Eastern Front (World War II)

	Russian Front
	The Curse of Fenric
	The Shadow in the Glass
	PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad AUDIO: The Night Witches
	World War II
	June 1941 - 9 May 1945
	Eastern Europe
Combatants
Nazi Germany
Soviet Union with Allied support
Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Result
Soviet victory Beginning of the Cold War Eastern Europe conquered by the Soviets 20 million Soviets dead

For the Eastern Front of the First World War, see Eastern Front (World War I) .

The Eastern Front, also known as the Russian Front, was one of the primary theatres of the Second World War. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) Taking place across Russia and much of Eastern Europe, the war was a massive ideological clash between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, seeking to prove the superiority of their own ideologies, fascism and communism respectively.

Fighting in the east of Europe began as early as the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, with Germany's invasion of Poland which could be considered a prelude to the Eastern Front. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Germany was also engaged in hostilities in Eastern Europe in early 1941. However, the true war began in June of that year. (PROSE: Just War)

The Eastern Front became intertwined with the Western Front on the other side of Europe, where the Western Allies, mainly the United Kingdom and the United States, also struggled against Nazi Germany. Their mutual foe in the Third Reich led to the formation of an uneasy but necessary alliance between the Soviets, although the two sides still greatly distrusted each other. (TV: The Curse of Fenric, AUDIO: Human Conflict, et al.)

The conflict ended with the total destruction of the Reich (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) and with the Soviet Union holding a strong grip over much Eastern European territory. (AUDIO: Churchill Victorious) Soviet relations with the Western Allies quickly broke down in the immediate post-war period, signalling the beginning of the Cold War. (PROSE: Endgame, Losing the Audience, et al.)

History

Origins

The Russian Revolution

German soldiers on the first Eastern Front. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)

Russia and Germany had fought against each other in the Eastern Front during the First World War. (COMIC: The Dalek Project) However, the conflict ended poorly for both regimes. In Russia, the wartime conditions led to mass upheaval which culminated in the twin revolutions of 1917 and toppled the Tsarist regime, then ruled by Nicholas II. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)

Several factions began vying for power which resulted in civil war in 1918 between Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks and the White Army. The Bolsheviks wanted to create a communist society that rejected the excesses of the Tsarist regime. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs) Malik Chebrakov called the revolution "a huge, desperate effort to make the world a better place." (AUDIO: The Memory Cheats)

However, from the very beginning, the Bolsheviks showed themselves to be even more brutal and excessive than the Tsarist regime ever was. On 16 July 1918, they murdered Nicholas along with the rest of his family. The First Doctor called the murder of the Romanovs an act of national infamy and said it was the very first of thousands of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union, a regime that would condemn generations to industrialised slaughter. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs)

With the aid of the secret police force, the All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, or simply the Cheka, the Bolsheviks continued to extend their grip on Russia. By 1919, they had reached the north of Uzbekistan as they further established the Soviet Union. (AUDIO: The Memory Cheats) In the same year, they made attempts to export communism into other countries. (AUDIO: The Alchemists)

The rise of the Nazis

Germany's defeat in the First World War by the United Kingdom and France meant that the nation was subject to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) The treaty broke up the German Empire, (PROSE: Just War) deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II and crippled the German economy with war reparations that the nation was in no state to pay off. Without a strong economy, Germans came to fear the rise of the Soviet Union, especially after the outbreak of an attempted communist revolution in Germany (AUDIO: The Alchemists) perpetrated by the Spartacist movement. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)

In the chaos, several short-lived political groups sprouted into existence but one which managed to make its mark on German politics was the National Socialist German Workers Party. During the 1920s, the NSDAP regularly met in beer halls around Munich, which normally ended in street fighting against German communists. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) The party's ideological stance was one of fascism, to be enforced by a ruthless military dictatorship which suppressed weakness and emphasised the importance of the fatherland. In particular, followers of fascism fought against communist agitators calling for a workers' uprising or "class war". (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)

