[000:00:00;00] live . for some this is just a parliament building in birmingham. once banned sixty six years ago it was the final target. and the last major offensive for the red army. its capture became the symbol of the fall of the fascist city town. and the victory over nazi germany. before the berlin on arctic. h.r. and her broadcasting live from washington d.c.

coming up today on the big picture. berlin the ashdod home to germany's parliament it was right here that 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. hopes gun fire corpses flame that's how the right start look by the end of april nine hundred forty one. german soldiers fought for every piece of footage and really tried to stand to the last minute against soviet troops. to more than fifty thousand soldiers and officers night over russian polish and german each of us forty for our own model

and you know for the russians for their zero on twenty four hours. the. last of fortunatus the red flag with the raids on the top of the lifestyle game a nine hundred forty five. became the symbol of victory of soviet people over fascism. say in one nine hundred forty five vassily was an anti-tank gun platoon commander she still keeps an outfit he got before assaulting berlin. it occurred the riddle me this is a map they gave out before the dawn yet and we were supposed to attack the outskirts of girl in the dark or 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 was now just a stone's throw away from berlin he also made objective of the army offensive yet leave me a map and measure the distance with a ruler just one kilometers to the outskirts of berlin is only sixty one kilometers and when the allies bombed or the flashes of anti-aircraft shells look the sky like stars. stone stumps of the play in 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. while the germans also took advantage of the delay. of of the reserves around early and were brought

south here this was the place where the army's strongest units were concentrated in the was final weeks you know made up of the germans also built formidable defenses extending twenty kilometers west ward from the forward positions or six and a half kilometers from us. soviet inge german forces were being amassed along the order for the most massive military operation in world history. and social 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 no other ration of that scale in world war two you know could there be any billing was at stake is secret. 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 will not their impression that they have been the overwhelming contributor to our common victory until the imprinted on their minds and they does not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future. is to give above all britain was aiming to see germany destroy its own history was on the other hand it wanted the soviet union weakened as much as possible i need by the real concern was to all the appearance of a new rival on the cold side of the continuum from. 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 loosed to eastern front to repulse the soviet offensive. horizon ours known to have asked general simpson with whether u.s. troops could take berlin from star wars last as he expected in that case and the

same sense that he expected some thirty thousand casualties or as 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 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 hadn't signed on april the twelfth and would have agreed to the participation of the western allies forces in the assault on the limb of which calling so risible as a kind of current school would prevent the allies from stopping him and by. roosevelt's death prompted 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 tells. 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 u.s. 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 plan of the operation. to be elimination of russians could only be achieved as

a result of the occupation of such areas of metropolitan russia that the war making capacity of the country would be reduced to a point and niche for the resistance came 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 that quick success in any such conflict would be all but impossible. some historians suggest that stalin was wary of something like operation unthinkable prompting. from berlin. he knew that something was brewing it's hard to say whether he had a clear knowledge of the details for the we now know that off famous firing led by kim philby was operating in britain at the time top foreign office officials they were doing a very effective job which if you. stephan jordan bird son of

a german anti-fascists 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 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. he said tuesday because assistant at the new comer general this is impossible with we can't possibly give away military secrets annoys me instead tenons we can have an interest in keeping casualties to me and. the war'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. that you should multiple rocket launchers were the first to

start up the pounding is so deafening you can hear a feeling of haleigh somebody shows something into your ear. and tony section either 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. nobody rossiter at the lodge could we do in that situation the absolutely nothing a court has ordered artillery had overwhelming superiority and if we were gripped with blind fear all we wanted was to hide somewhere from that ferocious fires if you found. thing was ablaze a lot for flying all around at last for something like thirty five minutes the north with the northern tanks rolled forward and we followed in behind me here is

a for me if there were anti-personnel mines on reserve place and they do no harm to tanks but i had to follow the tank units trackless void the mines so that they didn't blow my legs off. to achieve greater effect one hundred forty high powered searchlight salumi to the german positions. marshal to cause idea was to blind the germans to hinder their return fire. you out this was you have to fire as well as though you didn't know where to look because you were blinded by searchlights theme 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 deadly determination petri tism aside the german army had still other reasons to keep fighting to the bitter end despite the desperate situation. he did go to so

