berlin the ranch dog home to germany's parliament it was right here that the final flight of world war two took place. there are ever fewer surviving witnesses to the events of those days soviet veterans will never forget what happened sixty five years ago the show us gun fire corpses flames that's how the reichstag looked by the end of april one thousand nine hundred forty one. german soldiers fought for every piece of land didn't really try to stand to the last man against soviet troops. more than fifteen thousand soldiers and officers night over russian polish and german each of us fought for our own model and you know by the russians

for theirs you get one twenty four hours. battle lasted for two weeks the red flag was raised on the top of the lifestyle game a nine hundred forty five. became the symbol of victory of soviet people over fascism. in one thousand nine hundred five and vassily was an anti-tank gun platoon commander he still keeps a map that he got before assaulting berlin yet they got the rhythm of going to this is a map they gave out before the donkey at them when they were supposed to attack the outskirts of girl and that the dawn looked back and before that they gave me a map in their theme you are sure can. in late january nine hundred forty five the success of the offensive had gained soviet troops a foot deep in german territory. crossing the river they had covered nearly five

hundred kilometers in twenty days the germans no longer offered any serious resistance. is now just a stone's throw away from berlin the ultimate objective of the offensive. by measure the distance with the sixty one kilometers to the outskirts of berlin is only sixty one kilometers and when the allies bombed the flashes of anti-aircraft shells let this guy like stars. to the plane short. left of the advancing soviet troops with almost no ammunition and fuel. two months to prepare for the assault. meanwhile the germans also took advantage of the delay . yeah reserves around. here this was the place where the army's strongest units were concentrated in the wars

final weeks after the germans also built a formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers west ward from the forward positions or six and a half kilometers from. soviet inge german forces were being amassed along the author for the most massive military operation in world history. of three and a half million troops from both sides some ten thousand tanks schools of thousands of assault guns and eleven thousand some of those know all the operation of that scale in world war two you know could there be any building was at stake. meanwhile the leaders of the soviet union the united states and britain had not yet agreed on which army would take the german capital the british prime minister winston churchill called on the us president franklin d. roosevelt to start the sultan berlin in a letter addressed to roosevelt on april first one thousand nine hundred five churchill wrote the following if the russians also take berlin it will not their

impression that they have been the overwhelming contributor to our common victory unduly imprinted on their minds and make us not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. britain was aiming to see germany destroyed on the other hand it wanted to the soviet union weakened as much as possible i knew by their real concern was to the appearance of a new arrival on the concert of the. continued. in early april before most u.s. troops were about one hundred kilometers west of berlin there were almost no battle ready german army facing them all of them had been moved to the eastern front to repulse the soviet offensive. horizon ours known to have asked general simpson whether u.s. troops could take berlin was lost as he expected in that case simpson said he

expected some thirty thousand an. hour sadler that wouldn't do for us troops were to hold their positions at the russians do the fighting. on april first stalin called a meeting of his supreme command where he decided that the berlin operation should start in mid april. i think that if roosevelt hadn't signed on april the twelfth stolen would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault. as a kind of cool would prevent the allies from stopping him in the by. the soviet command to take a resolute action the assault was set for april sixteenth stalin may have had yet another reason for wanting to take berlin without delay in early april the british prime minister ordered the drafting of operation unthinkable. the british military

declassified documents relating to. received these documents relating to operation unthinkable from a british. twenty nine pages. britain's joint. the soviet union a month before the war. by the british. war on july first one thousand nine hundred forty seven british divisions were to deliver a crushing blow to the. say that should be forced to the will of. the operation. of

the occupation of. the country. for the resistance. some credit is certainly due to the british. they were clearly aware that the soviet army was nearly twice the size of the western forces. that something was brewing to say whether he had a clear. top officials. son of a german anti-fascist had joined the soviet army in one thousand nine hundred forty

two as a volunteer. in april of one thousand nine hundred five he was a propaganda officer. early hours of april sixteenth he was summoned to headquarters he was told to announce to the germans through the loudspeakers the start of the war's final so he defensive in a few hours time. because the system in general with this is impossible we can't possibly give away military secrets. tenant's we can have an interesting keeping casualties. most massive preparatory bombardment began at five o'clock in the morning of april sixteenth. thousands of artillery pieces shelled german positions for half an hour. were the first to start up the pounding. somebody showed.

