The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Political instructors had rammed home the message of Wehrmacht and SS brutality. The result was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known, with over seven million civilians forced to flee westwards from the terror of the Red Army.

In his bestselling narrative, Antony Beevor reconstructs the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse, telling a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism and savagery, but also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice and survival against all odds.