By the summer of 1944, it was clear to all but the most passionate Nazis that Germany was doomed to lose WWII, with Fascist Italy destined to go down in flames alongside the Third Third. Yet it would take another year of savage fighting before the Axis powers of Europe were finally crushed by the Allies. Even then, peace did not reign across all of the continent, and with the shadow of the Cold War descending over a divided Europe, the threat of another monstrous war began to form. In the latest title from the team behind History of War magazine, you'll chart the final year of the war in Europe before exploring how its nations were slowly rebuilt and why many in the east still faced a brutal struggle against foreign oppression.
WELCOME TO A LIBERATED EUROPE
THE FIGHT FOR FRANCE • Breaching Hitler’s Atlantic Wall was just the start of a long and costly campaign to rid France of her German occupiers
GERMAN RESISTANCE • The German response to the Allied invasions of France in 1944 was mixed with heavy fighting, poor coordination and high casualties
SIEGE OF BASTOGNE • In one of the coldest winters on record, German forces mounted a desperate final roll of the dice to drive the Allies back. Cut off and encircled by the enemy, one city and its defenders held the line for over a week
THE RED WAVE COMES • For years the ruthless conquerors of Eastern Europe, by the summer of 1944 the Wehrmacht was scrambling to defend the heartlands of the Reich against a Red Army bent on revenge
LIBERATING THE DEATH CAMPS • As Allied soldiers advanced on Germany at the end of WWII, they encountered the truth about the Holocaust in all its horror…
OPERATION PLUNDER • At 9.00 p.m. on 23 March 1945, following weeks of almost continuous heavy aerial and artillery bombardments, Montgomery’s 21st Army Group launched Operation Plunder. This would finally take the Allies across the River Rhine north of the industrial heartland of the Ruhr and place them in a strong position to deliver the coup de grâce against the Third Reich
OPERATION VARSITY • How the largest airborne assault in military history unfolded alongside Operation Plunder
JAMES ALBERT NEWELL • Black Watch veteran
DEFENDING THE RHINE • In late March 1945, the majestic River Rhine was Nazi Germany’s last great defensive barrier in the west. But what did the Wehrmacht have left to defend Hitler’s ‘thousand-year Reich’ with?
OPERATION ANGER • In April 1945, British and Canadian forces atoned for the earlier failure of Operation Market Garden and successfully captured the Dutch city of Arnhem
THE HUNGER WINTER • For eight months, the occupying Germans imposed a devastating food embargo that left the population of the Netherlands starving
MUSSOLINI’S DOWNFALL • Once the most powerful man in Italy, Il Duce met his fate while fleeing his country in disguise as the war neared its bitter finale
THE DEATH THROES OF THE THIRD REICH • By 1945, it had long been clear that Nazi Germany had lost the war – so why did so many of its soldiers refuse to surrender?
THE LAST DAYS OF HITLER • In January 1945, Adolf Hitler and his top aides moved permanently into their underground bunker. This was the beginning of the end, but what really happened in those final months under Berlin?
INSIDE THE FÜHRERBUNKER • Hitler’s last hiding place was bomb-proof and blast-proof, but it couldn’t shield the dictator from the disaster that was overtaking his capital city
THE FATE OF THE BUNKER BUNCH • The death of Hitler was followed by murders, suicides and escape attempts that have spawned endless conspiracy theories
ENDGAME: THE FALL OF THE REICH • As millions of Soviet troops massed on the outskirts of the city, the remnants of the Third Reich’s armies...