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dissuaded by McCreery. The Poles clung to vestigial hopes that their fighting contribution to the Allied cause might yet make possible some modification of the Yalta terms in their favour. But the reality, of course, was that each of the conquering nations would arbitrate the future of the countries it occupied in the fashion that it deemed appropriate. Stalin’s soldiers were already in Poland, for which Britain and France had gone to war, while the Western armies were far away.

The Fall of the Third Reich

1 BUDAPEST: IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

At the end of October 1944, Heinrich Himmler delivered an apocalyptic speech in East Prussia, setting the stage for the final defence of the Reich: ‘Our enemies must know that every kilometre they seek to advance into our country will cost them rivers of blood. They will step onto a field of human mines consisting of fanatical uncompromising fighters; every block of city flats, village, farmstead, forest will be defended by men, boys and old men and, if need be, by women and girls.’ On the Eastern Front during the months that followed, his vision was largely fulfilled: 1.2 million German troops and around a quarter of a million civilians died during the futile struggle to check the Russian onslaught. So too did many people whose governments had rashly allied themselves with the Third Reich in its years of European dominance, or who had volunteered to serve the Nazi cause. One-third of all German losses in the east took place in the last months of the war, when their sacrifice could serve no purpose save that of fulfilling the Nazi leadership’s commitment to self-immolation.

Among those who found themselves in the path of the Soviet juggernaut were the nine million people of Hungary, who found an ironic black humour in reminding each other that their nation had been defeated in every war in which it had participated for five hundred years. Now they faced the consequences of espousing the losing side in the most terrible conflict of all. Early in December 1944, the Russians forced a passage of the Danube under withering fire, with their usual indifference to casualties. A Hungarian hussar gazing on corpses heaped on the river bank turned to his officer and said in shocked wonder, ‘Lieutenant, sir, if this is how they treat their own men, what would they do to their enemies?’ After one Soviet attack north of Budapest, the defenders dragged a writhing figure off their wire. ‘The young soldier, with his shaven head and Mongolian cheekbones, is lying on his back,’ wrote a Hungarian. ‘Only his mouth is moving. Both legs and lower arms are missing. The stumps are covered in a thick layer of soil, mixed with blood and leaf mould. I bend down close to him. “Budapesst … Budapesst …”, he whispers in the throes of death … He may be having a vision of a city of rich spoils and beautiful women … Then, surprising even myself, I pull out my pistol, press it against the dying man’s temple, and fire.’

The Autumn 1944 Allied Advances on Germany

Soon afterwards, the Hungarian capital became the focus of one of the most brutal struggles of the war, scarcely noticed in the west because it coincided first with Hitler’s Ardennes offensive, and thereafter with the massive Russian offensive further north. During the last days of December, in deep snow Marshal Rodion Malinovsky’s 2nd Ukrainian Front closed its grip on the city. A Nazi-sponsored coup pre-empted an attempt by the Hungarian government to surrender to Stalin. Thereafter, the country fell into the hands of a fascist regime supported by the brutal Arrow Cross militia. The army fought on beside the Germans, though a steady stream of desertions testified to its soldiers’ meagre enthusiasm.

The civilian population remained curiously oblivious of catastrophe: in Budapest, theatres and cinemas stayed open until the New Year. During a performance of Aïda at the opera house on 23 December, an actor dressed as a soldier appeared in front of the curtain. He offered greetings from the front to the half-empty stalls, expressed pleasure that