this picture shows what he looks like even today i guess nervous when i come here words fail me i see those events in my mind's eye as if they were yesterday. today children play war in the old case me but in the first days of the real war the unit under the command of lead. was holding out in one of them within two days the defenders had exhausted their ammunition. her saw the germans trying to capture her father. of the roof suddenly there was a noise it seemed the trying to had caught him because he had jumped on to the rain and some plunged into the river by the germans began firing ask him besant death in captivity he shouted those were the last words he addressed to his family. in accordance with their plan to attack the soviet union the germans had amassed three armies close to the border among these army groups or was the most powerful

its mission was to encircle and destroy soviet troops and belorussia and move on to moscow vyas months. the german strategy relied on surprise attack to demoralize the adversary from the opening seconds. the sound if the explosions was deafening before that i had seen war only in films . i thought it was an earthquake i just couldn't believe there was a war going on. the first hours of june twenty second one nine hundred forty one. a member of the military band asleep in his barracks on the second floor abreast fortress. within minutes of the attack bullets and shells fragments and riddled the barracks walls. i remember dosed all over the place. well. i could barely breathe

iraq myself blankets. then i heard an order from your rifles and get downstairs. i barely had time to pull all my clothes before rushing down stairs with my platoon were. only a few hours later the german plan to move through a russian territory had. every week covered from the initial shock. offered stubborn resistance despite being numbered nearly two to one by their attackers. and one of our rifle regiments counterattacked the germans faltered and tried to roll back to the gates . they were met with a shower of bullets there too. money of the fastest stuff. at

the beginning of huns edmund shone back was born in munich on june twenty second one thousand nine hundred one he was among the german troops who entered the russia . shortly before that he had been called up from high school and sent to the eastern front to serve in a panzer unit. a huge force terrifying wave of german artillery from all sides. into russian territory and when they were done we knew we had to go in. the tanks initially but i saw the first horribly injured german soldiers and it wasn't just me we all knew what would happen and it was terrible. the border between. follows the same line along which soviet. deployed. it was they who bore the brunt of the nazi invasion for several days small arms

were the only weapons the border guards can nevertheless they held up the advance of german troops and tanks for some time and they billing the fortress garrison to organize. yes can come on the german command allowed thirty minutes for the destruction of the frontier posts but some held out from one to seven days repulsing one attack after another. these pill boxes on the border were built shortly before the war but they were never used supplies and ammunition for the machine guns had been scheduled to arrive the day after the nats invasion of soviet territory. was in command of one of the pill boxes he was officer on duty the day before the start of the war this picture shows or so i would encourage his friend nikolai a fellow servicemen returning from a night of dancing in breastplate on june twenty first. the news.

vladimir. i have something terrible to tell you. his thoughts. well when i was there my girlfriend told me. that a war would break out to morrow she was four in the morning. on his nine hundred thirty nine two years before the start of the war relations between the soviet union and germany had become noticeably warmer foreign ministers of the two states molotov in ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact. in september one nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded poland. this is german commander hines good video on his tanks capture the breast fortress at that time

part of polish territory. this is rare footage joint so that in german military parades in accordance with the secret deal to divide europe the german military hands breast over to soviet troops in less than two years time. will again launch an assault on breast fortress fighting against the same troops lives in the interim dispenser units will have gained valuable experience in successful offensive operations in europe. and. assured we have the most insane knowledge ain't to communicate between the time. headphones. and that allowed us to react small quickly. the russian tanks couldn't communicate with each other and whereas we could for example withdraw and then attack from the sites. june twenty fourth one of the most tragic days for the defenders of the fortress

during another attempted assault used russian officers wife and children as a human shield on this bridge. they told us women and children to lie down on the bridge close to watch every piece is. can you imagine four or five guns firing it's a time it can shatter your brain. my son slava had one of his it. now he can't hit anything it's all in that's here yes i saw my daughter's hand nina turning gray the one after another. she was only a little kid. alexander was only six years old in one thousand nine hundred forty one he and his parents were living in breast fortress he spent two days in the so-called powder magazine at the start of the war he was

wounded and lost his entire family. at all since and the gravity of the situation. didn't. who. was standing in this new huge. that's when we got scared over blue. and when i saw my mother and sister killed while sitting right here. i talked myself away as far as i cooled on the feet of those who were in the cellar with. in essence the entire territory of the fortress. this is a monument to the victims of the wars of first days known as building houses a museum. at its center a famous exhibit and alarm clock the stop ticking as soon as the war began. another exhibit is dedicated to the children of red army commanders who fought in the

