German Attack
As planned, the offensive got under way on 6 March. It was spearheaded by the German 6th SS Panzer Army. The spearhead included elite units like German dictator Adolf Hitler's personal unit, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Division. Despite the extremely muddy conditions, the Germans managed to attack effectively and take the Soviets by surprise. Impressive gains were made for an offensive launched at such a late date in World War II, with some groups penetrating as far as 25 miles from the start point.
However, once the Soviets realized that elite SS units were involved in the attack, they took the offensive seriously. Gathering large forces to counter the 6th SS Panzer Army's gains, they brought the attack to a standstill.
By 14 March, Operation Spring Awakening was in serious trouble. At that time, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary that failure of the offensive was likely. The advance of the 6th SS Panzer Army, while impressive, was well short of its ambitious goals. The German 2nd Panzer Army did not do so well south of Lake Balaton as the 6th SS Panzer Army did, north of Lake Balaton. Army Group E met fierce resistance from the Bulgarian First Army and Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavian partisan army, and ultimately failed to reach its objective of Mohács.
Read more about this topic: Operation Spring Awakening
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