street in the palm of your. questions on the comb. for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. welcome back the main stories we're covering for you this hour western ukraine moxon victory day with a vicious display of nationalism he announces attack veterans voiced preciousness and real commemorative since george ribbons one hundred. ten she talks between the u.s. and china in a lip service to competition cooperation as in tips from both riches help discussions america appears unwilling to use its massive spending and its.

place though is accused of many agents for openly ignoring distress calls from those. sixteen people board a field guide or first under after spending some weeks drifting in the mediterranean. next we reveal the amazing military operation but eventually led to the fall of berlin being europe from not since you nick. berlin the range dogs home to germany's parliament it was right here the final fight 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 show us 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 plane didn't really they tried to stands to the last man against soviet troops. using more than fifty thousand soldiers and officers night over brush and polish and german each of us forty for all not aligning the russians for theirs of their own twenty four hours. the last of 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 nine hundred forty five and vassily was an anti-tank gun platoon commander he still keeps them out that he got before assaulting berlin. it occurred to rick this is a map they gave out before the donkey at them when we were supposed to charge the

outskirts of girl an alpha dog and before that they gave me a map. in late january nine hundred forty five the success of the few still other offensives had gained soviet troops a foothold deep in german territory. crossing the order river they had covered nearly five hundred kilometers in twenty days the germans no longer offered any serious resistance the soviet line was now just a stone's throw away from berlin the ultimate objective of the red army offensive yet we need a map i measured the distance with a ruler that's just the one kilometers to the outskirts of berlin the only sixty one kilometer is a beauty and when the allies bombed the flashes of an aircraft shells let the sky like stars. stone start of the plane short. the battle for poland had 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 reserves around berlingo brought south here this was the place where the army's strongest teams were concentrated in the was final weeks were made after the germans also built formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers westward from the forward positions or 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 little 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 aircraft some of those know 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 assault on verlyn in a letter addressed to roosevelt on april first one thousand nine hundred five churchill wrote the following if the russians also take berlin will not their impression that they have been the overwhelming contributor to our common victory he undoubtedly imprinted on their minds and made his not lead them into a move which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. super bowl britain was aiming to see germany destroy the swedish that he was on the other hand it wanted the soviet union weakened as much as possible i knew but the real concern was the body appearance of a new rival nicholson. 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 loose treaty eastern front to

repulse the soviet fence of. her eyes and ours known to have asked the general sense and whether u.s. troops could take berlin farms was lost as he expected in that case and the same sense that he expected some thirty thousand jesuit fast or eisenhower sat 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 saw it on april the twelfth stalin would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault on the limb in seoul residents as a kind of care and school would prevent the allies from stopping him and by. roosevelt's death prompted 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 unthinkable. 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 of. britain's joint planning staff started preparations for hostilities against the soviet union a month before the war's end 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. when so to say that russia should be

forced to succumb to the will of the great 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. to a point and niche 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 speed up. he knew that something was brewing it's hard to say whether he had a clear knowledge of the details for what we now know that our famous aspiring led

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 dalton byrd 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 people sixteenth he was summons to chicago's headquarters he was told to announce to the germans through the loudspeakers of the start of the wars final soviet offensive in a few hours time. place it says it was assistant at those newcomers general this is impossible with we can't possibly give away military secrets secrets annoys me and said tenants we can have an interest in keeping casualties to minimal. the world's most massive preparatory bombardment began and five o'clock in the

morning of april sixteenth. thousands of artillery pieces shelled german positions for half an hour. but you sure multiple rocket launchers were the first to start up the pounding is so deafening you can't hear a single payer or somebody shows something into your ear. and tony's 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 i thought could we do in that situation got absolutely nothing you could write is all that artillery had overwhelming superiority and if we were grit with blind fear was why all we wanted was to hide somewhere from that ferocious fire does it go for. everything was

ablaze a logs were flying all around the world at last for something like thirty five minutes the north of the northern tanks rolled forward and we followed in behind me . there were anti-personnel mines all religiously and they do no harm to tanks that i had to follow or the tank in its tracks joined the mines 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. because you had to fire as well as though you didn't know where to look because you were blinded by searching like a scene and we couldn't see any detail as if all we saw was a blazing bank of the reserves to see. through the germans cielo was the last defensive line before berlin so the german soldiers defended the highlands with

general determination petri chism aside the german army had still other reasons to keep fighting to the bitter end despite the desperate situation. he had a good result that any soldier of slain his position might be shot and killed by an officer on the spot so many soldiers hanging on poles for attempting to leave their position are propaganda and hammered into our heads that we must avoid being taken prisoner by the saugus 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 thrust failed to take the heights soviet troops out fled to 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 center near the otter. noodles going i have never seen so many dead bodies as i sold the sailor heights oh 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 for the spot on the day 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 advance and soviet army simply swept from the moment. the rugby codes the god within stated it and berlin because there was nobody who could project death because many people died it's got

a flat to the west you know even to the americans i made it got it into. one of the biggest a german suna terraces situated not far from berlin in a small town of hauled up 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 nord lambs. private harry from seal heights was retreating with the rest of the life army led by general who said. 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 if the. i am under heavy fire. right here a furniture factory was here as us soldiers when they took us for a soviet column and they opened fire on it so the crossing was covered with dead bodies from this point 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 to put in his german column turned down to being 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. the four hundred needs were flowing from both sides the fighting was intense there with the bakery's now when to take fortifications apart they prevented soviet tanks from entering the territory for a little so they prohibited the germans from running from the battlefield it was on this street we lost hundreds and hundreds of all men. the remains of bruises army managed to leave the circle and fled to the west but during those three movies and now the 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. look. well for the. book review the latest in science and technology from around the world. we've got the future covered.

