Operation Panzerfaust

Operation Panzerfaust
	Part of World War II
	; Soldiers from 22 SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresia review captured weapons in the courtyard of Buda Castle, including a Hungarian 40M Nimród anti-aircraft self-propelled gun (back) and a 40mm 40M anti-tank gun.
Date	15–16 October 1944
Location	Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
Result	Overthrow of Regent Miklós Horthy; Pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party came to power
Belligerents
Germany NYKP;	Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Edmund Veesenmayer; Otto Skorzeny; Ferenc Szálasi; Károly Beregfy; Iván Hindy; Adrian von Fölkersam;	Miklós Horthy (POW); Géza Lakatos; Lajos Csatay; János Vörös; Béla Miklós; Lajos Veress;

Operation Panzerfaust (German: Unternehmen Panzerfaust, lit. 'Operation Armored Fist') was a military operation undertaken in October 1944 by the German Wehrmacht to ensure the Kingdom of Hungary would remain a German ally in World War II. When German leader Adolf Hitler received word that Hungary's Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the advancing Red Army, he sent commando leader Otto Skorzeny of the Waffen-SS and former special forces commander Adrian von Fölkersam to Hungary. Hitler feared that Hungary's surrender would expose his southern flank, where Romania had just joined with the Soviets and cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkans. The operation was preceded by Operation Margarethe in March 1944, which was the occupation of Hungary by German forces, which Hitler had hoped would secure Hungary's place in the Axis powers.^[1] This had also enabled the deportation of the majority of Hungarian Jews, previously beyond the reach of the Nazis, through uneasy cooperation with Hungarian authorities. This policy was, however, terminated as Soviet forces drew closer and the USAAF, based in Italy, began bombing Hungary, including Budapest.^[2]

^ Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968
^ "U.S. Fliers Blast Budapest Plants; Bomb Four Large Refineries and Rail Yards – 8th Air Force Smashes at French Railways on the Chow 'Assault Line,' French Traitors and Action in Normandy". The New York Times. 15 July 1944.

[1] Earl F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968

[2] "U.S. Fliers Blast Budapest Plants; Bomb Four Large Refineries and Rail Yards – 8th Air Force Smashes at French Railways on the Chow 'Assault Line,' French Traitors and Action in Normandy". The New York Times. 15 July 1944.

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