the. berlin the rushed home to germany's parliament it was right here that the final flight of world war two took place. there ever fewer surviving witnesses to the events of those days soviet veterans will never forget what happened sixty five years ago show us the gunfire corpses. 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 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. it could be this is a map they gave out before the donkey at them when we were supposed to attack the outskirts of the dawn and before that they gave me

a map. 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. just a stone's throw away from berlin the ultimate objective of the offensive. by measured the distance with a ruler 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 plan short. the. left of the advancing soviet troops with almost no ammunition and fuel the soviet army took two months to prepare for the assault. the germans also took advantage of

the delay. yeah reserves around brought up here this was the place where the army's strongest units were concentrated in the wars final weeks of the germans also built formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers west ward from the forward positions or six and a half kilometers from a. soviet inge german forces were being amassed along the author for the most massive military operation in world history. so the total 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 may just not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. of all britain was aiming to see germany destroy your odds on the other hand it wanted to the soviet union weakened as much as possible i mean by their real concern was to all the appearance of a new arrival on the concert of the new continued. in early april the fourth most u.s. troops were about one hundred kilometers west of berlin there were almost no battle ready german armies 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 stone cold 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 and would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault. as a kind of fool 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. what. was received these documents relating to operation unthinkable from a british. twenty nine pages. britain. the soviet union a month before the war. by the british implied an attack on the. war on july first one thousand nine hundred forty seven british divisions were to deliver a crushing blow to the. say

that russia should be forced to succumb to the will of. the operation. could only be achieved. the occupation of such. a country would be. 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. lead by kim philby was operating in britain

at the time top officials were doing. son of a german anti-fascist had joined the soviet army in one thousand nine hundred forty two as a volunteer. in 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 defense of in a few hours time. general with this isn't possible with we can't possibly give away military secrets. tenant's we can have an interesting keeping casualties. 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 you could right 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 as if you found. thing was ablaze

a logs were flying all around at last for something like thirty five minutes the nor the northern tanks rolled forward and we followed in behind me here is a commute then commuter 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 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 needed the german positions. marshals to cause idea was to blind the germans to hinder their return fire. as you had to fire you didn't know where to look because you were blinded by searchlight and we couldn't see any detail as if all we saw was a blazing bank of the river system. 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 a soldier fleeing 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 are propaganda and 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. to 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 order. to move the it's going i've never seen so many dead bodies as i sold the sailor heights now thousands and thousands of men died in a very small talk of the most terrifying thing of old will is this people dying venue of the war would be over in a couple of weeks fields but on the day we had no supper. 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 we advance and 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 german cemeteries is 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. 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 hall but 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 hell but . private gain 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. so when nate's were flying 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 from here but also they prohibited the germans from running from the battlefield on this street we lost hundreds and hundreds of all men from. the remains of bruises 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. for the full story we've got it first the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on the. the typical german town of toronto on the elba river like in many provincial cities the pace of life is slow here. might never have been known to the world if not for

the events of april twenty fifth one thousand nine hundred forty five. calm or calm on the day an american patrol came to. dob as sixteenth century castle zaandam there they saw a bridge over the albert river it was blown up by the germans and they saw the soviet soldiers on the eastern of the commander left an unwilling robertson indeed took a battle in and drew an american flag on it he climbed to the castle settings on more troubles and looked outside and threw the flag out of the window and that very moment he heard the whistle of a shell coming from the eastern bank the far someone trying to shoot the window that was a shell from the soviet left on how it sounded assad who. doesn't know it was a group of people including women was approaching the river. and we knew that german army officers were hiding on the other bank so it was necessary for us to understand the situation 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 very american allies what followed would become an iconic moment in the world war two history the meeting at the end. it happened when the bulk of the soviet forces encircled berlin and some elements of the red army reached the river . the allies from both sides had decided to celebrate the meeting. 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. happy to meet each other. we were happy to know. where the.

troops could have taken place much earlier had the british. when they first agreed back in one thousand nine. hundred forty one. thousand nine hundred forty three past. to relieve. the east. but. that it would be only when it became clear that the russians would. that they were. up.

on the balance of forces. many in the west are upset about stalin's power to shape the post-war arrangements it makes me want to say. which we should have got in the fort sooner who discovered by the way were not the will. on the april twenty eighth soviet troops encircled the city center and began an assault on the right stuff. 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 lost so muslim in the in one of them was nikolai. manzer faust

a rocket snapped the control gave him a zero so there was nothing left for him to do but grip the two ends of the cable with his teasing you thirty donning me in that position. 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 men 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 roost cup lot but in the evening of the first of may they changed their tune yvonne we want to surrender they shouted. 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 hot. 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 a very. 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 be that that's the end of it. but a white sheet. they start scrambling out of their shelter to 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 the russians had. heard many stories about . what if they were treated in the same way the kids had pill faces they were wearing short some had small bowls on their hand because they were given some poor and they rushed home with. skipping something else or the pot i found out that the people who were doing for the food what access from the local theater. hungry they stood with. the russians. they were afraid of us they thought russians were constant acts 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 a young boy is authentic. on the evening of may eighth two 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 why suddenly because there was a deafening noise. they were firing from all sides that anybody was a german break through and work when we rushed out we saw fireworks going up in celebration of victory i don't need to tell you that we finished off that bottle. i am. the berlin operation 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 all those and grandfathers it was the result of self-sacrifice and heroic deeds. of force in europe not just in africa. nine hundred thousand victims can't be compared to twenty million lives let's move to. the bloodiest war in the history of mankind was over sixty five years have passed since now. those who survived still.

live.

as the g twenty wraps up the egypt pacific summit begins with china and the u.s. for more talks to stave off. global trade for. the newspaper names the senior writer tells me he said look at the cover of eleven agents involved in the biggest by bust since the cold war. and israel forces

in charities underground after accusing a number of them of having terrorist links. it's six am in moscow i'm mad trezise good to be with you here on r t our top story different summit same burning issues leaders of twenty one asia pacific economies have arrived in yokohama japan for the annual apec summit as will see the u.s. and china again log horns on the currency and trade disputes that dominated the g twenty in south korea russia says that china should be more flexible in its monetary policy but it warns any changes shouldn't be rushed out of the sea the agreements made weren't binding in notes and a solution is no nearer as artie's and he said now a reports from seoul. while the g twenty.