German reaction was sluggish. Hitler vetoed the transfer of 16 SS division from the 2nd Pz Army, or the 352nd Infantry Division from the 6th Pz Army to the threatened sector, Army Group South was ordered to defend 'every inch' with what it had. The Soviet forces, initially slowed as much from the difficult terrain as the opposition, emerged from the mountain passes, having pushed through the Hungarian defences and the few reserve German battalions. Their timings were good, the difficult road conditions of the earlier part of the month were improving daily as the ground started to dry out. By 20 March the German offensive gains of Operation Spring Awakening were moot as units of the 6 SS Panzer Army were finally shifted to oppose the Soviet breakthrough, and the bulge into the Soviet lines was closing fast. The position of the German offensive units still east of Lake Balaton was precarious. The Soviet 9th Guards Army had already covered half the distance between lakes Velence and Balaton, their only possible escape route. Another strong push by the Soviet forces and the 44 and panzer divisions of 6 Panzer Army would be trapped. The 6th Panzer Army was now struggling to keep an escape route open; the 3rd and 23rd Panzer divisions managed to retreat and were holding the Soviet forces off at Veszprem, but 1 Panzer division, 5th SS Viking and 44th were still in a box with Soviet Army forces attacking from in front and behind them. Late on 22 March the three German divisions assembled at Jeno, a town midway between lakes Velence and Balaton and 12 km from safety. A narrow gap still existed, through which the Germans intended to break out, but the Soviet units had brought up anti-tank guns into blocking positions and could sweep the entire corridor with artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. The German units created mixed columns, with the few remaining tanks in the lead, followed by armoured infantry, the divisional commands, artillery, supply units and rearguards, with more infantry on the flanks. In the darkness the columns set off and finally reached friendly lines by dawn. Disaster had been averted but for the 44th the cost had been heavy; the division commander, van Rost, was killed along with some of his staff, when the armoured half-track he was travelling in was hit by an anti-tank shell and destroyed.