On February 19, 1943, Wehrmacht Field Marshal Erich von Manstein assassinates Adolf Hitler in response to an insult. Manstein and his co-conspirators then take over the German government and make a separate peace with the Soviet Union. Redeploying all forces to the Western and Southern Fronts, Germany is able to keep the Allied forces from gaining a toe-hold in Italy and France. With that, World War II ends in a stalemate. The Cold War becomes a three-way conflict, with the United States and the United Kingdom jostling against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.