8th SS Florian Geyer Division

The index of that Battle of Budapest book makes it difficult to find reference to 8th SS Kav Div but here is one extract.(it doesn't list units in the index only names and places.)

South and west of the hill, in front of the Karoly kiraly Barracks (today Petofi Barracks) and in Farkasret Cemetery, the 8th SS Cavalry Division's companies were posted in the front line , with the battery of their anti-aircraft artillery immediately behind them, and a Hungarian anti-aircraft battery behind the cemetery . The defence was further supported by Hungarian assault guns and Hetzer anti-tank guns .

 

Strength of 8th SS Cavalry Division in Budapest on 24th Decemebr 1944.
Ration Strengh c8000,
Guns c30
Tanks and assault guns (deployable or under repair) 29
Heavy anti-tank guns 17

Their Div HQ was on Gellert-hegy Hill.
Bascially they were ground down by the Soviets until there weren't many of them left.

 

The SS-Kavalrie seem an interesting example of the successful use of an apparent military anachronism. In the 'anti-partisan' and lines of comms/supply protection role they proved handy in Russia's rough terrain against such a fluid target.
Wasn't all horses though, as the Florian-Geyer was the first to be issued with the Jg.Pzr.38t (Hetzer).

Fegelein must have been one of Hitler's last executions of a high ranking aide (28th April '45)?

Interesting that Geyer himself (Lutheran anti-catholic knight of the 16th century) was chosen as a hero for both the Marxist movement and an SS unit!

The obligatory 'Signal!' shot of the unit:

 

Good stuff on the Budapest fighting from 'HE129' on Military photos.:
The Siege of Budapest - Military Photos

There's a 'then & now' challenge in there as well. To find the locations of those familiar shots of Tiger II's on the streets of the city.

 

Just add this little bit about one of the Regiments of the Division in Budapest.

Soviet anti-tank units destroyed two German tanks and anti-tank guns in Kiralyhago Square and occupied the buildings south , north and west.
In the evening the 16th SS Cavalry Regiment gave up its base at the corner of Nemetvolgyi Road and Farkasret Cemetery.......with Seshegy Hill essentially encircled , the annihilation of the German unit trapped in Farkasret cemetery and the storm on Kis-Gellert Hill and Deli Station began.


On 6 Feburary fighting was fiercest near Deli Station and in Hegyalja Road, where Soviet combat units included officers equipped with flame throwers .....A counter attack launched by 8th SS Cavalry Division from the southeast and northwest towards Sashegy Hill was checked by strong Soviet opposition
.

 

Not wishing for another battle like Stalingrad the Soviets hoped to by-pass Budapest.
Malinovsky and Tolbukhin didn't want to fight in a European city with a population of 1 million .
Budapest tied down 15 Soviet and 3 Romanian divisions.
On 29th December the Soviet Command with Stalin's agreement called upon the garrison of Budapest to surrender.
The Hungarians would be released and the Germans repatriated straight after the war ended.
Two Soviet groups were sent to parley, one on the Pest side and The Florian Geyer were involved in the parley on the Buda side.
The Soviet delegates were blindfolded and taken to the Florian Geyer's CP on Gellert-hegy Hill.
Ostapenko the Soviet delegate handed the ultimatium over to the most senior German officer who contacted the Commander of German forces in Buda.
Ostapenko then spent about an hour having an informal chat with the German staff officers.
The Germans did not accept the terms so after the Germans gave the Soviets a drink of soda water they blindfolded them and lead them by the arm to a car.
The delegates soon reached the front line and were recieved by SS Scharfuhrer Josef Bader of the 8th SS Cavalry Division.
He states
My commander ordered me to take the delegates back to no-man's land where I had first met them. We walked . The closer we got to the front lines the more intense the Soviet shelling became, although a few hours before, when the delegates arrived, it had died down completey. Now they were battering our first lines again. I suggested to the Soviet captain (who spoke flawless German) that we should halt and wait for the shelling to stop before we continued. I also said that I couldn't understand why his people were firing so heavily on our postions although they must have known that their delegates had not yet returned. But the captain said that he had strict orders to return to his people as soon as possible. I ordered the group to stop , took off their blindfolds and told them I had no intention of comitting suicide and was not going any further. I let them cross the no-man's land. I must stress that nobody on our side fired. The pause in the firing was complete , and one could only hear the detonations of the enemy shells. The group started to cross a little square. When they had gone about 50 metres a shell struck from the side. I threw myself flat on my stomach. When I looked up I could see only two soldiers walking on. The third was lying motionless in the road.

It was Ostapenko who was killed.

After the war the Soviets tried to say Ostapenko had been murdered by Captain Erich Klein of I Artillery Battalion of the Feldherrnhalle Division. In 1948 he was even tortured , he refused to plead guilty. At first sentenced to death for the "murder" , it was changed to 25 years. He was released in 1953. In 1993 the Russian military prosecutor rehabilitated him, confirming the charge was pure fiction.

 

I see that remnants of the Florian Geyer (c.50 men?) were the troops guarding Goering at the time of his capture:
Capture of Goering

They're also cited here:
Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace - Google Book Search
in a rather odd sounding plan to assasinate the pope... Quite why they'd be chosen for this I've no idea and the evidence listed does sound somewhat flimsy.

 

Potted history of Wehrmacht Cavalry formations from that Danish site:
The cavalry in the Wehrmacht 1942 - 45