Though scattered by a failed coup in 1923, the NSDAP grew in strength throughout the following decade, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) by clamping down on crime and Bolshevists at a time when the regular police force proved ineffective. They soon won enough electoral support to come to power (AUDIO: The Alchemists) on 30 January 1933, when Adolf Hitler became the new Chancellor of Germany. (AUDIO: Neverland) Establishing total dictatorship under the Third Reich, Hitler and the Nazis promoted their own aberrations of German values and successes, using propaganda to warn the population not to trust Marxists, among other groups. (PROSE: Just War) Hitler began planning an ambitious programme of empire-building in the east (PROSE: Players) by bringing down the hated Soviet Union. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

Polish flashpoint

Main article: Invasion of Poland

Germany reoccupied the Rhineland and began rearming, in direct contravention of the Versailles Treaty. However, with no appetite for war, Britain did nothing to intervene, adopting the policy of "appeasement". (PROSE: Players) Further emboldened, Germany annexed Austria (TV: Silver Nemesis) and Czechoslovakia in 1938. When the British did try to intervene, they showed themselves lacking. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Germany's attention turned to Poland, which the Nazis viewed as a hated product of the Versailles Treaty, and also the home to millions of Germans which they believed should be ruled by Germany. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler dismissed Britain's guarantee of aid to Poland. He was intent on crushing the newly-independent nation, then invading Russia, and establishing Germany in Persia, Asia and the Far East. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

However, in order to avoid a premature war against the Soviets, Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. (AUDIO: An Eye For Murder, Human Conflict) The pact was intended to keep the Soviets off Germany's back while Poland, and then Western Europe, were dealt with. The pact stipulated that Poland be divided between Germany and Russia. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) George Limb was present in Russia shortly before the deal was struck. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) According to Isabella Zemanova, the pact gave Russians the impression that they would be spared another war with Germany, but her husband, Lev Zemanova, a schoolteacher who became a captain in the Red Army, felt that Hitler could not be trusted. (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad)

In the Reichstag, Hitler declared war on Poland on 1 September 1939. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany in 3 September, against Hitler's expectations. The Germans encountered some early setbacks in Poland but after Hitler arrived at the front to take personal command, the obstacles were cleared and they resumed their march towards Warsaw. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) The Luftwaffe easily defeated the Polish Air Force. Some of the Poles that were able to escape fled westward. (AUDIO: Their Finest Hour) The Germans reach Krakow, where SS Brigadefuhrer Kraus gained a reputation as the Butcher of the city. The invasion lasted a month and Poland was crushed (PROSE: Illegal Alien) between both the Nazis and the Soviets. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

Pacifying the West

Main article: Western Front (World War II)

In the war's early hours, the War Lords of the Black Coven continued to advance their plans to help the Nazis win the war by ironing out the strategic errors they identified Germany would make. They deemed that the German invasion of the Soviet Union was prematurely launched and instead favoured abiding by the non-aggression pact for much longer after pacifying Western Europe. During this time, Germany could instead establish a presence in Africa and Asia while trying to provoke a war between the Soviets and the United States of America. The Coven also began to produce nuclear weapons for the Germans to easily subdue the larger Russian, American and Chinese landmasses. The strategy was ultimately never put into effect as the Seventh Doctor and Ace overloaded the nuclear reactor hidden inside the Coven's base at Drachensberg, wiping them out. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

In October, the Germans offered to reopen negotiations with the British and French but the Allies refused. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Germany thus became committed to a war in the west before the pursuit of the primary objective, conflict with the Soviets. To pacify the Western Front, Germany launched the Blitzkrieg in May 1940, knocking out France, Belgium and the Netherlands in the space of a month. However, the British Army managed to escape the continental onslaught, partly because the Seventh Doctor convinced Hitler that Britain could be persuaded to join Germany's war against the Soviets. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Germany subsequently failed to launch an invasion of Britain or force their surrender through other means. (PROSE: Just War)

Early in the war, Romania was invaded. Later, the Germans moved their own forces into Bulgaria, and engaged the British in Greece (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) and North Africa. (COMIC: The Instruments of War) The British earned some respite after the Germans decided to transfer forces to the East. (PROSE: Losing the Audience) The German were already active on operations on the Eastern Front before March 1941, having captured men from Georgia and transferred them west for use as slave labour. In June, the Germans decided it was time for the real invasion to begin. (PROSE: Just War)

