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 luck. 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 the truth on the head. he had jumped on to the ratings and plunged into the river by the germans began firing gas 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 group center 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 second. 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 thousand 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. stubborn resistance despite being numbered nearly two to one by their attackers. but one of our rifle regiments counterattacked the german. tried to roll back to the gates. they were met with a shower of bullets there to. 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. a huge force terrifying wave of german. from all sides. into russian territory and when they were done we knew we had to go in. 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 them 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 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.

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 this one 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 nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded. this is german commander on his tanks captured the breast fortress at that time part of polish territory.

this is rare footage i joined it 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. ashore and we have the modern same knowledge ain't to communicate between the time x. headphones. and that 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 the nazis used the russian officers wife and children as a human shield on this bridge. and enough of them in measured. they told us women and children to lie down on the bridge claims to want to repeat is there you 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 ofter 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 here. at all since and the gravity of the situation but 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 where i took 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 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. of nine hundred forty two the for. massacred fifty four children at an orphanage brest their parents had already died in the war. amanda the children's teacher she and the children the forced out of the orphanage and. a vigil of commemoration and sorrow takes place each year in the breast fortress on the ninth 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 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. to.

download the official antti application. i pod touch from the. life on the go. video. and already feet now with the palm of your. question. 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 the cellars withstood direct hits in the aerial bombardment. 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 the 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 began to melt. the fighters continued their resistance as they shifted from one place to another. this is how the german war correspondents pro-trade the event but cameramen were unable to film an emerging from sellers with their hands raised as a sign of surrender. that. this russian surrender german shouted through a loudspeaker. that will let you live don't be afraid. when some of the spot of the loudspeaker they hit it with

a burst of machine gun fire it's pretty rare that that was the end of the propaganda that's a pretty good. the biggest problem faced. by german troops. still of another. river several times under the cover of darkness. to reach the west we were sometimes crawling sometimes running. helmets then we would go by 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'd. 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 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 the outer walls were two meters thick but in the twentieth century it was in effect a death trap. 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 sheer 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 not a. problem with the germans. initially it 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 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 forest. they formed groups of guerrilla warfare. learn new skills

those. here in the forest in june one thousand nine hundred. children women. and. all of us lived here and all of us were hoping. the partisans stayed in the force for. a time. and you could 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 military equipment to be. quick and the wagon was no

more. for soldiers of the german forty fifth division. and. the german troops had already swept across poland. and much of europe. they encountered the most ferocious today. 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'm just looking through the woods you 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 combed the site meter after meter. weapons and other objects made a metal. underground. this is a soviet helmet it was a direct hit. you can see where the shot entered and exited. the base the objects are carefully examined. medallions. 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 which each year adds more names to the list of breast 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. he's niece 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 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 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 of their own

a code 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. curious precautions 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. after the fall of berlin the stone was found in hitler's office at the chancellor of the third reich. church

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 it must not be forgotten. we might forgive. children our plane 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 these rooms as the cornerstone of their faith in the ultimate victory

troops. comrades lived to see that victory in one thousand nine hundred five nearly four years after those tragic events.

and.

libyan opposition held. against alleged atrocities committed by rebel forces as nato continues in support of the country's uprising. president obama unveils plans to begin the withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan but there are concerns that while troops may leave american drone attacks will continue. e.u. leaders are debating greece's second bailout the greek prime minister. public finance cuts in parliament as a public. just

after two pm here in moscow you with oughts he rule research welcome to the program well the growing number of civilian casualties in libya raises serious misgivings about nato intervention and even among supporters of the campaign but it's not only nato bombs that pose a threat to libyans the rebels stand accused of committing atrocities against their own people. as the story. this family hasn't had the war quiet and peaceful like this one for months they've escaped to the libyan rebel stronghold of benghazi to hide in this refugee camp in the west of the country after a life in their native town became a nightmare. it's not safe there anymore it's become dangerous and it's not only because of explosions and gunshots one day people from the government and then you call them rebels we call them terrorists came to me and told me we have to arrest your daughter because we know that she supports gadhafi. these keep has been long

and hard for the win their family what i remember was that a government i had to hide for some time from them as they've been searching for me then we knew there was a bus coming from benghazi to near zero the bus with the rebels for their purposes we took that bus with our faces covered and everybody was against gadhafi on it we told them that we were also against him and they lot of soon we kept silent until we went to egypt and from there via tennessee and we were sent here. son was brother dr sabri a surgeon has also fled the city he says they've made three attempts on his life but he only finally left when he saw a killing. to kill from from or from your killing him in front of ice your own good his body on the world that. the doctor says people from the national transitional council were behind it this is the rebels official political body set are part of the revolution in libya started in the mid february its members a record.