market trying to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my challenger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to congress report on. his heart. this is c.n.n. breaking news this hour of victory day commemorations all being monitored in western ukraine nationalists and physically assaulted veterans paying tribute to the old old wrong to move to the infinite outing to fears that nazi glorification is growing in the area. across russia events to mark sixty six years since the victory over nazi germany has been taking place skase festivities that began with

the grand military parade which involved a record number of chips marching three red square. fightings intensified of the libyan lifeline portion from its role so good natured bombings failing to break the siege of the city it comes as the mounting cost of air raids and the unclear aims of the campaign trigger process and deadlock which is a coalition member country. next we hear about a massive levels of troops tanks low salary that took part in the battle of. berlin the rash dog 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 the gunfire corpses flames that's how the right start look

by the end of april nine hundred forty one. german soldiers fought for every piece of fish and didn't believe they tried to stand to the last minute against soviet troops. using more than fifteen thousand soldiers and officers died over the polish and german for each of us forty for. the russians for theirs of the ones we for ours. the best mustard fortune. the red flag the raids on the top of the lifestyle game a nine hundred forty five. became the symbol of victory of soviet people over fascism. see in one nine hundred forty five vassily was an anti-tank gun platoon commander

she still keeps him outfit he got before assaulting berlin. it's a kind of the riddle me this is a map they gave out before the dawn when we were supposed to chart the outskirts of girl in that but don't look back 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 beyond a 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 red army offensive yet really on the map i measured the distance with a ruler that's just the one kilometers to the outskirts of berlin only sixty one kilometer is a meter and when they are lies beyond the flashes of anti-aircraft shells look the sky like stars. stone stump of the plan short. the battle for poland

have left the advancing soviet troops with almost no any mission and fuel the soviet army took two months to prepare for the assault. meanwhile the germans also took advantage of the delay. beautified safety for their reserves around early and were brought up here this was the place where the army's strongest units were concentrated in the was final weeks you were made off of the germans also built a formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers west wards from the forward positions within six and a half kilometers from us and then became very. soviet and german forces were being amassed along the order for the most massive military operation in world history. then so to all of three and a half million troops from both sides some ten thousand tanks in the schools of thousands of assault guns and eleven thousand said crossed some of those no of operation of that scale in world war two you know could there be any building was

at stake you see. 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 made us not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. super bowl britain was aiming to see germany destroy your odds on the other hand it wanted the soviet union weakened as much as possible i need a real concern with the bobby 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 armies facing them all of them had been news to the eastern front to repulse the soviet offensive. prize an hour's known to have asked general simpson whether u.s. troops could take berlin farms i was lost as he expected in that case and the same sense that he expected some thirty thousand jesuits asked or eisenhower said 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 in mid april. when you were i think that if roosevelt hasn't signed on april the twelfth stalin would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault on lynn collins so roosevelt was

a kind of current school who would prevent the allies from stabbing him in the final. roosevelt printed in the soviet commands 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 unfindable. the british military declassified documents relating to it a few years ago. which received these documents relating to operational thinkable from a british. twenty nine pages. britain's joint planning staff started preparations for hostilities against the soviet union a month before the wars and the operation planned by the british implied an attack on the soviet union without declaring war on july first one thousand nine hundred forty five forty seven british and us divisions were to deliver

a crushing blow to the soviet army the attack was to have the support of twelve german divisions. they went to say that russia should be forced to succumb to the will of the trait britain and the united states here is just one quote from the plane of the operation. the elimination of russians could only be achieved as a result of the occupation of such areas of metropolitan russia the war making capacity of a country would be used to appoint an image for the resistance became impossible. 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. some historians suggest that stalin was wary of something like operation unthinkable prompting him to speak up. he knew that something was brewing

it's hard to say whether he had a clear knowledge of the details that we now know or that off famous firing by kim philby was operating in britain at the time top foreign office officials they were doing a very effective job which in effect. stephan goldenberg 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. at the early hours of april sixteenth he was summons to headquarters he was told to announce to the germans through the loudspeakers the start of the wars final soviet offensive in a few hours time. place it says it was assistant at those newcomer general this is impossible with we can't possibly give away military secrets personalized me and said tenants we can have an interest in keeping casualties to me and.