fortress many of them were murdered by s.s. task forces in one thousand nine hundred two a year after german troops attacked the soviet union. forces. in one thousand nine hundred forty two the fascists massacred fifty four children at an orphanage breast their parents had already died in the war. amanda was the children's teacher she and the children the forced out of the orphanage and kilt all of them. a vigil of commemoration and sorrow takes place each year in the breast fortress on the night of june twenty first candles are lit in the embers yours veterans come here from all over the former soviet union a slide show features pictures of the red army commanding officers who took part in the defense of breast fortress after the ceremony border guard soldiers. in the

western movie river to commemorate the people whose lives were cut short in breast fortress in june one thousand nine hundred one the names of many of them are still unknown.

the second. eight hours after the german attack most of the surviving defenders of the breast fortress moved into cellars under the barracks. and his comrades spent about three days there back in the nineteenth century the cellars withstood direct hits in the aerial bombardment. in for the year there was a hospital for the wounded here but while the makeshift mortuary was over there at the end of the corridor more. german command demanded that the defenders lay down

their arms and surrender when they turned on the ultimatum german troops used flame throwers to flush them out. the heat was so intense that even bricks began to melt. the fighters continued their resistance as they shifted from one place to another. this is how the german war correspondents portrayed the event but cameramen were unable to film an emerging from sellers with their hands raised as a sign of surrender none of them did. they're worried this russian surrender. through a loudspeaker or no they will let you live don't be afraid they said. when some of the spot of the loudspeaker they hit it with a burst of machine gun fire is pretty real that was the end of the propaganda.

shortage of water was the biggest problem the defenders faced. the west was nearby but german troops were in control of all approaches to it still of another fighters managed to reach the river several times under the cover of darkness. to reach the west we were sometimes crawling sometimes running. helmets. trying to make no noise we had to do with the germans fired flares all the time they certainly would have opened fire if they spotted. no days mining engineers for wartime ammunition in the western. one of the latest finds is a german two hundred ten millimeter artillery shell. is just as dangerous today as it was sixty eight years ago. slowly slowly but don't turn it over.

most of the show could go off at any moment if it's not handled properly if it does judging by its size it will obliterate everything within a radius of about five hundred meters. on the average day divers pick up three to ten objects relating to the first days of the war. in the nineteenth century the brest fortress was long considered impenetrable they outer walls were two meters thick but in the twentieth century it was in effect a death trap for the seven thousand strong soviet garrison. all of the fortresses gates were continuously under artillery and machine gun fire they were also blocked by attacking enemy troops as a result fewer than half of the men who were here on june twenty second were able to leave the fortress and protect the border.

the german sees soviet territory. but most of the soviet leaders. would target britain first before unleashing. on the soviet. february. the germans. initially was. trying to kill. where the first assault was launched actually consisted of several. of the most resistance. most of the fortress defenders still expected

reinforcements to the end they did know they were already well behind enemy lines germans has seized the town of brest within hours. abreast residents lived under occupation for nearly three years when the germans came she was told that she was not. a second person. that. even public tell this in hospitals could not be used by everybody johns had decent food not so lucky. if they don't name every way you could see a sign saying. only oh. no and. already during the first days of the war many people in breast and its environs started sneaking out of town. in the forests they form groups of guerrilla warfare. learn new skills those. here in the forest in june one thousand nine hundred. children and women.

and if all of us lived here and all of us were helping each of. the partisans stayed in the forests for. a time they carried out reconnaissance and secret monitoring of the enemy in the evening they were engaged in special operations. forces use this railway to bring military hardware to the front line. placed on the track so that nobody could see them. the germans sent reconnaissance parties to check the tracks but that didn't help. as the train came closer we singled out the way in carrying military equipment to be blown up. quick and the wagon was no more. for soldiers of the german forty fifth division.