War in Russia

Operation Barbarossa

Main article: Operation Barbarossa

Seeking to capture the boundless resources of land, slaves, oil, grain and metals held in Russia, (PROSE: Just War) the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, opening the war's Eastern Front in earnest. The Russians suffered terribly during the invasion. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) Almost two thousand planes of the Soviet Air Force were destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the first day of the attack. The Baltic States quickly fell to the Germans, and the Wehrmacht advanced forty miles into Russia with each passing day as they fought towards Moscow. They had problems establishing their supply lines fast enough to keep up.

More than two million Red Army soldiers, more men than were in the whole British Army, became German prisoners of war after the Battles of Bialystock, Kiev and Vyazma-Briansk. More Soviet soldiers were captured each day than the Germans could process. The astonishing speed and successes of the campaign were announced on German radio stations. Propagandists were soon told to tone down their reports of victories because Germany citizens were beginning not to believe them. (PROSE: Just War)

Sharing a common foe in Nazi Germany, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, agreed upon an alliance with Stalin but they did not trust each other. Churchill still remembered Stalin's pact with Hitler (AUDIO: Human Conflict) and saw the values of the Soviet Union as completely opposed to Britain's own. (AUDIO: Churchill Victorious) Nevertheless, the Royal Navy aided the Soviets by running supplies across the Arctic Sea to Murmansk. The ships, many of them corvettes, faced threats from the freezing snowy weather and icebergs, as well as German planes and U-boats. (AUDIO: Dark Convoy) The Soviets started the construction of the largest navy the world had ever seen, comprised mostly of submarines. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils)

Leningrad was surrounded by the Germans. With Panzer divisions just ten miles away, the curator of the Palace Museum prepared to evacuate all the valuables to Siberia so they would not fall into German hands. However, the Amber Room was too fragile to be moved. The curator attempted to hide it by papering it over and covering the floor with sand to make it appear as if it was a normal room, before leaving with the collection to Siberia. The attempts to hide it failed as the Germans discovered the Room within hours of reaching the Palace. They stripped the Amber Room from the Palace and had it transported back to Germany. (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities)

The Battle of Moscow

Main article: Battle of Moscow

Yet the Germans' rapid progress did not last. The campaign's momentum slowed under the strains of Germany's failure to defeat Britain, which meant that she found herself fighting a war on two fronts again, as had happened during the last war.

The Germans had advanced 1,000 miles into Russia along a 2,000 mile front and came within sight of Moscow. However, the already struggling Wehrmacht was finally grinding to a halt after the onset of the Russian winter. The Russians, who were far more prepared for winter warfare, launched a counterattack and the Germans were pushed back from the capital.

In the resulting crisis, Oberst Oskar Steinmann and the Luftwaffe zbV were called into Russia from Guernsey to help stabilise the situation. Steinmann's Luftwaffe united proved effective at halting Russian tanks, disrupting Russian supply lines, aiding in the fortification of strategic towns and providing supplies for the occupying German forces, but after Moscow, Germany's war began to devolve into a defensive one. (PROSE: Just War)

On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into the conflict. (PROSE: Only Connect) Churchill formed an alliance with the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (PROSE: Loving the Alien) and the United States mobilised industrial resources on a massive scale to help Britain and the Soviet Union maintain the fight against Germany. Germany was forced to end the bombing campaigns against Britain and abandoned any plans of invasion in order to conserve resources.

