WW2: War Against Humanity

When the Red Army invades the Eastern German Reich provinces, and occupied Poland, years of war, anti-German agitprop, and the general misery of being a Soviet soldier has whipped them into a frenzy of bloodthirsty revenge. It's the women of all ethnicities who pay the heaviest price as German and Polish women, even liberated Soviet victims of Nazi terror are subjected to repeated mass rapes day in and day out.

The Red Army taking Budapest launches a huge wave of crime by the soldiers and the Soviet state - the most famous crime will be when Moscow disappears Raoul Wallenberg. But he is not the only neutral country diplomat who has worked to save Budapest's Jews threatened by the Soviets.

This week yet another bloody urban battle draws to its conclusion. In Manila, despite clear orders from Tomoyuki Yamashita against wanton violence, his subordinates and superiors chose to ignore him. The Japanese defenders massacre, rape, loot and then burn the remains of the city.

The bombing war in Europe comes to an end in a fury of fire and destruction. Spartacus takes stock of the human toll of this campaign and assesses the near futility of it all. On the other side of the globe, the USAAF ratchets up the firebombing of Japan further still. Countless more civilian lives will be cut short.