if you need some from friends to pray. for stocks on t.v. don't come. president obama reaffirms america's commitment to ratify the start nuclear weapons treaty and talks with president medvedev on the sidelines of the apec summit in japan obama also reiterated u.s. support for moscow's paid to join the world trade organization. also this week leaders of the g twenty group agreed to try and avoid deliberate currency devaluation but the soul summit failed to come up with detailed measures to sort out global trade imbalance that. arrested at least seven people in kosovo on charges of organ trafficking move theories of alleged organ theft by the kosovo liberation army during the war in the late ninety's details of the case are due to be made public at the end of the month. at a russian newspaper reveals

a man who had played the exposed ten russian agents expelled from the u.s. this summer they were reported to be betrayed by their own bodies. next a special report on the devastating two weeks at the end of the second world war that led to the fall of berlin stay with us here on r.t. . off to. berlin the rush home to germany's parliament it was right here the final fight 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 gun fire corpses flame that's how the reichstag look by the end of april nine hundred forty one. german soldiers fought for every piece of clay and didn't really try to stand to the last minute against soviet troops. more than fifty thousand soldiers and officers russian polish and german each of us fought for. the russians for theirs of your own twenty four hours. or less to fortune. 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 of a silly was an anti-tank gun platoon commander she still keeps a map that he got before assaulting berlin. if there were any this is a map they gave out before the donkey 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 vistula other offensive had gained soviet troops a foothold 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 the soviet line is now just a stone's throw away from berlin the ultimate objective of the offensive yet we need a map i measured the distance with a ruler of sixty one kilometers to the outskirts of berlin only sixty one

kilometers and when the allies bombed the flashes of anti-aircraft shells let the sky like stars. stone stomp to the plan short. the battle for poland had left the advancing soviet troops with almost no ammunition and fuel the soviet army took two months to prepare for the assault. meanwhile the germans also took advantage of the delay. of the reserves around. here this was the place where the army's strongest units were concentrated in the wars final weeks later made off with the germans also built a formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers west ward from the forward positions or six and a half kilometers from. soviet inch 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. 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 president franklin d. roosevelt to start. 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 not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. britain was aiming to see germany destroy. it wanted the soviet union weakened as much as possible by their real concern was to all the appearance of

a new arrival on the consulate. in early april the ford 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 eastern front to repulse the soviet offensive. horizon hours known to have asked general simpson whether u.s. troops could take berlin if i was lost as he expected in that case simpson said he expected some thirty thousand an. hour sad that wouldn't do it and u.s. 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. i think that if roosevelt hadn't pulled the

twelfth and would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault on the limb. as a kind of. prevent the allies from stabbing him in the by. another reason for wanting to take. the british prime minister. operation. the british military declassified documents relating to a few years ago. received. from a british. twenty nine pages. britain. the soviet union a month before the war. by the british attack on the soviet union. on

july first one thousand nine hundred forty seven british. to deliver a crushing blow to the. say that russia should be forced to succumb to the we. just one quote from the plane of the operation. could only be achieved. the occupation. of the country. for the resistance. some credit is certainly due to the british military planners they were clearly aware that the soviet army was nearly twice the size of the western allies combined forces and quick success in any such conflict would be impossible. and that stalin was wary of something like operation unthinkable.

he knew that something was brewing it's hard to say whether he had a clear knowledge of the details. famous. by kim philby was operating in britain at the time with top foreign office officials they were doing a very effective job. 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. general this is impossible with

we can't possibly give away military secrets. tenant's we can have an interest in keeping casualties. as 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 c.l.o. heights. at the very outset his platoon lost three out of four machine guns.

that i thought could we do in that situation got absolutely nothing you could write 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 foul. thing was a blaze 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 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 follow the tank in its tracks void the mines so that they didn't blow my legs off. to achieve greater effect one hundred forty high powered search lights illuminate the german positions. marshal shoe cause idea was to blind the germans to hinder their return fire. you out the screws 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 is to see. through 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 are 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. then move the story i 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 all was those people dying venue of the war would be over in a couple of weeks fields but when they read 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 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 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 coast northlands. 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 hall but it can. name under heavy fire.

