![]() ![]() ![]() The Nazi regime found it hard to admit that the largest formation in the whole of the Wehrmacht was doomed to annihilation in the ruins of Stalingrad and in the frozen steppe outside. Rumours had begun to circulate just before Christmas 1942 that General Paulus's Sixth Army had been encircled on the Volga by the Red Army. The mood in Germany had changed exactly two years before. VIDEO: YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIERS ON THE ODER FRONT 1945 WAIT FOR THE RUSSIAN ONSLAUGHTÄ«erliners, gaunt from short rations and stress, had little to celebrate at Christmas in 1944. In his final hours the Fuehrer married his long-time mistress and then joined her in suicide. Inside his underground bunker Hitler lived in a world of fantasy as his "Thousand Year Reich" crumbled above him. Fighting street-to-street and house-to-house, Russian troops blasted their way towards Hitler's chancellery in the city's center. By April 24 the Soviet army surrounded the city slowly tightening its stranglehold on the remaining Nazi defenders. The depleted German forces put up a stiff defense, initially repelling the attacking Russians, but ultimately succumbing to overwhelming force. By prior agreement, the Allied armies (positioned approximately 60 miles to the west) halted their advance on the city in order to give the Soviets a free hand. The final chapter in the destruction of Hitler's Third Reich began on Apwhen Stalin unleashed the brutal power of 20 armies, 6,300 tanks and 8,500 aircraft with the objective of crushing German resistance and capturing Berlin.
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