In the summer of nineteen-forty-four, the imminent defeat of Nazi Germany was coming
closer every day, although the Germans were willing to fight until the last man.
Not just the Nazi leadership realized they were losing the war, but so were their partners.
Italy signed a peace treaty with the allied powers in nineteen-forty-three and in August,
one year later, the Romanians, after a coup, switched sides, from the Axis to the Allies.
The Hungarians were still part of the Axis Powers, but their regent, Miklos Horthy, had
secretly entered peace negotiations with the allies.
So.. what do you think the Nazis did in such a dire situation?
Probably not kidnap the son of the regent, in order to force a halt to the negotiations,
and kidnap the regent himself right after?
Yeah.. well that’s exactly what the Nazis did.
-intro-
Background
The Carpathian Front in Eastern Europe was, towards the end of the war, held by over a
million Hungarian and German troops.
But in late nineteen-forty-four Hitler started to doubt the loyalty of his Hungarian allies.
The Hungarian regent, Miklos Horthy, attempted to defend Hungarians against deportation by
the Nazis, whether they were Jewish or not and Hungarian oilfields and agriculture had
been exploited for years, by Nazi Germany, with little return.
In August nineteen-forty-four Michael the first, King of Romania, led a coup against
the Axis-aligned Romanian government of Ion Antonescu, after which he aligned Romania
with the allied powers.
Horthy was, subtly, playing around with the idea of following the Romanians’ example
and switching sides.
Now, if Horthy were to switch sides, this would leave the entire Eastern Carpathian
Front open to the Soviets.
After King Michael’s coup in Romania, it was much easier for the Soviets to pour into
the country and take over.
Thus, it was of vital importance to Hitler and the Nazi high command that Hungary was
to stay loyal, and doubt on the Hungarian side, had to be suppressed.
The events in Romania aroused suspicion in Hitler that Horthy might switch sides, and
arrangements were made to have him removed from power.
Otto Skorzeny, who had a year previously already successfully rescued Benito Mussolini in Operation
Oak, was given a ‘carte blanche’ - he was allowed to do anything he deemed necessary
in order to dispose of Miklos Horthy.
So, Skorzeny had to scout the area, he traveled to Budapest, disguised as the tourist Dr.
Wolf.
Preparations
The plan was to dispose of Horthy but keep the Hungarian government in tact, as they
could not afford more domestic instability, especially because regent-admiral Horthy was
venerated by most Hungarians.
If he were to be killed, there was no doubt the Hungarians would revolt against the Nazis.
Right, so Dr. Wolf spend a while in Budapest, inspecting government buildings and the castle
on Castle Hill, which was nearly impenetrable.
It was loaded with loyal troops and plenty of defenses, a frontal assault was not viable
at all, thus a new plan had to be devised.
The German military intelligence service, the Abwehr, and the intelligence service of
the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst, informed Skorzeny that Horthy had already begun negotiations
with the Soviet Union via two officers of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.
Horthy’s son, Nicholas, was holding these secret talks.
Skorzeny figured that abducting Nicholas would not only force a halt to the negotiations
with the Soviets, but would provide leverage for abdication as well.
Thus, a plan was devised, to abduct Nicholas.
The first abduction planned failed when the Regent unexpectedly arrived at the apartment
building where Nicholas was holding the negotiations.
The attempt was aborted, but the second time Skorzeny and his team did manage to take him.
Skorzeny had the Geheime Feldpolizei, the secret military police surround the building
where the negotiations were held, and four Sicherheitsdienst agents were in the room
above the one where the negotiations were taking place.
Once Skorzeny gave his signal, the Geheime Feldpolizei men stormed into the building
upon which Nicholas’ guards opened fire.
Chaos ensued, with both parties shooting at each other.
Skorzeny blew the whistle three times, a signal to Fölkersam and his group to storm into
action.
Adrian von Fölkersam was a rather young German SS officer, only twenty-nine at the time,
working closely with Skorzeny.
They stormed into action; the Sicherheitsdienst abducted Nicholas while Fölkersam’s commandos
dealt with the guards.
Nicholas was bundled into a Persian carpet and flown to Germany.
The next step was to deal with Miklos Horthy, who held an anti-German speech on Hungarian
radio following the abduction of his son, an excerpt of this radio announcement reads:
Today it is obvious to any sober-minded person that the German Reich has lost the war.
All governments responsible for the destiny of their countries must draw the appropriate
conclusions from this fact, for as a great German statesman, Bismarck, once said, "No
nation ought to sacrifice itself on the altar of an alliance."
