After nearly six years of warfare unleashing unprecedented destruction and death, Nazi Germany found itself on the verge of collapse in the spring of 1945. German forces found themselves caught in the vise of combined U.S., British, Canadian, and French forces advancing from the west and vengeful Russian troops storming into Germany from the east. While crushing enemy resistance, Allied soldiers also came face-to-face with the horrors of the Holocaust as they liberated the concentration and death camps. On April 16, the Red Army began its final assault against Berlin, which Stalin insisted that Russia have the honor of taking. The Russians encircled the city on April 25 and were within a mile of Adolf Hitler’s underground bunker the following day.