Western Hungary, where the Danube links Europe’s north and south, is one of the continent’s military keys. Last week, on both sides of the Danube River, two Russian armies, in two battles, were turning this key. If they continued the tempo of the last two weeks, they would shortly have their shoulders to the door of Austria and the Nazis’ southern defense.
On the west side of the Danube, burly Marshal Feodor I. Tolbukhin directed the Battle of the Hungarian Sea (Lake Balaton). Through the rain-soaked hills his armies sped almost as fast as if the weather were good. Infantry was switched to the muddy back roads, vehicles were given the right of way on paved highways. The Germans, forced to retreat without preparation, cluttered the roads, lost their vehicles in the backwoods mud, fell prey to Russian encirclements. Tolbukhin’s forces reached the south shores of the great inland lake, quickly cleared it of the last knots of German defense, then bulged around the eastern end toward Budapest.
On the east side of the Danube, where Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky had been wheeling on the pivot of Budapest, a new battle was announced with a flourish of Moscow’s victory guns. This—the Battle of the DanubeBend—began with a large force bypassing Budapest and swinging around the knee of the great river north of Hungary’s capital. Overrunning deeply staggered German defense lines built along canals and streams, the Russians captured Vac, 15 miles above Budapest, flung their right wing as far north as the Slovakian border.
As the two battles developed, Budapest was the prime objective. Sooner or later it would fall; already the Germans reported that they had moved their puppet Hungarian government back to the Austrian border. Then the Russians would sight for bigger targets: Bratislava and Vienna.
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