In January 1945, the German Army in Poland braced itself for an inevitable massive attack. Enjoying overwhelming superiority in numbers and weapons, and with logistics and communications greatly improved by the Lend Lease program, the Red Army had learned how to outperform the Wehrmacht. The Soviets struck across Poland in mid-January. Two weeks later, they were deep inside Germany; East Prussia was cut off from the rest of the country. The top Soviet generals planned to take Berlin by mid-February, but Stalin postponed their march to the Reich’s capital, rerouting their efforts to what he perceived as a flank threat from northern Germany. The elimination of this treat delayed the offensive towards Berlin until mid-April. The Germans exploited this pause to strengthen their fortifications. When the march to the ‘beast’s lair’ finally resumed, bitter fights at the Seelow Heights and then in Berlin’s streets resulted in grave casualties. During the entire war on the Eastern Front, the Red Army lost at least four times as many soldiers as the Wehrmacht. As for Soviet civilians, crimes of both the Nazi and the Soviet regimes made comparable contributions to their death toll.