With Eisenhower’s armies closing in on Hitler’s Reich in the spring of 1945, Allied intelligence experts warned of a last-ditch stand by the Nazis in an Alpine redoubt and of a nationwide ‘Werewolf’ resistance movement that would cause mayhem after Germany’s surrender. It seemed highly plausible, but was simply wrong. The redoubt proved a mirage, and while the assassination in March 1945 by Nazi zealots of the Allied-imposed mayor of Aachen briefly seemed to confirm the Allies’ worst fears, it proved a one-off affair. Once Hitler was dead, German resistance melted away as rapidly as the spring snow.

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