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In 1944, after the Normandy landing, the Nazi German army suffered a series of heavy losses on the Western Front. By the end of 1944, the war situation between the German and Allied forces took a subtle turn. The Allied forces were advancing steadily but were already exhausted. The German army was retreating step by step but its elite troops still remained. Hitler was like a trapped animal, eager to get out of trouble and reverse the situation on the Western Front. He firmly believed that "offense is the best defense." If he concentrated all his forces to launch a bold raid and captured Antwerp, he could tear apart the dividing line between the British and American troops and create a new "Dunkirk" crisis. Most German generals questioned this plan. In the absence of equipment and insufficient troops, can such a "gamble" investment lead to victory in one battle? They seemed desperate to see the Soviet Red Army advancing from the Eastern Front into their homeland of Berlin. Another part of the Nazi SS who were loyal to Hitler hoped that this desperate counterattack would lead to the "Nirvana rebirth" of the German Empire. A large number of new weapons and advanced tanks were sent to the battlefield. The fierce collision of iron and blood ignited the Ardennes covered in ice and snow. The Allied forces were under siege by two German armies. Belgian civilians, fearing retaliation from the Germans, fled their homes in a hurry. Even Paris felt panic.

"Berlin 1945" won the first Longman Today Trusteeship Award for History and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Drawing on newly declassified Soviet archives and historical sources from Germany, the United States, Britain and France, Anthony Beaver vividly recounts the nightmarish fate endured by many civilians and soldiers, especially women, in the final days of the Third Reich's collapse. Under the cover of the magnificent war scenes, the author recorded an experiential historical event in the form of oral history. The kindness and self-sacrifice shown by some people in extreme times illuminated this historical story that was already impossible to review.

The "Market Garden" operation from September 17 to 26, 1944 was another major operation launched by the Allied forces on the Western European battlefield after the Normandy landings in the late World War II. It was the largest airborne combat operation in human history. The Battle of Arnhem eventually became the key battle of this operation. The operation mobilized the Allied 1st Airborne Army, including the U. S. 101St Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division, as well as the British 1st Airborne Division and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, to participate in the war. The 30th Army of the British 2nd Army conducted ground coordination with the intention of defeating the Germans in one fell swoop and ending the war as soon as possible. Military historian Anthony Beaver starts from the micro level and paints a grand picture of the operation. The optimism permeated by the upper echelons of the Allied forces at that time, the overt and covert struggles among commanders, and the balanced strategy of British and American joint operations made this "gambler-style" military adventure possible. Poor planning and tragic reality brought the operation to a disastrous end, but the courage and perseverance of the Allied soldiers participating in the war and the generosity and fearlessness of the Dutch civilians have been remembered by history.