the world's most massive preparatory bombardment kenned five o'clock in the morning of april sixteenth. thousands of artillery pieces shelled german positions for half an hour. that you sure multiple rocket launchers were the first to start up the pounding is so deafening you can't hear a thing if they are really somebody shows something into your ear. antonius schneider was a corporal in the opposing army a platoon of heavy machine guns was under his command when they were defending a small railway station near the seal heights. at the very outset his platoon lost three out of four machine guns. that waddy rossiter applause 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 was why all we wanted was to hide somewhere from that ferocious fire does it go for. everything was ablaze 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 . i mean there were anti-personnel mines all over the place and they do no harm to tanks with land to forward 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 searchlights and who needed to turn in positions. marshals to cause idea was to blind the germans to hinder their return fire. because you had to fire this way as though you didn't know where to look because you were blinded by searching the scene and we couldn't see any details if all we saw was

a blazing bank of the river distancing. through the germans cielo was the last defensive line before berlin so the german soldiers defended the highlands with general determination petri tism aside the german army had still other reasons to keep fighting to the bitter end despite the desperate situation. good or good result that any soldier fleeing his position might be shot and killed by an officer on the spot i saw many soldiers hanged on poles for attempting to leave their position on the propaganda and hammered into our heads that we must avoid being taken prisoner by the soviets at all cost into. 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 frost failed to take the heights soviet troops out flank of the german defenses only vended the defending army led by general to say fall back now nothing

stood in the way of the red army's advance towards berlin. the cost of the assault was very high. the soviet forces lost tens of thousands of men in a tiny sector near the order. yeah noodles going on i've never seen so many dead bodies as i sold the cellar 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 only if they were had no support. after the fall of the seal hides the germans never again offered any organized resistance. some elements of the german army were still trying to fight as an advance and soviet army simply swept in them away. a bloody towards those within stated it and

berlin because there was nobody who could project but because many people died it's got a flat to the west be given to them americans a meeting caught it in. one of the biggest german center terraces situated not far from berlin in a small town of the whole of 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 nord lambs. private harry from seal heights was retreating with the rest of the life 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 hold up it. team under heavy fire. the furniture factory was here as us soldiers with their they took us for

a soviet to call them and they opened fire on them so the crossing was covered with dead bodies and the fight the fight was going on between two german divisions. to. stop the fire but by that time the soviet troops had already approached the town of hell but. private should put in 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 the s.s. soldiers were fighting back. to four hundred meets were flying from both saw it's the fighting was intense there were the bakeries now were entertained fortifications apart 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 oil men. the remains of pussies army

managed to leave the circle and fled to the west but during those three days in out of 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 of my life in the form of war you have a real reverence for what has happened to be a war movement there are plenty of wars being fought though with far fewer protesters was the anti-war movement just. a few fish. fixed.

the typical german town of torgau on the el the 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. on the day an american patrol came to torgau. job as sixteenth century castle zaandam there they saw a bridge over the algorithm it was blown up by the germans and they saw the soviet soldiers on the eastern of the commander left an unwilling robertson battle in and draw an american flag on it thank you climb to the castle settings on more crabbers and look outside and through the flag out of the window and that very moment you heard the whistle of a shell coming from the eastern bank you far someone trying to shoot the window there was a shell from the soviet left on and i would sound outside washington three of us.