Early signs of panic began to sweep Berlin, with officers and civilians beginning to consider that Germany could lose the war. Anyone caught by the authorities of discussing this possibility were punished and purged for defeatism. (PROSE: Just War)

Reorganisation

As the winter continued, the Germans established a temporary base and began massing Panzer tanks and support vehicles, slowed by the snow, for later attacks in the direction of Stalingrad. The Soviet Air Force, from their own temporary bases, launched "disruption bombing" raids to upset the German preparations. The 588th Night Bomber Regiment, who became better known as the Night Witches by the Germans, was an all-female regiment which mostly attacked the Germans during the night in Polikarpov biplanes and other biplanes left over from the previous war, attempting to be as stealthy as possible. The Second Doctor reasoned that the Soviet Air Force was largely comprised of women because the men were fighting in the Army. Many of these women were farmers who wanted to play their part in the war effort, but they received little training and many of them were killed. The Russians began to run out of numerous resources, including food, and had to come up with alternatives such as making stew from tree bark.

After pilot Lilya Grankin was involved in a plane crash, the Doctor and his companions, Jamie McCrimmon, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright, rescued her from the wreckage. They were taken prisoner by the Night Witches after they recognised Polly as the complete double of their top pilot Tatiana Kregki. Commander Nadia Vasney, accused them of being enemy spies sent to assassinate and replace Tatiana, deliver information to the Nazis and break the morale of the Soviet Air Force by removing their recruitment poster girl. Vasney's subordinates convinced her otherwise, but Nadia still saw a chance to perform a propaganda coup by allowing the Germans to capture and execute Polly, believing her to be Tatiana. When Tatiana next attacked the Germans, it would appear as though she had risen from the dead and cement the Night Witches as real witches in the minds of their enemies.

Vasney's own plan conflicted with Tatiana's interests. Desperate to escape the war, Tatiana sought to fake her own death and impersonate Polly. The Doctor and his companions saw through the deception and returned her to the front but supporter her in the face of an increasingly-unstable Vasney. Lilya ultimately killed Vasney and Tatiana agreed to stay and take command of the Night Witches. The TARDIS departed as the Panzers reached the air field and engaged the Night Witches' biplanes in battle. (AUDIO: The Night Witches)

The Battle of Stalingrad

Main article: Battle of Stalingrad

Although it had experienced some setbacks, the Third Reich reached the peak of its power in August 1942. The Germans on the Eastern Front continued their advance towards Stalingrad. In Berlin, the Sixth Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (under the aliases Major Johann Schmidt of the Fifth Medical Corps and Brigadier General Braun from the Eastern Front) met Hitler, Eva Braun and Martin Bormann at a ball. Hitler enquired about the Eastern Front. The Doctor answered evasively, but told the Führer that the coming confrontation at Stalingrad was "key" and the the victor would "win the war". (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

The huge German army reached Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942. Large parts of the population tried to escape the city by crossing the Volga, but relatively few made it over before Stalin and the Red Army generals ordered that they be stopped, reasoning that the soldiers would fight harder to defend the city if they knew their families and fellow countrymen were in danger. Upon reaching their destination, the Germans attacked and besieged Stalingrad, subjecting the city to months of artillery bombardment, persisting into the bitter winter. The people of Stalingrad were deprived of food and fuel, and many starved or froze to death. Some resorted to cannibalism. The Drofen began consuming the city's living and dead during the siege until Erimem, failing to negotiate a peaceful solution, instructed the Russian defenders to bomb the Drofen ship. (PROSE: The Beast of Stalingrad)

Colonel Katayev was one of the Russians who fought in the battle. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) The battle continued into 1943. One million Soviets were killed defending the city. (PROSE: Happy Endings) In the end he victorious Russians gained valuable experience from Stalingrad which was later put to use against German cities. Now, they were able to begin pushing the Germans back. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

Dying days

The elite of the scorpion-like Wyrresters planned a military operation to Earth in response to their own mounting population crises on their home planet of Typholchatkas. The British and Germans both intercepted a coded radio signal originating from outer space but it proved difficult to translate. Both sides had succeeded by March 1944 and discovered instructions for building an alien machine. The German effort to develop the machine was led by SS General Hans Kammler. In Germany's mounting desperation, the Nazi leadership hoped it was a Wunderwaffe (super-weapon).

