The Budapest Fortress 1-2.

The fight for the Hungarian capital in 1944-1945, like the Don bend, is one of the most important events in Hungarian history in the 20th century, as well as an indelible trauma in the collective memory of Hungarian society. The history of the siege of Budapest has already been processed by many people, from many aspects, but a comprehensive military historical work examining all types of forces and weapons, relying in a balanced way on the archival sources of the warring parties, has not yet seen the light of day. The book outlines the military history of the 108-day Budapest operation on the basis of an archival source base that is, to a large extent, previously unknown. Within this operation, the author discusses the more than 50-day direct siege of Budapest, the war taking place in the territory of the capital, in a special scope and detail. The battle events of certain stages of the siege can often be followed hour by hour. Separate chapters deal, for example, with the defense system of the fortified capital, as well as the battles fought on Margit Island, the deployment of Soviet air forces against Budapest, the air supply of the defenders and the outbreak. This unique, never-before-published military history work based on image and map material presents the topic in a deeper and more comprehensive way than ever before, so it can rightfully claim the status of the basic work on the topic. The two-volume work combines a huge amount of thought-provoking details of military history into a single, readable narrative flow, while the reader can see the whole picture from the many individual elements. The second volume contains the contemporary map sketches and photographs, from which we can get a plastic picture of the details of the defense system and the battles. The large number of photographs, mostly unpublished until now, are also a city history and architectural curiosity.