WI: No Siege of Budapest

IOTL the Red Army encircled Budapest in late December 1944, and through February of 1945 besieged it. The Siege tied down Soviet forces for several months, allowed Germany to shore up defenses which were on the verge of collapse, and in the long run delayed the Soviet advance into Austria until March and April.

In November 1944 3rd Ukrainian Front had the opportunity to take the eastern (Pest) portion of the city off the march, with only weak German and Hungarian forces screening the city. They failed, however, and the city was only encircled a month later. This delay gave German and Hungarian forces vital time to reinforce the city and assemble new forces in the region.

So with the delay caused by the siege of Budapest averted, what happens next?
 
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Well, it should be straightforward - earlier Soviet advance into Austria (although not by much if you consider logistics), but I won't think they'll even try to go the more mountainous western part of the country, too much pain for too little gain.

What would be certainly interesting though, is if they moved northwesternwards and took (a small bit of) Bavaria. They would have to evacuate it in the end though, per the agreements and arrangements that had been made earlier.
 
Well my thinking is the conseuqneces would be further than that. Not only can offensives towards Vienna and Prague occur months earlier than OTL (Perhaps in December or January), the Vistula-Oder operation will also occur earlier. The disaster in Hungary will shift German panzer reserves from Poland to stabilize the region even earlier than OTL. With those forces gone the Vistula-Oder offensive can be launched in December.

In these circumstances it's likely that Berlin falls in February or late January 1945. IOTL Stalin halted the offensive just before Yalta in order to give his forces in the Balkans time to seize Vienna. Now, however, Soviet forces will already be on the verge of taking the city, or already will have. Thus the Berlin offensive will continue and take the city, as there were no strong German formations defending it which could withstand multiple Soviet tank and rifle armies.
 
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