Soviet thrusts in any way, and this probably contributed a lot to how quickly the capital fell.
Arguably, Hitler‘s reasons for prioritizing Hungary were, in theory at least, strategically sound. But the Soviet High Command exploited this fact very effectively, essentially using their thrust in the South to help clear their way to the German capital. It also showcases their extremely impressive ability to simultaneously mount different strategic offensives of this magnitude, which was a tremendous logistical challenge. Unlike the Western Allies, the Soviets were able to organize their offensives in such a way that they were basically always attacking somewhere.
Nothing about the Soviet Union was impressive. They were able to mount such offensives due to being kept alive by the Allies,
@@gh87716 that‘s patently false and pretty much no serious Eastern Front historian would make such a claim today. The USSR built more tanks than the allies, and the same goes for a lot of standard weapons systems. Incidentally, they also had the most tanks and planes going into the war, when there was exactly zero support going to them from the West.
By your logic, American support should also help the Ukrainians outproduce Russia and end the current war as the next greatpower and rival to the United States.
But no imperial power is dumb enough to help build up their own rival, and if what you claim were true, the war would have ended with the USSR collapsing back into a third-world country (which Russia was before 1927), not becoming a super-power and entering the Space Age.
Whenever I think of these battles, I often forget that's not just troops fighting troops. There are civilians having a war fought in their very homes.
There is a very sad game called "This War of Mine" that highlights this depressing reality. You're basically just a guy trying to survive the siege of Sarajevo. When I played it as a teenager, it made me realize how much history tends to overlook the suffering of civilians.
Would there be a video about operation "Spring Awakening"?
Possibly in the future- time for some other topics now
They were so close to a breakthrough!
Arrogance in the high command costs a lot of lives.
@@AmericanDash Hitler costed a lot of lives
@@AmericanDash high command never intended to save these troops. they bought time with their blood.
Awesome vid!
One thing to maybe add, as a hungarian.
So this breakout at the end of the siege is commemorated every year here, starting from the castle, going through the same path for 60 kms into the mountins, visiting soldier graves, lighting candles.
I think you could've added it too, as a connection to nowdays.
Anyways, a nice finishing part of this small series!
I didn’t know about that actually, only heard after the video was published :)
@@historigraph this is a pro-war hitlerist commemoration taking the glorious-brave narrative admiring the meaningless siege and breakout. many of the participants dressing as nazis with swastikas and arrow-crosses.
Kiff do no lye!!!
@@kiff713 idk about that one c h i e f...
I participated in one last year myself.
Lemme tell you this: this isnt about politics, this is about men who died, because they knew surrendering would've resolved in them being slaughtered by the soviets.
Yes lot of people commemorate them by wearing their uniforms, got any problem with reenacting?
And no, the atmosphere as i experienced it, isnt some politically heated right wing showing off, most people are there to remember the fallen or just go on a historical themed hiking.
Kitörés 60? :D
So much blood, so little recognition.
Recognition for what? It was pointless. They should have surrendered and spare children and civilians of suffering.
It should be remembered and be full sorrow for the innocent casualties of the fascist fanatics who condemned their countryman to that suffering.
Ivan Trapić I agree, the movie downfall is also has a really great representation of civilian suffering.
@@ivantrapic6209 That is the kind of recognition I was meaning and I fully agree with what you re saying.
@ "on par, if not worse than the Nazis"
haha yeah no
jpc1918 and that during forced collectivization MILLIONS of peasant farmers starved to death as their grain was forcibly taken away to be sold for money to buy industrial equipment.
really, really, really well done.
Amazing vid!! It is a bit strange to see that the city where I now live, have been trough this hell. When he said, reinforcements--> a batalion of univercetystudents... pfff. I thank all those brave souls who died there for us!
Isten áldd meg a magyart!
Great video!
Now do Battle of Yugoslavia
Great video, subscribed
great video!
Professional! I say it as a Hungarian who has deep interest and knowledge about WW2.
finally, ive been waiting for so long
I know this has nothing to do with the video, but I’m still amazed by just how long the siege of Leningrad took 11:52
and it never fell
Immagine being one of those Supply glider pilots
Your landing in a citie which you know will be lost soon and you wont be able to start again and flee
Salute for your efforts
“Mein Fuhur! We have the opportunity to save our boys trapped in Budapest!”
“Who said we were trying to pull them out!?!”
“…”
I can't wait until you release the video about Operation Spring Awakening.
The first child-memory of my grandfather is himself with his mother, miles away from budapest, watching the artillery-bombing of the city.
beautifully
My left ear is really enjoying this video
is the video in mono!?
Might be a problem with your headphones.
The 'problem with my headphones' is only on this video and no other
@@historigraph I confirm: this video's sound plays only on my left headphone. It's not a giant problem though, so I don't think that you need to reupload the video and lose all the comments likes, and watchtime because of it - just be more carefoul next time!
@@maciejkamil I don't understand why its like this... I didn't change anything in production
great as always :D are you going to do a video about the battle of vienna aswell?
Maybe in future- going to do some other things first though!
@@historigraph hey glad to see you are doing well but you should do. Battle of berlin
Great video with much details, thank you for making it.
