Operation Panzerfaust, known as Unternehmen Eisenfaust in Germany, was a military operation conducted in October 1944 by the German military. When German dictator Adolf Hitler received word that Hungary's Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the advancing Red Army, he sent commando leader Otto Skorzeny to Hungary. Hitler feared that Hungary's surrender would cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkan peninsula.
In a daring operation, Otto Skorzeny kidnapped Horthy's son Miklós Horthy, Jr. and his father was forced to abdicate as regent. A pro-German government was installed in Hungary and continued fighting alongside Germany until April 1945, when German troops were driven out of Hungary by the Red Army.
Thirty-five King Tiger tanks were used in conjunction with Waffen-SS and paratroopers to storm the mountain fortress (actually the Royal Castle on a hill) in which Horthy was holed up along with those loyal to him. This included the cabinet of the Hungarian government. Horthy's defenders held out for thirty minutes before they were forced to surrender. The Horthy government had signed an armistice with the Soviets during the German invasion. In order to keep Hungary in the war, the Horthy government was completely dismantled, and replaced by the "Hitler-faithful" Ferenc Szálasi government.
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