Ok, hopefully no one will find this tedious. As promised from moons ago, Steve Kane's article in 1975. Ops in Hungary and Austira. Last gasp of the Waffen SS

when one thinks of German military offensive ops during the last 6 months of the war, the famous Ardenne attack, inevitably comes to mind. Without question this was Nazi Germany's last major offensive effort, but it was by no means her only attack during the first 3 months of 1945, and while most of them were total failures, Hungary was the scene of two attacks that showed the Russians that the Third Reich was still capable of limited offensive action.
It is true that most of these offensives were doomed from the start. to Hitler, they represented actual chances for a much needed victory, but only the most fanatical of Nazi's shared his delusions. Other military men sometimes saw chances for local victories, but they all realized that such victories could have no effect on the war except the postponing of the inevitable: the defeat of nazi Germany.
The key, or so Hitler believed in achieving victory at this late stage of the war, was the use of his elite panzer divisions of the Waffen SS. Hitler had lost faith in the German Wehrmacht long ago, but he still clung to the belief that his picked SS troops would bring victoiry. this belief was to be shattered in the months to come.
Nevertheless, the story of German offensive ops in Hungary is mainly one of Ss effort. After Hitler finally conceded defeat in his Ardennes counter offensive he quickly shifted the four crack W-SS Panzer divisions that had participated in the attack to Hungary, despite the violent protests of Heinz Guderian, the German tank expert and head of OKH, the Army High Command, which was in charge of the Eastern Front. Earlier in 1945 two other Ss Panzer Divisions had been involved in a futile attempt on Budapest. Most importantly of all, however, was the effect of these SS Panzer Divisions had on the Western Allies, especially eisenhower. In April 45, as the American armies began racing into Germany, great fear existed in their minds over the possibility of a national Redoubt. German propaganda had blown this myth all out of proportion. The basic theory was that thousands of ide-hard Nazis would hold up in the mountainous regions of southern Germany and Austria. This national Redoubt area was supposedly a huge underground factory where weapons and supplies had been stored away previously to sustain prolonged German resistance. tied to all of this was the fact that in April of 45 no less that ten Waffen SS dvisions were in and around Austria and the national Redoubt area. eisenhower knew how fanatical a foe the Ss could be and he took no chances; troops were diverted from Berlin to enable others to seize the Redoubt area as rapidly as possible. The political repercussions of this action are still with us today......

typo errors all mine, more to come