german troops had already swept across poland. and much of europe. they encountered the most ferocious resistance to date. and. solace that all weapons were the best in the worlds. we were the strongest anyway. and we believed it. loosely because of all successes in western europe and in france but it was far from the truth. these for so with memorials commemorate fighters whose bodies have been recovered by search parties. searching for missing soldiers is a long and complicated process. first the head of a search group asks locals where exactly the fighting took place. where there are

also. many of our fighters particularly the partisans died in the swamps but i just . see the dead lying in groups of ten or twelve they never made it out of the forest. then a group of volunteers sets out on an expedition they combed the site meter after meter. weapons and other objects made of metal. underground. this is a soviet helmet it was a direct hit. you can see where the shot entered and exited. to base the objects are carefully examined. as turned to. regard so-called medallions as. these are small cases containing all important papers they carry the information

that will help identify the soldier his age rank and the name of town or village where he was called up. there just so happens there were from the same places the dead soldier were going to look for his relatives now one more fallen soldier has a name. if papers identifying the dead are found they are sent to officials a state archive each year adds more names to the list of brest fortress defenders. this is the personal record of one of the fighters still. his identity was verified just a few years ago. no his name is inscribed on the memorial wall in the central alley of breast fortress it has replaced another plate saying unknown soldier. he's niece is his only surviving relative just recently did she learn

of her uncle's fate. can you see that people want to at least see the grief of somebody they loved least flower whisenant and think about that person there is nothing more painful than the missing so when my uncle's name was finally written on the memorial plate it was a very touching moment for my family. the last defenders of breast fortress german attacks for nearly a month in the one nine hundred sixty s. the museum received a fragment of the inner wall one of the case mates of the eastern for an inscription discovered on it dates from july twentieth one thousand nine hundred forty one scribbled with a knife and said. i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered in their own accord in the way all of those captured people's. will run able to use their weapons. but nobody raised their hands before to the

death to the last minute. hitler and mussolini arrived in august one thousand nine hundred one for a visit to brest fortress despite official reports claiming that there were no surviving defenders on president. it's secure repercussions were put in place. on the eve of the top level visit to german soldiers patrolling an area near the fortress had disappeared. hitler and mussolini entered the fortress through a bridge that used to be right here what hitler saw here is known to have made a strong impression on him but even took a stone lying amongst the ruins with them. after the fall of berlin the stone was found in hitler's office at the chancellor of the third reich. church in breast fortress. there are traces of shells on the walls and inside.

it was from here that the defenders of breast fortress launched their first counterattack. scores of german and soviet soldiers died here. the time has come for mutual forgiveness. we must live in peace. it's not that we should forget the constant it must not be forgotten. but we might forgive. children play in best fortress where military hardware dating back to the one nine hundred forty s. is on display they knew about that war only from books and films. on holidays veterans told tourists about the war. of another survivors of the first battles in the fortress regard these rooms as the cornerstone of their faith in the ultimate victory over fascist troops. comrades lived to see that victory in one thousand

nine hundred five nearly four years after those tragic events and rest fortress.

the how would i be sure to type the hotel hotel while cho his the groom photo the show would have turned. over to slim hotel evergreen the old hotel type the grand victorian hotel. called springs resort and spa tied to hotel royal cheap ambassador hotel on. the evergreen plaza hotel in thailand to eat lunch time ambassador type the hotel full points and i would print certainly the splined. tell me touch of the photo a good good how would international house. every.

aviation experts examine the black boxes of a russian plane that exploded into flames after crashing there. killing forty five people. the greek government survives a critical vote of confidence. amid furious protests that the will of the people has been neglected. page in history former soviet republics mourn the millions killed in the second world war seventy years after nazi troops in the soviet union. and you're watching our table straight top story now a ten year old survivor of

a passenger plane crash in northwestern russia. has died in hospital bringing the number of victims to forty five doctors spent two days fighting to save the boy's life but said his condition was too severe the tragedy happened on monday night one three four jet plane came down on the highway just a few hundred meters from the runway the aircraft was making a regular flight to moscow. russian republic of korea seven people are still in hospital with severe injuries a correspondent is in the city matters of law and joining us now live in a few minutes time. the greek government has and narrowly won a key vote of confidence allowing the prime minister to continue his fight for more cuts parliament now has to decide whether to impose austerity measures with billions of europe in order to to skew a second e.u. bailout lifeline for the country's paralyzed economy but as sara firth reports

there's an ever widening divide between the government's vision and the good of the people. is considered by many to be the best place of democracy but in greece now the whitening gap between yank the people and the government is preaching explained. we are a mix of people. together to say that we cannot be and that. we are not called. the measures measures but they take. the big buck these demonstrations are held in the central square now on a daily basis with some of the protests turning violent protests to stay the suffocating tear gas nothing compared to thirty measures that they fail strangling their economy their people are being refused very right. one.