Operation Panzerfaust

• 1. Strategic Context And Prelude

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  Adolf Hitler received word in October 1944 that Hungary's Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the advancing Red Army. This intelligence triggered a desperate response from Berlin because Romania had just joined with the Soviets and cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkans. The southern flank of Germany faced imminent collapse if Hungary switched sides. Hitler sent commando leader Otto Skorzeny of the Waffen-SS and former special forces commander Adrian von Fölkersam to Hungary to prevent this disaster. The operation followed Operation Margarethe in March 1944, which was the occupation of Hungary by German forces. That earlier move aimed to secure Hungary's place in the Axis powers but also enabled the deportation of the majority of Hungarian Jews through uneasy cooperation with Hungarian authorities. As Soviet forces drew closer and the USAAF began bombing Hungary including Budapest, the policy of deporting Jews terminated. The geopolitical pressure mounted as the war turned decisively against Germany.

• 2. The Kidnapping Of Horthys Son

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  Miklós Horthy Jr. met with Soviet representatives at the offices of Felix Bornemisza, the Director of the Hungarian Danube ports on early the 15th of October. He had been informed by the German Security Service that envoys of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia wanted to meet with him. Miklós Jr. failed to keep a prior meeting when he observed suspicious individuals near the proposed meeting place. A second meeting was set for early the 15th of October at the offices of Felix Bornemisza. Upon entering the building, Skorzeny and his troops attacked and beat him into submission. They then kidnapped Miklós at gunpoint, trussed him up in a carpet, immediately drove him to the airport and flew him to Vienna. From there, he was transported to Mauthausen concentration camp. This specific tactical execution by Skorzeny captured the Regent's son as leverage against his father. The operation relied on deception regarding the identity of the people waiting inside the office building.

• 3. Horthys Armistice Declaration

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  At 2:00 p.m. on the 15th of October 1944, Horthy announced in a national radio broadcast that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviets. Working through his trustworthy General Béla Miklós, who was in contact with Soviet forces in eastern Hungary, Horthy attempted to negotiate the end of the war. Although Horthy was an intractable anti-Communist, his dealings with the Nazis led him to conclude the Soviets were the lesser evil. The Soviets willingly promised that Hungary would remain autonomous and sovereign. However, the Germans had been aware of Horthy's behind-the-scenes manoeuvring and had already set in motion plans to replace his government. With Nazi help, the Arrow Cross Party seized the radio station shortly after Horthy signed off. A party member wrote a counter-proclamation and used the name of the Hungarian Army's Chief of the General Staff, General Vörös. The commanding officer and his assistant of the two remaining Hungarian army units in Budapest were arrested or disappeared, and their soldiers fell in line with the Arrow Cross Party.

• 4. The Arrow Cross Coup Execution

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  Skorzeny then brazenly led a convoy of German troops and four Tiger II tanks to the Vienna Gates of Castle Hill. Horthy governed from Castle Hill in central Budapest, an ancient and now well-guarded fortress. He recognized that he had no means to fight the German armor and superior forces. He issued orders that no resistance should be made. One unit did not get these orders, and fought the Germans for about 30 minutes. Waffen-SS soldiers inspected abandoned Hungarian equipment during the chaos. The Arrow Cross Party seized control of Budapest's infrastructure and installed Ferenc Szálasi as leader. This coup execution relied on overwhelming force and the element of surprise against a leadership that could not effectively respond. The presence of Tiger II tanks demonstrated the scale of military power deployed by the Nazis to secure the regime change.

• 5. Coercion And Abdication

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  Horthy was taken into custody by Edmund Veesenmayer and his staff later on the 15th of October. Kept overnight in the Waffen SS offices, he returned to the Palace to collect his personal belongings. There he was confronted with a demand to sign a typewritten statement handed to him by Premier Géza Lakatos. The statement announced that Horthy was renouncing the armistice and abdicating in favour of Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi. Surprised that his loyal friend would encourage him to sign the document, Horthy was told by Lakatos that his son's life was at stake. When Horthy asked Veesenmayer if this was true, Veesenmayer confirmed the threat. The Regent understood that this was an effort to put the stamp of his prestige on a Nazi-sponsored Arrow Cross coup but signed anyway. Horthy later explained his capitulation: I neither resigned nor appointed Szálasi Premier, I merely exchanged my signature for my sons life. A signature wrung from a man at machine-gun point can have little legality.

• 6. Imprisonment And Postwar Release

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  Despite Veesenmayer's solemn promise to obtain Horthys son's release from the German concentration camp, Miklós Jr. remained a prisoner until the wars end on the 8th of May 1945. Horthy himself was transported to the Schloss Hirschberg near Weilheim, Germany, and guarded by 100 Waffen SS men at all times. On the 1st of May 1945, Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch, the commander of the US 7th Army, visited Horthy in his castle prison. Because Hungary had fought on to the end defending Germany, Horthy was considered a prisoner of war. Seven months later, on the 17th of December 1945, he was released from the Nuremberg penitentiary and was reunited with his family in a private home in Weilheim. The imprisonment lasted nearly two years before the Regent could return to his family after the conflict concluded.