It happened seventy-eight years ago: the armored battle of the Great Plains
However, the Soviets did not know that the Germans also wanted to attack in this region, and already from September 1944, they began to redeploy armored and armored grenadier divisions to the Great Plain. Although these units could not launch an independent attack, they were deployed to stop the Soviet offensive. Thus, a very serious and heavy-loss armored battle unfolded.
Moreover, on October 19, the Germans launched an attack from the bridgehead in Szolnok, with the aim of cutting off the supplies of the Soviet troops stuck in the outskirts of Debrecen. However, this attack started late, so the Soviets occupied Debrecen on October 20, and Nyíregyháza on the afternoon of the 21st. This cut off the retreat of the German and Hungarian troops fighting in Transylvania, and brought the units to the brink of annihilation.
Recognizing this, the main body of the German Army Group South fighting in Hungary decided: the troops fighting in Transylvania would not simply retreat, but go on the attack in a western direction, and together with the Hungarian-German units fighting in the Great Plain, they would jointly try to pin those Soviet troops, on October 21 after this they reached the Tisza crossings.
The set goal was achieved by October 23, and even on October 25, the Hungarian-German troops recaptured Nyíregyháza.
As a result, the Soviet troops – mainly Cossack cavalry corps – which had previously achieved significant results and advanced rapidly towards the Tisza crossings, were trapped, and could only escape at the cost of significant losses and by quickly leaving the majority of their equipment behind. To the south – in the direction of the approaching Soviet troops – they made a breakthrough, but only the remnants of the corps reached their own troops.