In May 1945 Soviet troops had captured Berlin, and they proceeded to loot the city, and carry out the most horrific abuse of German women. American, British and French troops arrived two months later, and found a desperate and starving population.

Giles Milton has written a brilliant new book, Checkmate in Berlin, about the German capital in the aftermath of the Second World War. In Part One, we discuss that abuse, de-nazification, the Allies and the Soviets in the city, and Churchill’s defining Iron Curtain speech.