However, the large concentration of Waffen-SS forces in the Sixth Panzer Army makes Himmler order Jochen Peiper to take over the unit at its headquarters in Namur, which kills Heinz Guderian in the process, and to counterattack the Allies.

All the while, Himmler orders Field Marshal Walter Model to reassign all Wehrmacht officers randomly to prevent any conspiracies to defect, especially after US forces co-ordinate with General Kurt Student in overseeing the surrender of Army Group H in Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union resumes its offensive across Poland, as Stalin assigns the political officer Alexis Krigoff to keep tabs on the attack.

Although he leads the way in the cleanup, the Allied and the GDR leaderships convince Rommel to let the proper medical authorities handle the workload at Buchenwald and to concentrate on capturing Berlin, ahead of the Soviets, who have stumbled upon the Auschwitz camp as well.

On March 13, while the Sixth Panzer Army tries to blunt the Soviet advance, the Allies execute Operation Eclipse, an airborne drop and ground assault on Berlin, where Dietrich surrenders all German forces in the city.

However, Zhukov discovers that Krigoff was behind the assumption since he convinced the commander of the 2nd Guards Tank Army to press the attack with the intent of capturing Gatow and Tempelhof airports.

On the morning of July 8, General Groves oversees the drop of the Fat Man bomb aboard the Enola Gay with the Soviet artillery and armored concentration in Potsdam as the target.

Although there are persistent doubts as to whether the bomb will work, the explosion erases them altogether as it obliterates Potsdam, where Zhukov and Marshal Ivan Konev's headquarters is located.

The United Nations also convenes a war crimes tribunal to try all Nazis, but Himmler does not make it to the courtroom, as the US soldiers who discovered Buchenwald leave him to die in a camp with Jews and other inmates.