It's a shame this battle is somewhat forgotten. When the siege was ongoing, the Battle of the Bulge happened, so newspapers were not writing reports about Budapest then. During the communist era, the siege was a taboo and was barely researched. The soldiers who experienced the siege slowly died out, so historians had to work with what little has left after 1989.
The only person who has researched the battle in depth is Ungváry Krisztián. His books are good, but I can't say the same about his opinions. He tries to remain neutral too hard and tends commit logical fallacies through denying his previous statement with a new one.
The Breakout attempt is still remembered, there's a 60 km memorial hiking each year with historical themed stamps and checkpoints, controlled by the staff in historical uniforms of all sides. The memorial march is not political, but the media (and Ungváry) often tries to label it as far-right and revisionist (the organizers call the soldiers who attempted the breakout heroes), but despite this, it's getting more popular each year and number of participants constantly grows. Some participate because of their political views (they are a minority), some because they are history fans (like me) and some because they like extreme hikes in winter nights like this. Here's their website:
kitorestura.hu/
"I'm gonna eat some gouda in buda" said the Hungarian soldier in the city as the Soviets assaulted.
"I'm gonna take pisst in pest"
Said the Soviet soldier as he Storms Pest.
nice work
شكرا للمترجم
Thanks for translated
11:58 According to wiki, defense of the Adzhimushkay quarry lasted for 170 days, longer than Budapest
Awesome videos
Terrific!!
My great grandmother, 12 at the time, survived the battle.
Hello, do you have further information on the High School Battalion fighting in the Siege of Buda? I am currently researching about it and could not find any details online so far.
They were part of the Levente Movement!
@@ExploderMaster18 horrible part of Hungarian history.. sending children to be slaughtered.. :(
@@CommonSenzjust after 11 years after this siege, the citizens rebelled against the occupying russians, 14-16 years old bocs were fighting against tanks with molotovs, nobody sent them, hungarian bocs are ready to fight and die for country, before the 60s it was normal. Every hungarians were like this, the big revolutions always started and fought by teenagers. Of course after 40 years of soviet rule changed that, now hungarians are docile, sheep like, cowards.
Nice video
great series. a bit of icing on the cake would have been a scale marking on the maps. How far was an advance, how far was a withdraw.
can i hear a cheeky lip smack at the very start of the vid? ;)
How many sieges has there been in Budapest? I've lost count
16ish I think
I'm sure someone has already pointed this out, but at 12:40 you say "including 80,000 dead" but the graphic that appears says 70,000 dead.
You’re actually the first. The graphic is correc t
Historigraph wow I’m surprised I was the first!
Great video!
Will you be doing Vienna next?
12:15 Unparalleled? What about the massacre in Babi Yar? Rumbula massacre? Wola massacre? Drobytsky Yar?
Such a beautiful city. I was unaware of how severe the fighting in this city had been.
Sweet new vid
The brutality against the soldiers is bad enough but when so many civilians are caught up in the mess, it just enters a whole new level of depressing albeit interesting history.
Hungarians are the last people to start bitching about own civilians at the end of war. In 1941-1942 they weren't taken as POWs by regular Soviet soldiers exactly for their behavior on the occupied territories and how they treated non-combatants and civilians. Very ironic when Soviet commisars have to save war criminals from quick and just execution by common soldiers.
War has no rules, nor does it care.
thats a myth lol we didnt do anything stop lying@@mdokuch96
Sad that the breakout was not more detailed explained.
My Dad was in the siege a young (22) infantry private, assigned to a Hungarian engineering corps, he often told me of the utter disdain they had for the Arrow Cross and goons like Szallasi, infact my dad was asked to detonate one of the main railway bridges that led across the Danube from the Pest side but knowing the war was lost and the destruction of infrastructure meaningless, he deliberately mis-wired the detonators, lucky for him that when the Germans discoverd his handywork they just thought him a dumb Hungarian, instead of shooting him on the spot they sent up the Hill across to Buda where he was holed up in the Citadel and Palace fortifications till the siege came to its inevitable end, saw terrible things up there, Germans were begging Hungarians for uniforms so they'd escape being sent off to the Gulags. - what incredible and terrible times to live through.
Last time I was this early, the Mongols were pillaging Buda and Pest.
Normie
will you make a part three about operation spring awakening and the soviet offensive against wester Hungary
Today in Hungary, the siege, but especially the breakout effort is a very controversial topic, because ever since the 1990's, Hungarian neonazi groups and other far-right groups and movements across Central and Eastern Europe have been using the anniversary of the event to get together and protest each year, under the guise of an endurance trail. So let's make something clear:
The brave soldiers defending Budapest deserve to be honoured and remembered. They are just as much casualties of the war as anyone else, and deserve to be remembered as such. However, what we cannot allow, is Nazi scum like the ones marching around every year in Budapest to claim them as their own. The ones responsible for the deaths of these soldiers and civilians are the very people whose flags these people are waving around today. Many of these soldiers were forced conscripts or people just trying to defend their homes from Soviet rule, rightfully so. But even if they were committed Nazis, that still does not change the fact that today, fascism and Naziism cannot be tolerated. Not even when it claims to be remembering a tragedy.