the group was through with us so it was a group of people including women it was approaching the river but we knew that german army officers were hiding on the other bank so it was necessary for us to understand the situation do we need to shoot or find an alternative way forward. but finally the soviet soldiers realizing the styria as men on the far bank were actually their american allies what followed would become an iconic moment in the world war two history of the meeting at the elbow. it happened when the bulk of the soviet forces encircled berlin and some elements of the red army reached the yellow river. the allies from both sides decided to celebrate the meeting. the american lieutenant william robertson and the soviet lieutenant alexander soon vanished became friends the picture of the two men hugging became a symbol of the end of the second world war. were both the illustrating

and i was grinning and happy to meet each other though we were happy to know that we were the victors. the first link up of american and soviet troops could have taken place much earlier had the british and americans opened for a second front not in one thousand nine hundred four but when they first agreed back in one nine hundred forty two. thoughts on the establishment of an anti 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 nine hundred forty two thousand nine hundred forty 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

launched only when it became clear that the russians were trading gaither thank you all on the contrary they were gaining the upper hand by crossing the nine hundred thirty nine borders and entering europe but. the long delay in the british and american response had a significant impact on the balance of forces in post-war europe. many in the west are upset about stalin's power to shape the post-war arrangements it makes me want to say where you look in your judgment was with should have gone in the foot sooner who's the biggest by the way with another woman. on the people twenty eight soviet troops encircled the city center and began an assault on the right stuff. the building was protected by bans in the sprit river and the bridge crossings had been blown up. troops crossed the sprit of border 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 tide in the shadow of the right stuff . in them via seven sailors who were given the titles of heroes of the soviet union some a slender been one of them was nikolai of iran who panzerfaust a rocket snapped the control even though there was nothing left for him to do but grip the two ends of the cable with his keys bernie dining room in their position. the race dog was defended by remnants of the elite and says units pickler's personal bodyguards. there were also french of volunteers from the charlemagne division of the scandinavian division nordland and a latvian battalion of the fifteenth s.s. division. twenty one can surely were crying up from the basement haven surrender where many euro fuels the rules cup lot but in the. of the first of may they

changed their tune yvonne we want to surrender they shot. on april thirtieth his her committed suicide in the reich chancellery but some s.s. units continued resistance. in the evening soviet troops captured to the right studs top floors for the first time the red flag was hoisted over the bow of. a german ensign aircraft can show down that fresh flag was in it as it didn't go on calling the show that's gone was not held by a man of my battalion. on new york bill. on the morning of may second general hellmuth vaguely commander of the berlin defense area arrived at the soviet headquarters to sign a cease fire order. lieutenant durenberger was the first to read and type out that order. frankly i thought it was a very old order there is an almost exact quote from the initial lines off europe

has committed suicide now living else of in the face for a boy therefore we are no longer committed to the oath we have taken these considering the situation of the civilian population in berlin and considering the situation of our wounded i hereby order a cease fire and surrender with the consent of the service. i didn't care to change anything in that salute to hell with him i said to myself who will face him say what he likes as long as the war comes to an end. 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. then at ten am there was complete silence be that that's the end of it all. there it is a white flag not a flag really but a white sheet. of the germans showed us another and yet another as they start

scrambling out of their shelters we to get out into the open hoover with germans a surrendering that's for sure. by the evening of the second of may civilians were out in the streets of berlin. there are many kids but the adults stayed at home with the russians and korean. heard many stories about. what if they were treated in the same way the kids had pill faces they were wearing short pants some had small balls in their hands and they were given some poor and they rushed home with. i saw my sergeant major skipping something out of the pot i found out that the people who were doing for the food what access from the local theater skinny and hungry they stood with had a man of us that's the russians. they were afraid of us they thought russians were constant acts and 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 camps we were just young boys. on the evening of may eighth the 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. at the root cause on the ninth of may we were losing to our heart's content have found a big bottle containing ten liters of apple while suddenly it is there was a deafening noise he could hear that. they were firing from all sides that he was a german breakthrough moment when we rushed out we saw fireworks going up in celebration of victory so there you go i don't need to tell you that we finished off that bottle is old tosh that i

am. the berlin operation lasted for sixteen days the soviet troops lost up to two hundred thousand men according to various estimates 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 from nine hundred thousand people . who thought the way was outcome was a result of all casualties and the heroism of off fathers and grandfathers enough of it with the results of self-sacrifice and heroic deeds b.o.r. sort of force in europe not just in africa. one hundred thousand victims can't be compared to twenty million lives.

the bloodiest war in the history of mankind it was over sixty five years have passed since may. those. still. i.

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