is one of the officers in charge of the fortress defenses. often visits the monument to her father on the outskirts of breast. this picture shows what he looks like me at the even today i guess nervous when i come here words fail me if 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 luck. 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 that the had caught him because he had jumped on to the rain and some plunged into the river by the germans began firing ask him bess and deaths in captivity he shouted those were the last words he addressed to his son.

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 if 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. of 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 braid. myself up in a blanket but almost literally then i heard an order grab 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. one of our rifles

regiments counterattacks the germans. tried to roll back to the gates but 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. from all sides. into russian territory and when they were done we knew we had to go in. the tank. but i saw the first horribly injured german soldiers and it wasn't just me we all knew what would happen 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. when used. vladimir. i have something terrible to tell you. his thoughts. 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. between the soviet union and germany have become noticeably warmer foreign ministers of the two states than ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact. in

september one nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded. his tanks captured the breast fortress at that time part of polish territory. this is rare footage joint saw that in german military parades in accordance with the secret deal to divide 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. in the interim dispenser units will have gained valuable experience in successful offensive operations in europe. and. assured we have the most insane knowledge to communicate between the time x. headphones. i'm not allowed us to react small quickly. the russian

tanks couldn't communicate with each other. whereas we could for example withdraw and then attack from the science. june twenty fourth one of the most tragic days for the defenders of the fortress during another attempted assault used the russian officers wife and children as a human shield on this bridge. but it got them in measured. 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 arms bust now he can't hit anything it's all in that's here yes i saw my daughter's hand nina turning gray one after another. she was only

a little kid. alexander was only six years old in one 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 here. at all since and the gravity of the situation but. who. was standing in this new huge news that's when we got scared over who. and when i was so my mother and sister killed while sitting right here where i took 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 is a monument to the victims of the wars of first day numbers building houses

a museum. at its center a famous exhibit and alarm clock the stop kicking 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 year after german troops attacked the soviet union. in one thousand nine hundred forty two the for. massacred fifty four children at an orphanage me abreast that parents had already died in the war. amanda was the children's teacher was she and the children the forced out of the orphanage and all of them just. 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 guards soldiers. in the western move 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. wealthy british.

markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max keiser for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report. the second. eight hours after the german attack most of the surviving defenders of the best fortress moved into cellars under the barracks. and his comrades spent about three days there back in the nineteenth century. direct hits in the aerial bombardment. there was a hospital for the wounded here. 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 troops 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 slender. russian surrender. that will let you live don't be afraid. when some of the spot of the loudspeaker they hit it with. is. that was the end of the propaganda.

a 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. know days mining engineers for wartime ammunition in the western. one of the latest findings is a german two hundred ten millimeter artillery shell. is just as dangerous today as it was sixty eight years ago. slowly slowly don't 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 day 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 drawings. 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.

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. problem with 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 resident lived under occupation for nearly three years when the germans came she was told she was not. a second rate person. that. even public tell this in hospitals could not be used by everybody johns had decent food this were not so lucky. if they don't name every way you could see signs saying. only oh. no and it's already during the first days of the war many people in breast and its environs started sneaking out of town. in the force. they formed groups of guerrilla warfare. learn new skills those. here in the forest in june one thousand nine hundred. children women.

and if all of us lived here. all of us were hoping. 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 a lot of scouts and 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. after the assault on the.

german troops and 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. 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 . could 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 us state our comps 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. you know his name is inscribed on the memorial wall in the central alley of breast fortress it has replaced another plate saying unknown soldier study slops 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 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 repelled german attacks for nearly a month in the one nine hundred sixty s. the museum received a fragment of the inner wall of 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 farewell. i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered of their own accord in there were all of those captured wounded people that if it was their 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 brest fortress despite official reports claiming that there were no surviving defenders unprocessed. security precautions 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. after the fall of berlin the stone was found in hitler's office at the chancellor of the third reich. church in brest 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 power that must not be forgotten. 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. and other 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 in brest fortress.

lose the move.

on i'll see tonight exploited city press to gate the coals of the plane crash in northwest russia as the catastrophe claims another life today bringing the death toll to forty five. at the site of the tragedy family and friends for the last respects to monday's victims join me for the details in a few moments. an immensely terror operation is underway of the north caucuses of the reports suggesting special forces have suffered losses after an attack on a militant compounds all the details all coming up sort of the. whole sort of the greek government wins a vote of confidence indorsing the savage cuts required to secure a new e.u. bailout but i agree greeks say their voices are not being heard. in business is a multi-billion dollar don't find going on at the paris air show with russia

pinning its hopes on new sukhoi superjet when i have more on that story. it's time . for grieving for me kevin i would hear it out to you tonight it's no time. at all top story the number of people killed in the plane crash in northwest russia has risen to forty five for a young boy died today of his injuries and all spittle experts were examining with black boxes to try to establish the cause of the tragedy well family and friends arrived at the site to pay their last respects. to reports. has been an emotional and tough day for the families and friends of the victims and the survivors many of them had gone to be a morgue to identify the bodies of the victims and a few of them to coming here to the site where the crash had happened the tipple of the one three four carrying fifty two people had landed here at this road right

behind me they have put together a small memorial where locals family members friends have been coming in bringing flowers and candles and also there was a small service earlier today where it was attended by officials of the region now asked for the investigation itself it's still ongoing flight recorder is in moscow being still being examined it will take some time before it is fully decoded and investigators say that at this point they're still looking at all possibilities nothing is ruled out yet all theories are being looked at or whether if you're base here to look at the initial statements made by there's authorities at the all looking closely at human error and bad weather conditions as possible and likely causes of the crash but again speaking to the family members for them to be blame game really takes a backseat at this point because they really just want to try and deal with their own grief. struggling to keep her composure teyana is in disbelief at the sudden death of her friend number.