N. Kósa Judit - Szablyár Péter: Underground Buda - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

The Devil's Ditch: Buda's rapid brook imprisoned

■ The Tabán section oh the Devil's Ditch in the igth century

500-troop detachment led by SS-Oberführer Dörner, attempted a breakout from its headquarters in the Castle Tunnel via the canal of the Devil's Ditch. That was their only chance to make their escape from the encircled Buda towards the north to join the body of their units.

This is how an eyewitness recalled the events: "On Krisztina körút, some 200-300 metres from the exit of the Tunnel, at what 1 believe to be No. 97, was the entrance to the canal... The canal... was a tubular corridor about 3 metres in diameter with a 40-centimetre deep ditch at its bottom... Now and again we passed under winding stairs leading to an entrance covered with an iron plate where the din of the desperate battle raging above could be heard. . . The flowing water carried every imaginable thing including battle gear such as helmets, canteens, hand grenades and anti-tank rockets, which all slowed us down. And there was the dead body of a woman, too." The attempted breakout failed and the soldiers exhausted in body and soul emerged from the canal’s various shafts only to be captured by Soviet troops to be imprisoned or executed. Many chose suicide to avoid being caught.

The last time the Devil’s Ditch surprised its builders with a flood was at the

>3