General Tolbukhin was also a veteran of the war in Ukraine, now commanding the Third Ukrainian Front armies. He was a  careful general, who was less inclined to drive his troops into battle mercilessly, thereby earning the loyalty of his subordinates.  After Tolbukhin liberated Belgrade, he turned north and westward, and soon unexpectedly crossed the Danube into western Hungary. 

Seeing the stalled armies of Malinovsky, with Stalin's approval he adjusted his course toward the north, rapidly approaching the hills of Buda, and at Christmas 1944 surprising the capital from its largely undefended west side, until the 8th Waffen SS division and volunteer Hungarian units rushed in.


BUDAPEST SIEGE: Soviet General Tolbukhin

General Malinovsky's Soviet armies reaching the eastern outskirts of Budapest by December, 1944, consisted of infantry, tank, artillery, and even cavalry units.  The opposing German forces were composed of  both Heer and Waffen SS divisions, while the Hungarians  were a mixture of  regular Honved units, auxiliary formations, and Arrow-Cross volunteers. Here Soviet infantry, dismounting from T-34 tanks,  moves into action in the vicinity of Budapest in the fall of 1944.

BUDAPEST SIEGE: The Red Army Approaches

Malinovsky was a seasoned veteran of the war in Ukraine. A rough and ready general, he steadily drove the Second Ukrainian Front (army group) westward, urged on by Stalin, who wanted Budapest captured before the upcoming Yalta Conference.  Approaching the capital from the east,  his forces, however,  soon ran into the prepared &quot;Attila line&quot; built by the German and Hungarian defenders of the city, stalling his armies' advance.