often visited the monument to her father on the outskirts of brest. this picture shows what he looked like me of the 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 lucky. was holding out in one of them within two days the defenders had exhausted their ammunition. daughter saw the germans trying to capture her father. of the roof suddenly there was a noise it seemed that the had caught him because he had jumped on to the ratings and plunged into the river by the germans began firing ask him present death in captivity he shouted those were the last words he addressed to his soul. 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 money. the german strategy relied on surprise attack to demoralize the adversary from the opening seconds. the sound of the explosions was deafening before that i had seen war only in films . i thought it was an earthquake but 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 had riddled the barracks walls. i remember

dosed all over the place. well. i could barely breathe iraq myself in a blanket. and i heard an order from your rifles and get downstairs. i barely had time to pull all my clothes before rushing downstairs 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. one of our rifle regiments counterattacked the germans. tried to roll back to the gates. they were met with

a shower of bullets there too. money of the fastest stuff. 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. huge fourth 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. 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. 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 pillboxes 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. when i was there my girlfriend told me. that a war would break out tomorrow she was four in the morning. on this one nine hundred thirty nine two years before the start of the war. between the soviet union and germany have become noticeably warmer foreign ministers of the two states motto than ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact. in september one nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded poland. this is a german commander on his tanks captured 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 brest over to soviet troops in less than two years time. will again launch an assault on breast fortress fighting against the same troops salutes in the interim dispenser units will have gained valuable experience in successful offensive operations in europe. and. ashore and 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 want to repeat. 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 hear anything it's all in that's here you know that 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 brest 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 who. and when i was so my mother and sister killed while sitting right here well i talked myself away as far as i cooled and the fate of those who were in the cellar. 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 the awesome of nine hundred forty two the fascists massacred fifty four children at an orphanage me abreast their parents had already died in the war. while french army command was the children's teacher was 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 your 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 issues that so much of a given to each musician on that from spring to fall be uprisings in at least eight fast becoming vicious civil wars.

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 was stood directly 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 down the ultimatum german assault groups used flame throwers to flush them out. the heat was so intense that even bricks begun 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. russian surrender. or. that will let you live don't be afraid they say it. with some of the spot of the loudspeaker they hit it with a burst of machine gun fire. that was the end of the propaganda that's.

a shortage of water was the biggest problem the defenders faced. the western river was nearby but german troops were in control of all approaches to it still haven't other fighters managed to reach the river several times under the cover of darkness . 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. know days mining engineers or 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 turn it over.

to shell 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 divers pick up three to ten objects relating to the first days of the war. the breast fortress was long considered impenetrable they outer walls where. in the twentieth century it was in effect a death trap for the strong. fortresses gates continuously under and machine gunfire 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.

on. the german plan to seize soviet territory. but most of the soviet leaders as hitler would target britain first before unleashing any attack on the soviet. one but a. and was already aware of the. february. problem the germans regularly postponed. initially was. trying to delay war until autumn. where the first assault was launched actually consisted of several. islands around. the eastern seaboard offered 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 she was not. a second rate person. even public to listen hospitals could not be used but everybody johns had decent food this we're not so lucky. if they don't name every way you could see a sign saying. only oh i. know and. already during the first days of the war many people in breast and its environs started sneaking out of town. in the force of russia they formed groups of guerrilla warfare. learn new skills those a machine gunner here in the forest dug outs in june one thousand nine hundred.

could have. 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 tracks 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 caring military equipment to be blown up. quick and the wagon was no more. for soldiers of the german forty fifth division. after the assault on the. german troops had already swept across poland.

and much of europe. russia they encountered the most ferocious 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 this home 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 comb 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. 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. know 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 nice is his only surviving relative just recently did she learn

of her uncle's fate. that people want to at least see the grief of somebody they loved least flourescent 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 there were 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 man. hitler and mussolini arrived in august one thousand nine hundred one for a visit to breast 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 visits 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. we might forgive. children now 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.

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ten year old child victim of the russian plane crash in hospital bringing the number of those killed in the past week to forty five. relatives of the survivors and the victims of the tupolev one three four plane crash rushed to the sites of their loved ones the people of the republic of korea offer of flowers and prayers at the site join me for the details in a few moments. in other news the greek government survives a critical vote of confidence new prosperity drive amid furious protests that the will of the people in the north. and a dark page in history former soviet republics mourn the millions killed in the second world war seventeen years after nazi troops faded the soviet union.

live from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching r t with me and he said no way our top story a ten year old child pulled from the wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed in northwest russia has died in hospital bringing the death toll to forty five doctors spent two days fighting to save the boy's life but said his injuries were too serious. at the site of the tragedy. the ten year old boy who was in the hospital here as of boards succumbed to his injuries and he died in the hospital though there were initially three of them who were left at local hospitals because they were too fragile to the critic condition too critical for them to be flown to moscow as for the families of the victims as well as the survivors several of them have already made their way to that is of course while some are still on the way they do have the tough task of identifying those who had

been killed people of bettas of course have been coming here to decide bringing flowers candles and saying mass they themselves are suffering from shock and grief at what had happened but we have spoken to some of the witnesses here those who had help to save some of the people and for them the hardest part of that evening was hearing the cries of people who were still alive when the plane had crashed. first . then we heard a man screaming his clothes were burning so i ran to my house. and the flames. well it's still very early stages to come up with one to see every investigators are still working on the case. they have had some initial theories based on physical evidence as you can see behind me this is the forest where the plane had gone through its path going to the airport so it had really burned down the force also knocked out a power line and there were statements made by airport authorities about why.