HSG EW Hedgehogs H2H - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

17 October 1944, Hosszupali, Hungary Things were going well for the Soviets in the fall of 1944. They had almost completely destroyed Army Group Center and had moved out of Russia and into the Eastern European countries. The 2nd Ukrainian Front was being led by Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky. He had been a soldier since he joined the Czar's army in World War I at the age of 15. Now he would smash the German southeastern defense. This would leave defenseless the cities of Budapest, Vienna and Berlin. Army Group Fretter-Pico was all that stood between Malinovsky and his objectives. The Army Group was commanded by General Maximillian Fretter-Pico. He had joined the Kaiser's Army three years before Malinovsky had joined the Czar's Army. None of that mattered, on the plains of Hungary, just to the south of Debrecen. Here was played out a drama of thrust and counter-thrust, of attack and counter-attack. Neither side knowing for sure where the other side was or in what strength. 15km southeast of Debrecen is the small village of Hosszupali. The Germans didn't have enough strength to defend the area with a solid defensive line, so, they resorted once again to the tried and true method of constructing defensive hedgehogs. Cpt. Gerhard Fischer of the 23rd Panzer Division was in charge of the hedgehog at Hosszupali. During the night Soviet troops of Cavalry Mechanized Group Pliev penetrated the southwest corner of the village.