Furthermore, Horthy had signed an armistice with the Soviets, who were slowly but surely
penetrating the European eastern front.
As you can probably tell, the Nazis now wanted to act quick, remove Horthy and secure the
alliance of Hungary’s troops.
Operation Panzerfaust
Castle Hill, the castle in which Horthy resided, was manned by two-thousand elite troops, loyal
to the regent of Hungary.
The German division in Budapest was outnumbered, and once again, Skorzeny knew a full frontal
assault was not a viable option.
He had no intention of storming or assaulting the castle, leaving a trail of destruction
and risking the possibility of losing the alliance with Hungary regardless.
Skorzeny had to lay his trap, and the German division in Budapest had to remain at their
post.
What followed was a cunning, bold and unorthodox special operation, one of the most impressive
ones during the Second World War.
Around Horthy’s castle, Skorzeny had two battalions distract the Hungarian guards while
the direct “assault”, and assault has to be in quotation marks here, was launched
through the front door.
We’ll get to that in a second.
Skorzeny told his troops that they cannot open fire, whatever happens.
Unless an officer tells them, they cannot open fire.
Ready to launch their cunning coup, the Germans surrounded the castle hill.
Around half an hour before dawn, four Tiger 2 tanks and a convoy of German troops, under
Skorzeny’s command, were lined up.
Skorzeny was banking on the Hungarians not firing on troops who marched into the castle
peacefully.
A bold and reckless bluff, that could completely backfire if one soldier, be it Hungarian or
German, does not manage to contain his nerves.
At any rate, at 5 to six AM on the morning of the fifteenth of October the column made
its way up the single road to the Vienna Gates of the castle.
The Hungarian guards let them pass, perhaps because they were fooled by the latter’s
confidence and aloofness, perhaps because Horthy realized that the situation was lost.
Anyway, Skorzeny was through the gate and occupied the main square of the castle, without
a single shot being fired.
The Ministry of War and the barracks, each housing one-thousand elite Hungarian troops,
were next.
The column made its way past these buildings towards the Regent’s Palace.
Once arrived, the German special units under Fölkersam made it up the staircase and a
Hungarian colonel with a pistol and soldier with a machine gun, that didn’t get the
whole -don’t fire- memo, were quickly disarmed.
The German commandos threw the seized weapons into the palace courtyard as Skorzeny made
his way to the commandant's office.
After Fölkersam informed the commandant that the entire palace hill was secure, he decided
to capitulate.
The next step was to make it to Horthy’s throne room, while reassuring the Hungarian
troops they were “Habsburg cousins, and they had no reason to quarrel among themselves.
It was time they closed ranks to keep the Red Hordes out”.
Regent of Hungary Miklos Horthy was captured and deported without weapons firing, bloodshed
and destruction.
He was sent to the Bavarian castle where his son was kept as a prisoner as well.
And as such, one of the most daring secret missions of World War 2 was successfully completed,
without a shot being fired.
What followed, after Horthy’s forced abdication, was the implementation of the wishes of Nazi
high command for Hungarian government.
Aftermath
After Horthy was abducted, he was forced to sign a typewritten statement that denounced
the armistice and stated he would abdicate in favor of Count Ferenc Szalasi, head of
the Arrow-Cross party and a staunch Nazi supporter.
On the twenty-first of October, six days after Horthy’s abduction, Szalasi took over the
government - after Horthy nearly managed to surrender his country to the allied powers.
The result of Operation Panzerfaust and Szalasi becoming head of government was a prolonging
of the Second World War for Hungary.
The country, and Budapest, had to be taken by force of arms.
The majority of Hungarian battalions fought on the German side until the bitter end, which
was at least until March nineteen-forty-five, when the Szalasi regime was driven out of
Hungary.
The Battle of Budapest, in December nineteen-forty-four, resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands
of Hungarian and German soldiers, and over thirty-five thousand civilian deaths, of which
another thirty-eight thousand would die in Prisoner-of-War camps.
While this was a brilliant secret operation by Skorzeny, it prolonged the suffering of
the Hungarian people for months.
Nearing the end of the war, Otto Skorzeny embarked on another special operation during
the battle of the Bulge, where German soldiers wore US and UK uniforms, causing paranoia
and wreaking havoc.
But that’s a story for another time, thank you for watching this video and what is an
event or person in the second world war that you would like to know more about, and perhaps
see a video of?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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See you next time!