"Project Chronos", the development of Die Glocke, took place in occupied Poland. A test site at the Wenceslas Mine in the Sudeten Mountains was constructed by slave labour performed by inmates from a nearby concentration camp. The site, named "the Henge" or "the Fly Trap", was powered by hydro-electricity from a local dam and looked similar to Stonehenge. When the SS tested Die Glocke, several scientists were killed as they were mutated, crystalising their bodies, and dissolved into black slime which then dissipated completely. In a second test, five of the seven scientists later died from exposure. All of the slave workers were murdered by the SS in the same way to keep the experiments a secret. Unable to achieve a satisfactory outcome, Kammler and Die Glocke were removed from Poland via U-boat, which fled to the secret base in Neuschwabenland in Antarctica.

Britain's own attempt at developing the weapon, "Project Big Ben", was initially more successful but ended in disaster when a lone Wyrrester attacked. (PROSE: The Crawling Terror)

On 6 June 1944, the Western Allies landed in Normandy in the north of France and reopened the Western Front, (PROSE: The Taint, The Shadow in the Glass) intent on reaching Berlin. (AUDIO: Scorched Earth) Stalin met with Churchill and Roosevelt at Yalta to discuss the partitioning of Europe. Official photographs showed them smiling but this was staged for propaganda purposes. (PROSE: Byzantium!) As the Soviets marched on, fighting came to Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and other Eastern European nations, which all fell under communist control. Many nationals fled west. The Soviets eventually reached Germany. (PROSE: Endgame)

As the Germans continued to retreat in both the east and the west, and the war reached its conclusion, the tensions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union began to become more prominent. According to Mahalia Nkansah Hernandez, the Russians and Americans were "racing across Germany to begin the Cold War." (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities) The race sped up once the Western Allies invaded Germany in 1945 (PROSE: Made of Steel) and overran important weapon testing and development sites. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) Ultimately, it would be the Russians who reached Germany's capital city. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

The Amber Room looted from Leningrad in 1941 was not recovered, as it had been spirited away. It was presumed to have been destroyed in a fire. (PROSE: Cabinets of Curiosities)

The Battle of Berlin

Main article: Battle of Berlin

Marshal Georgi K Zhukov led the Soviets on the hard-fought advance to Berlin and effectively sealed off the city. To shelter from the coming onslaught, the Nazi leadership retreated to the safety of the Führerbunker beneath the Reichschancellery. Those involved included: Hitler; Bormann; Heinrich Himmler; Hermann Goering; Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and their six children; Albert Speer; Hermann Fegelein and his wife Gretl; Otto Gunsche; Hitler's valet Heinz Linge; Hitler Youth leader Arthur Axmann; together with Hitler's beloved Alsatian Blondi and other Nazis.

On 15 April, Hitler's girlfriend and Gretl's sister Eva Braun joined them in the Bunker. For many Nazis, Eva's arrival was a sign that their days were numbered, with many referring to her as "The Angel of Death".

On 20 April, Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday. This was the last day Hitler was known to have spent time outside the Bunker, as he refused suggestions that he flee Berlin to Southern Germany. He looked almost 20 years older than he actually was. A physical wreck and a far cry from his condition at the height of Nazi power, the Führer was suffering badly from Parkinson's disease. His left arm shook uncontrollably and he was constantly taking several different medications, including strychnine and cocaine. Goebbels ordered that the Führer only be filmed and photographed from certain angles to hide his frailty. Hitler addressed the Hitler Youth Brigade, preparing them to defend Berlin. Despite the inevitability of the Reich's defeat, Hitler continued to order military operations to proceed. Himmler, once Hitler's closest and most trusted ally, saw the insanity in this and left the Bunker during the sombre birthday party, never to return. He sought to begin secret negotiations with the Allies in order to sue for peace. However, he chose to make his escape in the uniform of a Sergeant-Major of the Gestapo and was made an Allied prisoner. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 22 and 23 April, the Soviets reached the outskirts of Berlin. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass, Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler declared "All is lost," and made clear his intention to commit suicide. He showed signs of both emotional and physical breakdown. Eva Braun expressed her intention to kill herself with him, but in fact planned to escape, as she was secretly pregnant with Hitler's child. Hitler tested cyanide pills on Blondi. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

Berlin became the centre of ferocious fighting as the Red Army painfully pushed forward in a costly advance towards the Reichschancellery. German and Soviet artillery tore apart streets and buildings in murderous exchanges highly reminiscent of the fighting at Stalingrad – the Russians' experience of close-quarter city fighting gained in that battle was readily put to use against the German capital. So desperate was the German situation that the Soviets found themselves battling against children in the Hitler Youth so young that they were dressed in ill-fitting uniforms. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) The age of conscription had been reduced to as low as ten years. (PROSE: Just War)

On 24 April, Albert Speer left the Bunker and was later brought into Allied captivity.