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 despite the fight 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 about. private 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 who needs befalling from both sides the fighting was intense there were the bakeries now well into 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. the remains of his army managed to leave the circle and fled to the west but during those three 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. russia was that so much i was about to feel and i think i'm going to give it real credit for the welfare state and long live the welfare state the system is broken and bankrupt with almost no one kicking responsibility.

the typical german town of toronto on the elbow 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. more calm or calm on the day an american patrol came to torgau and climbed it up as sixteenth century castle zaandam there they saw a bridge over the albert river it was blown out 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. climbs to the castle settings on more programmers 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 lift down 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 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 elbow. it happened when the bulk of the soviet forces in circles berlin and some elements of the red army reached the river. the allies from both sides had decided to celebrate the meeting.

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. we were both grinning and i was grinning and happy to meet each other. we were happy to know that we were the victors. the first link up of american troops could have taken place much earlier had the british open for a second front in one thousand nine hundred four but when they first agreed back in one thousand nine hundred two. hitler coalition began on june twenty seventh one thousand nine hundred forty one a year later the soviet union the united states and great britain signed a declaration on the opening of the second front in europe. but one thousand nine

hundred two one thousand nine hundred three passed with no second front to relieve pressure on the soviet union in the east. plans to open a second front were made but churchill and roosevelt agreed that it would be only when it became clear that the russians would. that they were. crossing the nine hundred thirty nine. up by. the long delay in the british and american response had a significant impact on the balance of forces in post-war europe. in the west are upset about stalin's power to shape the post-war arrangement it makes me want to say. we should have gotten the. soviet troops encircled the city center. the building was

protected by. the bridge crossings had been blown up. troops cross the. bank to the other a distance of several meters. face continuous fire. half of the sailors who were there to secure the crossing died in the shadow of the right stuff . in the seven sailors were given the titles of heroes of the soviet union this is the awesome a slender in one of them was nicholai. manzer faust a rocket snapped a controlled so there was nothing left for him to do but grip the two ends of the cable with his teasing you turn he done 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 northland and

a latvian battalion of the fifteenth s.s. division. 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 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 hoisted over the building. of the thrust with love a german in encino drove guns down that threat flag was in it but it didn't go on hunting or sure that gun was not tell it's by a man of my battalion. new york was built. on the morning of may second to general helmet vogel and commander of the berlin defense area

arrived at the soviet headquarters to sign a cease fire order. was the first to read that order. frankly i thought it was a very odd. there is an almost exact quote from the initial lines. there are no longer committed to. considering the situation of the civilian population in. considering the situation of our wounded here by order a cease fire and surrender with the consent of the. i don't care to change anything in that. said to myself. as long as the war. soon after the cease fire order silence fell over central berlin soviet troops took the city under control the soldiers knew that was the end of the war.

so at ten am there was complete silence be that that's the end of it all yes there it is a white flag not a flag really but a white sheet in the gym and show that another and yet another as they start scrambling out of their shelters we to get out into the open who will germans a surrendering that's for sure. by the evening of the second of may civilians were out in the streets of berlin. with many kids but the adults stayed at home the russians had. heard many stories about them. what if they were treated in the same way again the kids had pill faces they were wearing shorts some had small bowls on their hands and they were given some poor and they rushed home with. i saw myself skipping something else or the pot i found out that the people who were queuing for the food what access from the

local theater all skinny and hungry as they stood sobbing which held a man of us that's the russians. they were afraid of us they thought russians were cossacks with a long mustache they were looking us all over thinking where the russians mustaches were your fur half they wanted to know we were wearing field caps we were just young boys with seven. on the evening of may eighth marshals you caught 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. i'm a ninth of may. a we were losing to our hearts content 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 breakthrough. 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. lasted for sixteen days the soviet troops lost up to two hundred thousand. according to various estimates of the soviet army lost from eight. 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. 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. hundred thousand victims come to compared to twenty million lives. in the history of mankind was over sixty five years have passed since they. survived still remember the victory like it was yesterday they still live with a victory in their hearts.

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