The seventh year of war saw the collapse of the German front in the West and East. In the final struggle for the Reich, over 300 German divisions faced an overwhelming enemy. From the Ardennes to the Rhine, the fighting in the Rhineland and the Ruhr area involved unimaginable brutality in the West. In the East, the Red Army advanced from the Vistula to the Oder and from there to the capital of the Reich and further to the Elbe. A trail of devastation and cruelty marked their advance. At home, women, children, and the elderly, along with their homes, fell victim to the Allied bombardments. German cities were reduced to rubble and ashes. The year 1945 also witnessed the devastating final battles in East Asia, and with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war in the Pacific was drawing to a close. The Second World War claimed millions of victims.