Po-2 Soviet general purpose biplane (nicknamed the "Cropduster") shot down or crash landed, under German guard.  This was the main aircraft used by the all-female Soviet "night witch" squadrons in their night attacks on forward german installations.  Their usual tactics were to fly low and, a few hundred metres from the target, cut engines and take the final attack run on the glide.  The engine silence, combined with the whistling of the air between the bracing and strutting of the biplane wings, could apparently be most unnerving for the target Germans. There was usually no difficulty in restarting engines for the return to base - the Po-2 was a very tolerant aircraft.   Best regards, JR.

Polikarpov Po-2, grounded.

General Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front armies was the strongest of all in the Red Army. Its main units participating in the siege were: 7th Guard Army, 18th Army Corps,  30th Army Corps, and the 7th Romanian Army corps.  General Tolbukhin's Third Ukrainian Front armies, less numerous but better led,  had the following units participate in the siege of Budapest: 46th Army, 75th Army Corps, 2nd Guard Army Corps, 23rd  Army Corps.
 
During November and December, 1944, when Malinovsky failed to take Budapest either from the east, or later with simultaneous attacks from the north and the south, he forced a costly crossing of the Danube at Ercsi, attempting to encircle the city from the west also. In the meantime, Stalin was playing him and Tolbukhin off against each other, encouraging them to race for Budapest.  The latter had also favored their joint envelopment of the capital and made rapid progress on the west bank of the Danube, suprising Buda from the west at Christmas, 1944. So a total  encirclement and a siege turned out to be the final Soviet strategy for taking the Hungarian capital. The opposing Axis forces will be discussed later.