(And for the people who will inevitably come to say I'm just accusing people with no proof, or diluting the term, I invite you to look at the pictures Hungarian newspaper Index took of the event a few years ago. People marching in full SS-uniforms, waving Swastika and Sonnenrad flags, the checkpoints during the tour manned by people also in SS uniforms, people showing up in droves from litteral neonazi gangs from Germany or Poland, those not in litteral nazi uniforms often showing up in shirts of well-known far right and fascist groups, or the fact that the first of these events was organized by a Hungarian neofascist who has since been convicted and imprisoned for the murder of a police officer. And to anyone who may have attended the tour at some point and actually is not a fascist and was just there to genuinely honour the dead and take part in the tour, fair enough. I have nothing against you. What you believe is between you and God alone.
Kick the Nazis out of the event though. You're well within your right to honour these soldiers by trying to recreate their deed. But doing so together with litteral neonazis is not okay.)
Completely agree with you .
The whole point of the endurance trail is historic preservation. Thats why the checkpoints are manned by SS and Wehrmacht soldiers AND SOVIET soldiers aswell. I took part in this a few times. Most people go there dressed just like everyone else would on a hike. Heck, even families with children took part, elderly. Nobody ever raised a Nazi flag except on a few checkpoints(as I explained above). The claim that this event is for Nazi glorifyng is simply false and ignorant.
The entire hike you describe is conducted in an orderly fashion, during which, leftist activists try to disturb the peace. 3000 people gather, remember and follow in the path of the soldiers who broke out 75 years ago. This event is annually organized for the past 15+ years, without ANY disturbance of the peace by the participants in the City or outside of it, under the watch of local officials and law enforcement. Whereas, the only actual criminal problem comes from the leftist AntiFa groups who try to protest, instigate violence and provocate people, the latter without much success really.
The uniforms displayed are historically authentic, and what you forget to mention is that there are plenty of Soviet re-enactors in historically correct uniforms along with their flags, paraphernalia etc. at certain checkpoints, representing the history equally. Although most chair-revolutionaries dont know that, because these points are far out of the city, requiring some effort to get there.
Some people like to play dress-up, just let them be. They don't have real guns and it's a nice way to keep your body in shape. Are you scared od something?
@Uh Oh I'm litterally Hungarian. Those soldiers are MY dead too, but whatever...
Hungary should have negotiated a fair border with Romania , with an option for population transfers , but no , they had to call on big daddy Germany to give them half of Transilvania , of which more than half was not even Hungarian... If Romania had no beef with Hungary , they would not be tempted to switch sides on 1944 and eagerly jump on the attack to get back Transilvania.
After every war in the region, Romania is annexing some more new lands based on some secret agreement from Western powers. Watch out for Moldova, after the War in Ukraine will be closed!
Since Szekelyland is in the center of Transylvania and its 90% Hungarian, it was a pretty fair border. But I didnt hear anything that the Romanians wants to give up their territories, so I dont know where do you get these lunatic ideas, that they would just give lands because they are such a good guys. Romania would switch sides in 44 anyway since they had no other choice.
All thoses futile death...Thanks for this video Historigraph.
So will there be another episode about the battle for western Hungary?
What happened to the sound. The last few minutes it went away
Me: Sees nobody pointing out the date.
Also me: *Very confused screaming of misunderstanding*
It means budapest siege december 1944 to february 1945
What if the air & ground forces sent to the Ardennes & Alsace Lorraine in December 1944 & January 1945 were instead redeployed to Hungary in December 1944 & January 1945? For example, the 6th SS Panzer Army (with its 1st SS & 2nd SS Panzer Corps) that was eventually used in Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945. Hmmm.
I'm looking for information on a Hungarian actress who died in Budapest on February 17, 1945. Her name was Ilka Palmay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilka_P%C3%A1lmay
She was 85 and had been retired for many years, but I'm still curious about the circumstances of her passing. She could have died of natural causes, or old age, but chances are her death was related to the fighting. I'm sure old people were very vulnerable at times like that.
A query if I may. Last autumn I visited Budapest for the first time, and spent time in the Castle grounds. They are working hard to restore the place. My point is that a poster there, part of a description of the battle, shows USAF bombers over the Castle. My understanding was that the Soviets called in American help because the hill was a very hard nut to crack. Did I misunderstand?
In the older parts of the city, one can find the holes from bullets and shrapnel in walls all over the place.
No, You understand well. There were more than massive USAF bombings before. But the main hit had happened in the east front much before... my grandfather said something like this: "When we faced the huge quantity of American weapons, after all this we started to think about/in it...."
@@zalansteyer7272 Thank you, Zalan. A matter of timing, then. Best wishes.
USAF heavily bombed Hungary in 1944, especially Győr and Budapest. The main targets were industrial areas and railway stations, but when visibility was low, pilots blindly dropped their bombs, which often landed in civilian areas.
@@emeraldhunter1 my mother was born in March 1944 in Budapest. She said there were every day bombing of the city, they spent a lot of nights in the cellars.
Nice video. Next time a ww2 naval battle