On 25 April, the Soviets captured Tempelhof Airport, the main airport of Berlin and advanced on the inner ring of the city, known as the Zitadelle. The area designated by the Russian generals as Sector Nine held the government buildings, including the Reichschancellery. The soldiers began hunting for Hitler,spurred on by rumours that whoever found him would be proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Himmler ordered his Tibetan occultist followers to sacrifice themselves in mystic rituals in order to conjure forth the forces shown by the Scyring Glass to fight for the Reich. Dressed in German uniforms, groups of Tibetans took cyanide pills in various locations around the city but Himmler had misread the visions (the Glass only sought to be returned to its ship) and nothing happened. Captain Yazov's Soviet troops, among them Ilya Petrova, found the corpses of seven Tibetans in a cellar after fighting their way through inner-Berlin streets with flamethrowers. Unaware of their purpose, the Soviets mistook them for Chinese or Japanese troops in the German Army, but a Mongolian soldier known as Vlad identified them as Tibetan. By the end of the same day, Yazov was dead.

Pressured by Bormann, Hitler declared Goering a traitor. Bormann and Goebbels remained the only Nazi Party leaders to maintain their loyalty to Hitler. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

On 28 April, the same day Italy's Benito Mussolini was executed, (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) Hitler found out about Himmler's secret surrender negotiations and branded him a traitor. He had Fegelein, one of Himmler's closest aides, executed for attempting to leave the Bunker.

On 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun. Goebbels was sent out into the streets of Berlin to find an official to conduct the ceremony. Eva signed her name on the marriage certificate as "Eva Hitler". Afterwards, Hitler dictated his Will and Political Testament to a secretary. Denouncing both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe for their failure, he named the highest ranking Kriegsmarine commander, Admiral Donitz, as his successor, and blamed the start of the war on a Jewish conspiracy. In the afternoon, Joseph and Magda Goebbels held a party for their six children. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

Conclusion

On 30 April, Hitler and Eva then made their formal farewells in the main corridor of the Bunker and were escorted to their rooms by Bormann. Hitler once again met the Sixth Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who, alongside Claire Aldwych, had been forced to travel back to the bunker on that day by Adolf Hitler, Jr. and his bodyguard Hanne Neumann so the latter could meet his father. The Brigadier apprehended and killed Neumann using some of the leftover cyanide pills used on Blondi while Claire returned outside to the TARDIS.

Unaware of this, Hitler assumed "Major Johann Schmitt" and "Brigadier-General Braun" had come to pay their final respects to their Führer. Hitler Jr. presented himself as Hitler's son, which his father scarcely believed and thought his unknown visitor to be an over-enthusiastic follower. Hitler Jr. brought news of the visions foreseen in the Scrying Glass which appeared to promise a German victory. However, the mention of Himmler threw Hitler into a rage and lost Hitler Jr. any standing he may have had with his father. Neither Hitler not Eva believed who Hitler Jr. was and Hitler shot him in the head. The body was dumped in the water tower.

While disposing of the body, Bormann noticed Claire waiting by the TARDIS as the area came under Soviet artillery fire. Bormann ushered Claire inside, only to throw her into the path of one of the shells and then murder her with a cyanide pill, so her corpse could be used as a double for Eva.

