Battle of Debrecen - Confusion Reigns

Confusion Reigns

On 10 October, Fretter-Pico ordered the German 1st Panzer Division to attack to the west and the German 13th Panzer Division to attack to the east. This action by Fretter-Pico cut off the three corps of Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev. Not expecting this, Pliyev had left his flanks relatively lightly defended. The two veteran panzer units quickly effected a linkup near the town of Püspökladány. What at first looked like a crisis point for the Germans under Fretter-Pico had now been turned into a possible disaster for the Soviets under Malinovsky.

Malinovsky, realising the danger to Pliyev's group, halted his attack in the south and focused all his forces on reaching the trapped mobile group. Fretter-Pico ordered the Feldherrnhalle to Debrecen. The situation on the ground was greatly confused, with neither the Soviets nor the Germans knowing who was surrounding whom.

On 11 October 1944, elements of Pliyev's 4th Guards Cavalry Corps reached the outskirts of Debrecen. Although this corps was cut off from the main Soviet force, Pliyev had managed to avoid encirclement.

Under the 6th Guards Tank Army's ferocious attacks, the front line near Oradea was steadily pushed back, in what historian Earl F. Ziemke described as "one of the wildest tank battles of the war". By 12 October, Pliyev's group had already lost some 200 armored fighting vehicles.

By 14 October 1944, the line had fallen back 14 kilometers, with Oradea finally occupied by Malinovsky's forces. Further to the north, a new crisis threatened Fretter-Pico. The 4th Ukrainian Front had finally attacked, falling on Otto Wöhler's German Eighth Army. The Eighth Army was threatening to collapse under the Soviet onslaught.

On 15 October 1944, Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, announced that Hungary had accepted an armistice with the USSR. Reacting quickly, Hitler ordered Otto Skorzeny to launch Operation Panzerfaust.

By 16 October 1944, Skorzeny and his SS paratroopers had averted disaster by blackmailing Horthy into resigning and giving control of the government to Ferenc Szálasi, a pro-German leader.

Malinovsky now linked up with Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev. Malinovsky ordered the Soviet advance to continue. His aim was to capture Debrecen. Then he would swing north towards Nyíregyháza. If Malinovsky could capture Nyíregyháza, he would sever the German Eighth Army's line of communications. In response to the Soviet attacks, the German-Hungarian forces of Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico fought tenaciously. They turned each village and crossroads into a defensive position.

Forcing their way through the Axis resistance, during 19–20 October three Romanian divisions (2nd and 3rd Mountain, plus the communist Tudor Vladimirescu) assaulted and seized Debrecen as part of Soviet 27th Army's assault on the right flank of the 6th Guards Tank Army.

On 22 October 1944, Pliyev's group captured Nyíregyháza. The line of communications of Wöhler's Eighth Army was severed. German Colonel-General Friessner had ordered Wöhler to disengage and fall back northwest of Nyíregyháza and attempt to form a defensive line. This move was already in progress when Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliyev cut Wöhler's lines of communications.