This book provides a view of the closing months of World War II in Europe through to the early days of the Cold War which succeeded it. The year 1945 opens with fighting in Holland and the Lower Rhine. In the East, on 12 January, the greatest offensive of the war begins in fog and snow as the Soviets break through German lines on the Vistula, 125 miles south of Warsaw. Hitler, in his Berlin bunker, does not see the destruction of Dresden. As the Allies march on Berlin they find the evidence of the Nazi concentration camps. With Hitler's suicide, German armies surrender to Eisenhower on the 7th May. The Allies uneasy alliance fractures and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western powers begins. The Soviets blockade Berlin but the city is relieved by a massive airlift. From privates to presidents, Fallen Eagle brings to life the personal, political and military dramas which altered the map of Europe for half a century.