This famous image of an unknown German soldier was taken during the Nazi counteroffensive in the Ardennes
Out side the battered Reichstag the sound of artillery and small arms fire echoed across the ruins of the Königsplatz. The building shook as chunks of stone were torn off in great showers of debris. Inside cowered the remains of Heinrich Himmler’s mighty Waffen-SS. How had his private army that once numbered almost 40 divisions been reduced to this? Hitler, in the closing months of World War II, vainly hoped that the Waffen-SS could turn the tide on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. Ever since the assassination attempt on his life on 20 July 1944 he had refused to trust the German armed forces – especially the army.