Working in closely guarded secrecy for the past several months, the Soviets had prepared one of the largest and most overpowering ground offensives in history. Assembly areas were set up well behind the border, and senior field commanders had traveled into the region incognito, wearing uniforms of junior officers. Troops, tanks, field artillery, and other war matériel had been moved east on the Trans-Siberian railroad, with continuous round-trips of some 136,000 rail cars. Since the fall of Germany three months earlier, Red Army strength in the region had more than doubled, to about
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