In his room, Hitler bit into his pill and shot himself in the mouth at the same time. Eva appeared dead as if she had taken the pill but she and Bormann both knew that she was pregnant and had made arrangements to save the child for the future of the Reich. Secretly aware of this, the Doctor pronounced both Hitler and Eva dead. Bormann made to dispose of both of their bodies while the travellers left the Bunker. They witnessed Eva regain consciousness and hide in the trees while Hitler and, to their horror, Claire's bodies were doused with specially-kept petrol and set alight. Eva, Bormann and another man secretly boarded a plane in the Tiergarten and were flown out of Berlin by Hans Baur before the Soviets arrived. The plane landed in Hamburg ahead of the British and Eva and Bormann boarded a submarine which departed for Neuschwabenland.

Joseph and Magda Goebbels murdered their own children and killed themselves shortly after. General Hans Krebs also died. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)

German resistance quickly collapsed in the days following Hitler's death and surrender beckoned. On 9 May, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel met with Marshal Zhukov and signed the documents of Germany's unconditional surrender, signalling the complete destruction of the Third Reich. (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War)

According to the Soviet state, 20 million of their people were killed during the war. (AUDIO: Sound the Siren And I'll Come To You Comrade)

Aftermath

Main article: Cold War

Churchill recognised the Soviet ideology as diametrically opposed to the British way of life. He advocated for Operation Unthinkable, a quick strike by the Western Allies intended to force the Soviets back out of Europe. However, the British population had no appetite for yet another war. (AUDIO: Churchill Victorious) In the 1945 general election, Churchill's emphasis on the threat posed by the Soviets was one of the factors which led to his defeat. (AUDIO: Subterfuge) He returned as Prime Minister in 1951 (AUDIO: Their Finest Hour) but by then, the post-war climate had settled into a new, if fragile, status quo. In 1949, the Soviets developed their own atomic bomb, breaking the American monopoly (PROSE: Endgame) and their huge navy continued to grow. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils) The prospect of any direct military confrontation therefore became even more dangerous due to the present threat of mutually assured destruction. (TV: Cold War)

Germany was partitioned into West Germany and East Germany. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive) Berlin (AUDIO: The Anachronauts) and Vienna (AUDIO: Quicksilver) were similarly divided into four zones occupied by the United Kingdom, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. (PROSE: Ancient Whispers) Berlin was reorganised into East Berlin and West Berlin. The East was overseen by the repressive Soviet secret police force, the Stasi. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex)

Czechoslovakia, (COMIC: The Broken Man) Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia and Hungary were also among the Eastern European nations which fell to communist control. A number of refugees ended up in Britain and stayed for many years. Some, such as Oskar Dolinski, hoped to liberate their countries from Soviet rule, and the British and American intelligence services offered them some support. However, it was a very difficult and dangerous undertaking, with many agents who travelled to Soviet territory ending up dead. (PROSE: Endgame)

The Russians recovered the burned bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun, the Goebbels family, General Hans Krebs and two dogs. Skull fragments, teeth and a jaw bone which were believed to belong to Hitler and Eva were sent back to Moscow and retained in the archives. After the autopsies, the Russians concluded Hitler had taken cyanide and shot himself at the same time but this was not made public. It suited Stalin, for propaganda purposes, that Hitler chose poison, "the death of a coward". The bodies were reburied in Buch, then dug up and reburied an Finow almost 30 miles away. On 3 July 1945, they were moved again to Ratenow. In February 1946, they were moved yet again to the courtyard of 36 Westernstrasse in Magdeburg, the SMERSH regional headquarters.

In 1970, the building was returned to East Germany and SMERSH moved out. Head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, ordered the bodies destroyed to prevent the accidental discovery of Hitler's secret grave. They were completely incinerated on 5 April on waste grounds at Schonebeck in Operation Archive. The skull fragments and bodily fluids were all that survived of the bodies. These proceedings were all recorded in the Operation Myth files.

