But, though the war in Europe would indeed be wrapped up in days – with the Fuhrer’s suicide on 30 April followed quickly by Germany’s unconditional surrender – any sense of a harmonious future would, of course, prove short-lived. In our new four-part series to mark the 80th anniversary of the advent of the Cold War, MHM examines how the triumphs of 1945 were so rapidly replaced by mistrust and political and ideological disagreement, as the leaders of the Allied ‘Big Three’ pursued very different post-war agendas. They set the tone for a new ‘bipolar’ struggle between the West, led by the USA, and the East, led by the USSR – one that would spread division around the world, and end only with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This is an extract from a special feature on the descent of the Iron Curtain across post-war Europe from the October/November 2025 issue of Military History Matters magazine. Read the full article online on The Past, or in the print magazine: find out more about subscriptions to Military History Matters here.