Corps, had returned to 4th Guards Army, which was in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for rebuilding as the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts advanced into Romania and Hungary. When the Army returned to the fighting in the third week of November it joined the latter Front in the area where the 57th Army had recently forced a crossing of the Danube near Mohács. On November 29 Axis resistance in the crossing area was effectively crushed and the 62nd and 69th Guards moved to the west bank in the wake of the 41st Guards and were ready to enter the fighting the next day. As of December 19 the Front had completed its preparations for the third stage of its operation to encircle and eliminate the German-Hungarian Budapest group of forces. 4th Guards Army occupied a 44km line from Lake Velence to Lake Balaton with 21st Guards Corps along the Army's secondary axis. By December 26 the Hungarian capital had been encircled, the remaining Axis forces had been forced back up to 40km from the city, and the 4th Guards Army, along with the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps, had created an external front covering the siege from the west and had captured several strongpoints on the approaches to Székesfehérvár and Kisfalud; the 69th Guards had been ordered to detach from the Corps the previous day and move to the area of the former city. By the end of December 4th Guards Army had Székesfehérvár surrounded on three sides before going over to the defense. At this time the 21st Guards Corps was facing the Hungarian 25th Infantry Division, the 44th Training Regiment and the 85th Landing Battalion. Battles for Budapest Before dawn on January 2 the IV SS Panzer Corps began Operation Konrad I in an attempt to relieve Budapest. The German forces attacked from the direction of Tata and 4th Guards Army took emergency measures to shore up its right flank; among these the 69th Guards extended its frontage to free up the 62nd Guards to move into reserve in the Székesfehérvár area. The Army's commander, Army Gen. G. F. Zakharov, was determined to halt the German drive northwest of Bicske. By January 6 the division had been reassigned to the 135th Rifle Corps but continued to hold its previous positions. In the event this phase of the offensive was halted on the same day by the