6.ϟϟ-Panzerarmee: Operation Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening)

Commander of 6th Panzer Army SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich

Wehrmacht troops during the offensives in Hungary

Die Deutsche Wochenschau

On March 6 1945, after the fall of Budapest, the remainder of SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef Sepp Dietrich's 6.SS-Panzerarmee (I.SS and II.SS-Panzerkorps), launched one of the final German offensives of World War II, the Operation Spring Awakening around Lake Balaton in Hungary. A last desperate attempt in terrible conditions to halt the Soviet advance into Europe. The operation involved many German Wehrmacht units withdrawn from the failed Ardennes Offensive on the Western Front, including the 6th Panzer Army and its subordinate Waffen-SS divisions. After the failure of the offensive, the I.SS and the II.SS-Panzerkorps was involved in defensive battles alongside SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Gille's IV.SS-Panzerkorps, consisted of 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf and 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking, executing a fighting withdrawal towards Wien in Austria. The I.SS-Panzerkorps consisted of 1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS, 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend and schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501. The II.SS-Panzerkorps consisted of 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich and 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen. Top image: Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich in early 1945. In the background, Knight's Cross holder SS-Hauptsturmführer and adjutant of the I.SS-Panzerkorps Hermann Weiser. Dietrich is quoted to have said: We call ourselves the "6th Panzer Army", because we've only got 6 Panzers left. Photo by Kriegsberichter Roeder. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom clips: German troops aboard a Sd.Kfz. 250 during the German offensives in Hungary in 1945. A variety of weapons are seen in the film including a Karabiner 98, an MP40 submachine gun and a Sturmgewehr 44. The StG 44 used the lower-powered Kurz cartridge which allowed a fully automatic fire capability within a lightweight weapon. The StG 44 fulfilled its role effectively on the front line but it came too late to have much effect on the war. Making use of steel pressings in its manufacture the StG 44 was a highly influential rifle, much copied after World War II in such designs as the Soviet AK-47 and the U.S. M16 and its variants. Die Wochenschau - the official German war newsreel. FU.