It is the 1st November 1945 and, once again, the soil of Europe is being soaked in blood and tears. Soviet armies have crossed the Rhine and now occupy the larger part of Germany. The Red Army has experienced its first major defeat, hand in hand with Pyrrhic victories, bought with high losses in materiel and extreme casualties. Zhukov has been replaced by Konev, paying the price for falling too far behind the schedule of war. Soviet forces open a new front, striking south from Bavaria and Austria, aiming at the plains of Northern Italy. Winter approaches and brings with it the harshest conditions in living memory. However, the war stops for nothing and, even as snow falls on snow, plans are laid on both sides of the divide. [The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]