What was Germany like in 1945?
On the verge of collapse. On the Eastern Front, millions of Soviet troops were advancing rapidly—not only had they occupied East Prussia and pushed deep into the heart of Germany, but they were also steadily marching toward the very heart of the Third Reich: Berlin.
On the Western Front, the Allies, having repelled the German counterattack, were launching their final assault on the Siegfried Line. After Hitler's desperate gamble at the Ardennes ended in defeat, the Germans had exhausted their last elite forces on the Western Front. All that remained to defend the Siegfried Line were the old, the weak, and the infirm—clearly no match for the Allied advance.
The fall of the Third Reich was only a matter of time.
Everyone understood this.
Yet even so, until the very end, the machinery of power in the Reich continued to operate by inertia.