For much of the latter half of the 20th century, the post-war political climate threatened to ignite World War III, potentially a nuclear war. (TV: The Mind of Evil, Day of the Daleks, Cold War, et al.) However, such a disaster was ultimately avoided and the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive) Fighting was underway in the former Soviet territories by 1994. (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People)

Alternate timelines

In an alternative timeline accidentally created by the Seventh Doctor and Ace's arrival in Colditz Castle in October 1944, Nazi scientists recovered the anachronistic laser technology in Ace's Walkman. After further research, they were able to use it to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons before the Americans. (AUDIO: Colditz) The Germans subsequently dropped atomic bombs on New York City and Moscow, forcing the surrender of the United States and the Soviet Union and winning Germany the war. The timeline was averted by Johann Schmidt, an alternate version of the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Klein's Story)

In the history in which the Ironsides were never discovered by the Eleventh Doctor, the Germans turned their forces against the Soviet Union after being defeated in the Battle of Britain by the Ironsides. However, they were forced to retreat to Germany after the Ironsides paved the way for Allied forces to liberate France, allowing the Russians to spread across Eastern Europe at the other end of the Allied pincer movement. (PROSE: The Ironside Advance)

The Third Doctor speculated an alternate scenario in which Grigori Rasputin was not assassinated in 1916 and the Russian Revolution never happened. Without the Communist element in World War II, Nazi Germany would have been able to throw all their forces towards an invasion of Britain without distraction. Subsequently, Germany would be able to invade Tsarist Russia and defeat the poorly-organised and ill-equipped army, capturing the oil reserves and industry before the United States decided to intervene, by which point it would be too late. Jo Grant was sceptical about this assertion, arguing that the Doctor could not know that events would play out in this way. Based on her own observations of Russia in 1916, she opined the Russian Revolution would have happened even without Rasputin's death. The Doctor conceded it was speculation on his part but the main point was that such uncertainties highlighted the dangers of tampering with history. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin) This speculation did not factor in that the threat of the Soviet Union was one of the factors which led to the rise of Nazi Germany in the first place. (AUDIO: The Alchemists)

Parallel universes

In one parallel world which was later ravaged by the Inferno Project, World War II never occurred as the fascist Republic of Great Britain and Joseph Stalin's White Russia agreed to split Europe between each other. Adolf Hitler's Germany posed no threat to this. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

Germania

Main article: Germania

On Germania LD, fierce fighting was ongoing in Russia in 1940, as well as in Britain, while the United States had agreed to a non-aggression pact with Germany.

On Germania LXVIII, Hitler was a communist under the banner of International Socialism and leading member of the Spartacists. He wrote Mein Kapital and advocated worker ownership of the factories, opposing old families, banks and Jews. He came to power in the successful Spartacist uprisings in 1919. Although Hitler initially expected resistance from other countries like Russia, they eventually became allies. The forces of the Greater German Reich later invaded Germania LXVIII and toppled the communist Hitler. A nuclear bomb was dropped on Stalingrad.

On Germania I, the Terra Optimus of the Known Worlds of Germania, a revolution in Russia overthrew Stalin who was sent to Hitler in chains. The Russian people welcomed the Germans as liberators but were confined to the cities where disease spread rapidly; Moscow was bulldozed and replaced with a lake without the population being evacuated. Crimea was among the many territories incorporated into the Nazi Empire. Blacks, Jews and anyone else the world over who was considered subversive was denounced as a communist were gassed or exiled – by 1950, there were no Jews left in Europe. Germania I became the heart of the Greater German Reich and aided the Nazis of other worlds to win their respective wars.

On other worlds, the Nazis achieved victory by exploiting the weaknesses of the Red Air Force, or by honouring the Soviet non-aggression pacts with either preventing war or allowing neutralisation through other means. This occurred on one tenth of the Germania worlds.

On one Germania, the vanquished United States that was divided between Japan and Germany was actually grateful for the occupation as they believed the Axis had rid the world of communism.

By 1970, the Empire of Empires had liberated most of these worlds from Nazi rule. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)

Behind the scenes

• Very few stories set during or related to the events on the Eastern Front involve an alien menace directly interfering with the conflict. The only story to do so thus far is The Beast of Stalingrad. Beyond that, Timewyrm: Exodus involves the War Lords and the Timewyrm who only take part in the initial planning stages, while The Shadow in the Glass involves the Vvormak who play only a passive role. Otherwise, time travel or parallel realities, if anything, are usually the most prominent science-fiction elements at play.