antonius schneider was a corporal in the opposing army. tune of heavy machine guns was under his command when they were defending a small railway station near the sea heights at the very outset his platoon lost three out of four machine guns. i thought could we do in that situation got absolutely nothing a quarter of this or that artillery had overwhelming superiority and if we were gripped with blind fear all we wanted was to hide somewhere from that ferocious fire does it go for. everything was ablaze a logs were flying all around at last for something like thirty five minutes the north of the northern tanks rolled forward and we followed in behind me here is a commute than can be a there were anti-personnel mines all over the place and they do no harm to tanks

or to what i had to phone the tank in its tracks was unusual void the mines would be so that they didn't blow my legs off. to achieve greater effect one hundred forty high powered searchlights and who needs the german positions. marshals to cause idea was to blind the germans to hinder their return fire. you out the skills you had to fire you didn't know where to look because you were blinded by searchlight a scene we couldn't see any detail as if all we saw was a blazing bank of the river history. for the germans cielo was the last defensive line before berlin so the german soldiers defended the highlands with deadly determination petri tism aside the german army had still other reasons to keep finding to the bitter end despite the desperate situation. that any soldier of slain his position might be shot in killed by an officer on the spot so

many soldiers hanged on poles for attempting to leave their position on the propaganda had hammered into our heads that we must avoid being taken prisoner by the soviets at all cost and. the soviet forces expected to overrun the seal heights in a matter of hours. the germans clung to their defenses for nearly three days and nights. after a head on thrust failed to take the heights soviet troops fly into the german defenses only vended the defending army led by general boo say fall back now nothing stood in the way of the red army's advance towards berlin. the cost of the assault was a very high. the soviet forces lost tens of thousands of men in a tiny center near the author. who knew the rules have never

seen so many dead bodies as i sold the sale the heights thousands and thousands of men died in a very small plot of land the most terrifying thing of old was those people dying venue of the war would be over in a couple of weeks fields but when they read a message. after the fall of the seal heights the germans never again offered any organized resistance. some elements of the german army were still trying to fight as advancing soviet army simply swept them away. as though we didn't stay to defend berlin because there was nobody who could protect but because many people died many flat to the west the given to the americans a meeting caught it in. one of the biggest of german suna terraces situated not far from berlin in a small town of hama it occupies a few square kilometers. more than twenty thousand german soldiers are buried here

most of them were in an s.s. division called northland. private harry from seal heights was retreating with the rest of the ninth army led by general who say. he was running from the advancing soviet army with just one gun in his hands. when his column was entering the town of homa it came under heavy fire. right here the furniture factory was here as us soldiers with they took us for a soviet column and they opened fire on it so the crossing was covered with dead bodies and despite the fact the fight was going on between two german divisions and . when the germans realized they were shooting their own people they stopped the fire but by that time the soviet troops had already approached the town of how both . private and his german column turned out to be in

a circle of fire on the one side of the street the soviet soldiers were shooting. and on the other side v.s.s. soldiers were fighting back and. forth no one needs before going from both sides the fighting was intense but there were the bakeries now where anti-tank fortifications they prevented soviet tanks from entering the territory for a little so they prohibited the germans from running from the battlefield on this street we lost hundreds and hundreds of all men from. the remains of his army managed to leave the circle and fled to the west but during those three days and held up more than sixty thousand german soldiers died and one hundred twenty thousand were taken prisoner. there was just one day left before the capitulation of germany.

the typical german. like in many provincial cities the pace of life is slow here. to the world for the events of april twenty fifth one thousand nine hundred forty five. on the day an american patrol came to. a sixteenth century castle on their bridge over the albert river it was blown up by the german. soldiers on the eastern. the commander

lieutenant william robertson. drew an american flag. he climbed to the. robbers and looked through the flag out of the window and that very moment he heard the whistle of a shell coming from the east far as someone trying to shoot the window that was a shell from the. the group was still with us so it was a group of people including women of that was approaching the river i thought we knew the german army officers were hiding on the other bank so it was necessary for us to understand the situation didn't we need to shoot or find an alternative way. but finally the soviet soldiers realized that the mysterious men on the far bank were actually their american allies what followed would become an iconic moment in the world war two history the meeting at the elba. it happened when the bulk of the

soviet forces encircled berlin and some elements of the red army reached the of the river. the allies from both sides had decided to celebrate the meeting. the american internet million robertson and the soviet lieutenant alexander soon became friends the picture of the two men hugging became a symbol of the end of the second world war. were both illustrating and i was grinning rather happy to meet each other with those who were happy to know that we were the victors but digital the. troops could have taken place much earlier the british. one thousand nine hundred four when they first agreed back in one thousand nine hundred.

