Group which made their attacks by night. These aircraft operated from bases in Italy.
On 28 March 1945 the 6th SS Panzer and 6th Armies were pushed back by an assault across the Raba River by the 46th and 26th Armies of the USSR and the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Soviet forces came in control of Szombathely on 29 March 1945.
After the war the city grew, absorbing many nearby villages (Gyöngyöshermán, Gyöngyösszőlős, Herény, Kámon, Olad, Szentkirály, Zanat and Zarkaháza). During the revolution in 1956 it was occupied by the Soviet army.
In the 1970s the city was industrialized, many factories were built. In the 1980s the city prospered, several new buildings were built, including the County Library, public indoor swimming pools, a gallery.
In 2006 the refurbishing of the city centre's main square was completed, with financial assistance from EU funds.History of Szombathely's Jewish communities
In 1567, Emperor Maximilian II. granted to the town the privilege of allowing none but Catholics to dwell within its walls; and even in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the municipal authorities rented shops to Jews, the latter were only permitted to remain in the town during the day, and then only without their families. Down to the beginning of the nineteenth century only three or four Jewish families succeeded in taking up permanent residence. The members of the little community of Stein-am-Anger, therefore, dwelt not in the town itself, but in the outlying districts (now united into one municipality). They separated in 1830 from the community of Rechnitz (Rohonc), of which they had previously formed a part, and were henceforth known as the community of Szombathely. When the Jews of Hungary were emancipated by the law of 1840, the city was obliged to open its doors to them; but at the beginning of the revolution of 1848 they were not only attacked and plundered, but threatened with expulsion. The authorities interfered, however, and
