Operation Konrad I-III was the German-Hungarian attempt to relieve the Soviet siege of Budapest. The 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking was committed to action alongside the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf in IV.SS-Panzerkorps on January 1 1945. The corps inflicted heavy casualties on the Soviet 31st Guards Rifle and 18th Tank Corps. The Soviets were puched back towards Budapest, along the north side of the Danube. This move had achieved some success, but it had also severely weakened the defenses on the north side of the river. Wiking was pulled out of the line to launch a second relief attempt, Konrad II. The assault aimed at reaching the city centre was launched on January 7 1945 from just south of Esztergom. The Soviet 86th Guards Rifle Division was soon overrun. The drive continued and by January 12 1945 motorised infantry of the Wiking reached as far as Budapest's northern suburbs. Morale was sky high, and it was even difficult to get the wounded to go to the rear. Then, on January 13 1945, they were ordered to halt and pull back. SS-Obergruppenführer
Herbert Gille protested immediately only to be informed that the order come from the Führer himself. Gille and most officers would go to their graves convinced that they could have freed their comrades, had they been allowed to do so. Adolf Hitler had decided to destroy the bulk of the Soviet 46th and 4th Guards Armies by launching a double envelopment west of Budapest. Konrad III got underway on January 18 1945. Supported by the Luftwaffe the corps penetrating deep into the Soviet defenses from the south of Budapest through the forest-steppes near Táta. The advance columns slammed into the Soviet 4th Guards Army which was overrun in two days, destroying hundreds of Soviet tanks along the way. The IV.SS-Panzerkorps was doggedly fighting for every meter of ground during the effort to relieve the encircled garrison of Budapest. However, the relief forces could not achieve their goal, despite making a 24-kilometre bulge in the Soviet forces line and destroying the 135th Rifle Corps. The Soviets maneuvered forces to block the advance, and they barely managed to halt the advance at Bicske on January 26 1945, only some 25 kilometres from Budapest. The Norwegian SS Battalion Norge captured Pettend on January 24 1945 in desperate combat against 180 Soviet tanks. Most of the battalion had become casualties by the time Pettend was abandoned on January 28 1945. The unit's Norwegian surgeon, Dr. Tor Storm, remained behind with the wounded, who could not be evacuated. During a 1988 visit to Pettend, Waffen-SS veterans learned from the locals that Storm and the wounded were burned alive by the Soviets after their capture. Credit: Military historian Samuel W. Mitcham. Top clip: Panther of the Wiking caught on camera during the Budapest relief operations in January 1945. Footage Deutsche Wochenschau. FU. Middle image: LwFD developed and greatly increased a number of landing grounds and field airstrips in Hungary from March 1944 to March 1945. Bottom image: Wiking or Totenkopf SS-Panzergrenadiers during Konrad. Photo taken in January 1945 near the Hungarian city of Szomor west of Budapest. Credit: Mario Unger. Source: Fortepan. FU.
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