that any soldier fleeing his position might be shot and killed by an officer on the spot so many soldiers hanged on poles for attempting to leave there as they are propaganda had hammered into our heads that we must avoid being taken prisoner by the soviets at all costs 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 confines 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 armies to 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 order. noodles i have never seen so many dead bodies as on sold the cellar heights well thousands and thousands of men died in a very small plot of land and they started fine thing of old was those people dying venue of the war would be over in a couple of weeks only they were left. after the fall of the civil rights the germans never again offered any organized resistance. some elements of the german army were still trying to fight as advance insurgent army simply swapping them away . a bloody good so that we didn't stage a fan berlin that's because there was nobody who could protect death because many people died it's got any flak to the west you give into the americans a meeting caught it in. one of the biggest german cement terraces situated not far from berlin in a small town of hall but 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 mines 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 could. team under heavy fire. right here the furniture factory was here as soldiers with it they took us for a soviet column and they opened fire on it so the crossing was covered with their bodies for 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 hama. private

to 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 v.s.s. soldiers were fighting back. so for her needs were flowing from both saw it's the fighting was intense there where the bakeries now were entertained for education is a part they prevented soviet tanks from entering the territory for a while so they prohibited the germans from running from the battlefield on this street we lost hundreds and hundreds of all men. the remains of pussies army managed to leave the circle and fled to the west but during those three movies 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.

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your. question. the typical german town of torgau on the elbow river and like in many provincial cities the pace of life is slow here. might never have been known to the world is 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 climb to dob as sixteenth century castle zaandam 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 side of the commander left an unwilling robertson india to battle in and drew an american flag on it as he climbs to the castle that it is all more programmers and looked outside and through the flag out of the window and that very moment he heard the whistle of a shell coming from the eastern bank you thought of someone trying to shoot the window that was a shell from the socialist down on how it sounded

a sudden rush through. the group was through us so it was a group of people including women but it was approaching the river i thought 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 in the styria some 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 elba. it happened when the borg of the soviet forces encircled berlin and some elements of the red army reached the yellow river. the allies from both sides had decided to celebrate the meeting. the american intended william robertson and a soviet lieutenant alexanders who vanished became friends and pressure those who

nine hundred became a symbol of the end of the second world war. were both illustrating and i was grinning rather happy to meet each other. we were happy to know that we where the fish are provided. 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 france to relieve

pressure on the soviet union in the east. plans to open a second front for maize. but churchill and roosevelt agreed that it would be launched only when it became clear that the russians were caving into standing on the contrary that they were gaming by crossing the nineteen 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 look a judgment was in sugarcoating the thought sooner who still exist whether we were credible. on april twenty eighth soviet troops encircled the city center and began an assault on the west of. 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 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 a shout all the way stop. them via road seven sailors were given the titles of heroes of the soviet union the last two muscling and they've been one of them was nikolai. panzerfaust a rocket snapped the controller. there was nothing left for him to do hoover grip the two ends of the cable with his keys thirty dying 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 of the scandinavian division nordland and a levin battalion of the fifteenth s.s. division. green and pretty sure they were crying out from the basement hey yvonne surrender you where many are

a few of the rules cut pulled out 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 to the right stocks top floors for the first time the red flag was hoisted over the bow of. the. german and seen a draft. that threat flag was in it as it didn't go on for sure that's gone was no tellus by a man of my battalion. on new york bill. on the morning of may second to general 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 old order there is an almost exact quote from the initial lines. of has committed suicide not living else of the mercy of fate or boy therefore we are no longer committed to the oath we have taken considering the situation of the civilian population in berlin yan considering the situation of our wounded by order a cease fire and surrender with the consent of the service command. i didn't care to change anything in that's all that he held with him i said to myself the words let him say what she 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. this is just at ten am there was complete silence instantly be that that's the end of it all yes there it is a white flag not a flag really but

a white sheet. without another and yet another soon as they start scrambling out of their shells as we try 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. there are many kids but the adults stayed at home with the russians of communal. heard many stories about them. what if they were treated in the same way i did 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 it was a good one and you know when i saw my sergeant major skipping something else with a toss i found out that the people who were queuing for the food what access from the local theater all skinny and hungry of these they stood there solving which

held them and others that's the russians. now you know they were afraid of us they thought russians were cossacks with a long mustache slee 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 let's have it. 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. giving up on route for common one thousand may we were losing to our hearts content of found a big bottle containing ten liters of rattle why suddenly because there was a deafening noise he seemed libera firing from all sides that he was a german break through them with you 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 the soviet army lost from eight and a half to eleven million men between nine hundred forty one and. forty five. including a total of twenty seven million soviet people. say and great britain. 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. in europe not just in africa.

hundred thousand victims compared to twenty million lives. history of mankind was over sixty five years have passed since to. survive still remember the victory like it was yesterday they still live with

victory in their hearts. if. believe me. you.