In early 1945, with Germany's defeat inevitable, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin set his two marshals in a race to capture Berlin.

Their separately-commanded armies were pitted against each other, ensuring they would drive their men as fast and as far as possible to a quick victory, leading to the climactic Battle of Berlin.

By September 1944, Allied forces had reached the German border, but the subsequent failure of Operation Market Garden prevented a decisive breakthrough into the heart of Germany by the end of the year.

General Eisenhower's armies were facing resistance that varied from being almost nonexistent to fanatical[4] as they advanced toward Berlin, which was 200 km (120 mi) from their positions in early April 1945.

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill urged Eisenhower to continue the advance toward Berlin by the 21st Army Group, under the command of Field Marshal Montgomery, with the intention of capturing the city.

Even General George S. Patton agreed with Churchill that he should order the attack on the city since Montgomery's troops could reach Berlin within three days.

In Berlin, the Reichsbanner resistance organization identified possible drop zones for Allied paratroopers, and they planned to guide them past German defenses into the city.

[6] However, General Omar Bradley warned that capturing a city located in a region that the Soviets had already received by the Yalta Conference might cost 100,000 casualties.

[6] By April 15, Eisenhower had ordered all armies to halt when they reached the Elbe and Mulde Rivers, thus immobilizing the spearheads while the war continued for three more weeks.

Advancing from northern Italy, the British Eighth Army[7] pushed to the borders of Yugoslavia to defeat the remaining Wehrmacht elements there.

On 15 April 1945, the Soviet Union fired a massive barrage of some one million artillery shells, one of the largest in history, onto the German positions west of the Oder.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front was to attack into Austria, under the command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, under the orders of Stalin to deny Hitler the ability to transfer German troops north to defend the Berlin area as the Red Army approached.