21 January, Stavka ordered two pontoon bridges across the Danube (Dunapentele and Dunaföldvár) to be blown up and authorized a full withdrawal behind the Danube if necessary. Semyon Timoshenko was entrusted with coordinating the operations of the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts. Parts of the 5th Air Army were transferred from 2nd Ukrainian Front to help out the 3rd, the 18th Tank Corps was re-equipped after losing most of its tanks in the initial battles, and elements of the 27th Army were transferred south-west of Budapest. Fyodor Tolbukhin, 3rd Ukrainian Front commander, received the 30th Rifle Corps, 54th Rifle Corps and 23rd Tank Corps as reinforcements. On 27 January, Tolbukhin commenced his counteroffensive with the objective of using three mechanized corps and one rifle corps to encircle and destroy the advanced groups of the IV SS Panzer Corps. A second force would retake Székesfehérvár to cut off the German supply lines and a coordinated attack would be launched from southern Transdanubia to encircle the entire IV SS Panzer Corps. Despite the disparity in the level of forces involved between the two sides, the Soviet offensive failed in its stated objectives. On 25 January, only 50 out of 306 tanks in the IV SS Panzer Corps had been operational due to battle damage, mechanical wear and lack of fuel. The Soviet failure was facilitated by the poor decisions of the Soviet higher leadership. Rodion Malinovsky, commander of 2nd Ukrainian Front, threw the 23rd Tank Corps into combat without reconnaissance or close air support. The corps was utterly destroyed by the Germans in a single day. The Germans destroyed 122 Soviet tanks on the first day of the Soviet attack, of which belonged to 23rd Tank Corps. Regardless of such gross errors, the Red Army gained ground as the 54th Rifle Corps and the entire 57th Army attacked from the south. 28th Rifle Corps was also transferred from Stavka reserve to take part in the counteroffensive. The combat was heavy and 70 wrecked and 35 disabled tanks and assault guns remained on the edge of the village of Vereb alone. By 1 February, the Soviets had retaken most of the ground lost in Konrad III with the principal exception of Székesfehérvár. References Bibliography Further reading Tomb of the Panzerwaffe: The Defeat of the Sixth SS Panzer Army in Hungary by Aleksei Isaev & Maksim Kolomiets Konrad III Konrad III Konrad III Konrad