twenty nine hundred forty one. states and great britain. one thousand nine hundred three passed. to relieve pressure. in the east. but. that it would be only when it became clear that the russians would. that they would. cross. the british and american response. on the balance of forces in post-war europe. many in the west are upset about stalin's power to shape the post-war arrangement it makes me want to say. which we should have got in the fort sooner who scored the

goods by the way with another woman. on april twenty eighth soviet troops encircled the city center and began an assault on the way stop. the building was protected by bands in the spring river and the bridge crossings had been blown up. troops crossed the sprit aboard tiny dinghies from one bank to the other a distance of several dozen meters. they face continuous german fire half of the sailors who were there to secure the crossing died in the shadow of the white stuff . in the seven sailors were given the titles of heroes of the soviet union the awesome a slender man one of them was nikolai. manzer faust a rocket snapped a controlled so there was nothing left for him to do the movement gripped the two ends of the cable with his keys to thirty donning mementos. the race

dog was defended by remnants of elite s.s. units hitler's personal bodyguards. there were also french volunteers from the charlemagne division. of the scandinavian division nordland and the latvian battalion of the fifteenth s.s. deficient. i mean i'm pretty sure they were crying out from the basement hey yvonne surrender you where many you are a fuels the rules cut bought in the evening of the first of may they changed to yvonne we want to surrender they shot it. on april thirtieth hitler committed suicide in the reich chancellery but some s.s. units continued resistance. in the evening soviet troops captured to the right stocks top floors for the first time the red flag was hoyer. over the. german. didn't go on.

but. on the morning of may second general. commander of the berlin defense area arrived at the soviet headquarters to sign a cease fire order. was the first to read and type out that order. frankly i thought it was. exact quote from the initial. considering the situation of the civilian population in. considering the situation of our wounded. and surrender with the consent of. said to myself. as long as the war and.

soon after the ceasefire order silence fell over central berlin soviet troops took the city under control the soldiers knew that was the end of the war. at ten am there was complete silence. that that's. not a flag really but a white sheet. as they start scrambling out of their shelters we get out into the open. a surrendering that's for sure. by the evening of the second of may civilians were out in the streets of berlin. many kids but the adults stayed at home with the russians and. heard many stories about. what if they were treated in the same way the kids had pill faces they were wearing shorts some had small bowls on their hand when they were given some poor

and they rushed home with. skipping something else or the pot i found out that the people who were queuing for the food what access from the local theater skinny and hungry they stood with. the russians. they were afraid of us they thought russians were constant x. with a long mustache they were looking us all over thinking where the russians mustaches were your first hand they wanted to know we were wearing field caps we were just young boys. on the evening of may eighth marshals you called and representatives of great britain france and the united states signed the act of germany's unconditional surrender at the headquarters of the soviet fifth army in berlin. on the ninth of may we were losing

to our hearts' content of lead found a big bottle containing ten liters of apple while suddenly because there was a deafening noise. they were firing from all sides that anybody was a german break room with you when we rushed out we saw fireworks going up in celebration of victory so i don't need to tell you that we finished off that bottle in the. bath. ration lasted for sixteen days the soviet troops lost up to two hundred thousand men according to various estimates of the soviet army lost from eight and a half to eleven million men between nine hundred forty one and nine hundred forty five. including civilians a total of twenty seven million soviet people died in the war with germany the

combined losses of the usa and great britain came to nine hundred thousand people. who thought the way it was outcome was a result of all casualties and the heroism of off fathers and grandfathers it was the result of self-sacrifice and heroic deeds. of force in europe not just in africa. hundred thousand victims come to compare to twenty million lives let's move to. the bloodiest war in the history of mankind was over sixty five years have passed since then. those who survived still.

live.

leaders of the g. twenty nations agreed to try and avoid deliberate currency devaluation. warfare but doubts remain over whether they'll speak to the words washington has used beijing of artificially keeping the won the game and global trade advantage and stronger along the u.s. trade deficit with china and. a leading newspaper names a senior russian intelligence intelligence chief who it says blew the cover of

eleven the biggest spy scandal since the end of the cold war publication claims the man was a double image and helped washington with intelligence gathering to source president is to review with russia's entire intelligence operations. and probe palestinian charities are forced underground after the rally indios accuser number of them of having links to terrorists the israeli interior ministry stopped issuing permits to many activists forcing them to work police believe critics say the organisations are simply are suffering for simply doing their job. up next peter lavelle's crosstalk panel trying to work out just what it takes these days to be among the most powerful people on the planet stay with us for that coming up. and. see.