the typical german town of torgau on the el the river like in many provincial cities the pace of life is slow here toward 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 climbed its august sixteenth century castle on sand on there they saw a bridge over the alamo river it was blown up by the germans and they saw the soviet soldiers on a string of our sides of the commander left an unwilling robertson and you took a battle in and drew an american flag on its own ma if you and he climbs to the castles and he was almost 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 you fought someone trying to shoot the window

that was a shell from the soviet lift down on i would sound assault washable three of us. the group we're through with that's how it was a group of people including women was approaching the river i thought we knew the german army officers were hiding on the other bank he lived so it was necessary for us to understand the situation to do we need to shoot or find an alternative way is there for with war but finally the soviet soldiers realized that the mysterious men on the foreign banks were actually very american allies what followed would become an iconic moment in the world war two history of the meeting at the elba. it happened when the board of the soviet forces encircled berlin and some elements of the red army reached the of the river. the allies from both sides and decided to celebrate the meeting. the american internet million robertson and the soviet lieutenant alexander's who vanished became friends

a picture of the two men hundred became a symbol of the end of the second world war. we were both it was raining and i was grinning and happy to meet each other. we were happy to know that we were the victors brogan to be. 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 thousand nine hundred two. talks 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 french to relieve pressure on the soviet union in the east. plans to open

a second from one made. but churchill and roosevelt agree a bit would be launched only when it became clear that the russians were craving standing on the contrary that they were gaining happens by crossing the nineteen thirty nine borders and entering europe. 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. should go in the foot soon or who school or whether we were not a border. collie people twenty eight soviet troops encircled the city center and began an assault on the bus stop. the building was protected by bans in the spring river and the bridge crossings had been blown up. troops crossed the sprit of border tiny dinghies from one tank 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 a shot all the way stop. them via seven sailors are a given the titles of heroes of the soviet union the last summer slain there's been one of them was nikolai. panzerfaust a rocket snapped the controller so there was nothing left for him to do but grip the two ends of the cable with his keys then he died in that position. the race stock 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 levin battalion of the fifteenth s.s. deficient. plain and can sure they were growing up from the basement of hay one

surrendering where many are a few of the rules couple lot of good in the ear. of the first of may they changed their tune yvonne we want to surrender they shot. on april thirtieth hitler committed suicide in the reich chancellery but some s.s. units continued resistance. in the evening soviet troops captured the right stocks top floors for the first time the red flag was hoisted over the bow. of the cross a german in encino trough to console down that tragic flag was in you name it says it didn't go on planning for sure that's gone was no tell us but none of my battalion on new york bill. on the morning of may second gen helms veiling 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 odd order there is an almost exact quote from the initial lines. of has committed suicide not living else to the mercy of the faithful boy therefore we are no longer committed to the oath we have taken when these considering the situation of the civilian population in the un considering the situation of our wounded are hereby order a cease fire and surrender with the consent of the soviet command. i didn't care to change anything in that school that he held with him i said to myself the words let him say what he likes as long as the war comes to an end. soon after the ceasefire order silence fell over central berlin and soviet troops took the city under control the soldiers knew that was the end of the war. this is just 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. of a german show that another and yet another lesson as they start scrambling out of their shelters we to get out into the open who will germans 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 the russians had come you know they'd heard many stories about them . what if they were treated in the same way i do the kids had pill faces they were wearing short pams some had small balls on their hands and knees when they were given some porridge they rushed home with. yeah winchell's i saw my sergeant major skipping something else with it cause 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 this holding which held them and all those me that's the russians. you know they

were afraid of us they thought russians were cossacks with a long mustache say they were looking us all over thinking where the russians mustaches were your first half they wanted to know with me if we were wearing feel caps we were just young boys at seventy. 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. give it up and rupert on the ninth of may we were losing to our heart's content i've found a big bottle containing ten liters of apple one suddenly because there was a deafening noise and you thought it was aimed they were firing from all sides and he was a german break through him you know 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 in no time. 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. in forty five . including civilians a total of twenty seven million soviet people died in the war with germany. losses of the usa and great britain came to nine hundred thousand people. was a result of casualties on the heroism of off all those and grandfathers it was the result of self-sacrifice and heroic deeds. sort of force in europe not just in

africa. hundred thousand victims compared to twenty million lives. the. history of mankind it was over sixty five years have passed since that. those who survived still remember the victory like it was yesterday they still live with a victory in their hearts. for

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