we are highlighting the week's top stories here with the weekly on our team of forty seven people are now confirmed dead after monday's passenger plane crash in northwest prussia two more survivors of the disaster died in hospitals one sunday investigators say they found no suggestion of a mechanical failure the plan to study the flight recorders more closely. there are reports of mounting civilian deaths across libya with nato a fugitive hitting another non military target and in rebel held city some say

they're being forced to flee because of their support for colonel gadhafi. and skeptics in brussels a station a fake the funeral for the euro this week it came as the e.u. agreed on another multibillion euro bailout for greece but the new austerity cuts demanded in return sparked more fury in athens. my colleague our bill god is here in half an hour's time but now we explore the past and present of the place where one of the most bitter battles of a second world war took place that we asked fortress to stay with us. and. rest fortress today it's on the territory of the sovereign republic of belarus formerly the soviet republic of belarus a fortress was once the western most outpost of the soviet empire each day schoolchildren in the town of brest take part in a ceremony by a local monument to commemorate what happened there. on june twenty second one nine

hundred forty one german fashion forces invaded the soviet union without a declaration of war the defenders of the breast fortress found themselves in a dead end situation it is here that the myth about the invincibility of the german army was broken after the end of the war and rest fortress as a name became synonymous to perseverance courage and belief in victory for years to come. the early hours of june twenty second nineteen forty one german artillery unleashes a massive barrage from the breast garrisoned. german warplanes similar teams we dropped hundreds of bombs on the fortress soon after infantry assault groups launched the initial ground attack. captained

leggy murshid lawsky is one of the officers in charge of the fortress defenses. dodger i.e.c. often visits the monument to her father on the outskirts of breasts. his patients shows was he looked like me at the even today i guess nervous when i come here was fanny 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 luggin or schabowski 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 sudden it was a noisy scene that fonda had cramping where he had jumped onto the ratings and plunged into the river that we've been thinkin on and began firing that's him

that's a death in captivity he shouts and those are the last words he attracts 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 his mission was to encircle and destroy soviet troops and belorussia and move on to moscow by as money. the german strategy relied on surprise attack to demoralize the adversary from the opening seconds. the sound of the explosions was deafening. for that to have 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 hundred forty one. a member of the military band asleep in his barracks on the second floor of

breast 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 on a blanket. can i heard an order from your rifles and get downstairs. i barely have time to pull my coals before listening downstairs with my platoon. only a few hours later the german plan to move through bella russian territory had stalled . every week covered from the initial shock the soviet soldiers remaining in the garrison offered stubborn resistance despite being number nearly two to one by their attackers. one of our rifle

regiments counterattacks the germans faltered and tried to roll back to the pole gates but they were met with a shower of bullets there too. and on the of the fascists there. at the giving of the 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 auxiliary move from all sides. and the russian territory and when they were done we knew we had to go in. like a lot of tanks initially when 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 poem follows the same line along which soviet funds your post were once 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 its defense. yes come on the german command allowed thirty minutes for the destruction of the frontier posts but some held out from one to seven days proposing 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 it 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 to. gather near. i have something terrible to tell you. his thoughts. when i was there my girlfriend told me. the war would break out to morrow she was four in the morning so like. all those 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 mullet of an ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact. in

september nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded poland. this is german commander hines on his tanks captured the breast fortress at that time part of territory. this is rare footage joint i saw that in german military for a in accordance with a secret deal to divide the german military hands breast over to soviet troops in less than two years' time goodly on 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. ashore and we have the most insane knowledge communicate between the time it was like headphones. that allowed us to react small quickly the

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 by nancy hughes russian officers wife and children as a human shield on this bridge. them imagine . they told us women and children to lie down on the bridge close to watch every piece is. you imagine four or five guns firing is 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 one after another. she was only

a little kid. alexander mccall 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 the children didn't and who. was standing in the. that's when we got scared over the roof. and when i saw my mother and sister killed while sitting right here. i talk to myself away as far as i cooled and the fate of those who were there in the cellar. in essence the entire character of the four press. this is a monument to the victims of the wars of the first day known as building houses

a museum. at its center a famous exhibit and a learn clock let's talk kicking as soon as the war began. another exhibit is dedicated to the children of red army commanders who fought in the fortress and many of them were murdered by s.s. task forces in one thousand nine hundred eighty two a year after german troops attacked the soviet union. forces took total one else in one thousand nine hundred forty two the fascists massacred fifty four children at an orphanage they have breast and their parents had already died in the war. that my friends on the command that was the children's teacher she and the children the first out of the orphanage and skill to 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 ambrosia 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 float reads 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. six.

six. six six. two fish and cluster in the center of siberia one city has a revolutionary ideas for the automotive industry pure gold and it is that some of the infection straight out of the software to make the most free and the building blocks from russia's first nationwide four g. network homeschooling top the functionality of six. please the future coverage. june twenty 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. there was a hospital for the wounded here. the makeshift mortuary was over there at the end of the chorus or 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 began to melt. the fighters continued their resistance as they shifted from one place to another. and this is how 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 none of them get back. to their way this russian surrender the german shelden through loudspeaker your no that will let you live be afraid they say it. with some of the spot of the loudspeaker they hit it with a burst of machine gun fire this morning that was the end of the propaganda that's typical of. a shortage of water was the biggest problem the defenders faced and western move 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. to reach the western we were sometimes crawling sometimes running some filled flasks with. a mess tunes or helmets then riddled by trying to make no noise we had to do with the germans

foreign affairs old time they certainly would have opened fire if they spotted else . 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. careful slowly slowly don't turn it over and most of the 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. build in the nineteenth century the brest fortress was long considered impenetrable they outer walls were two meters thick. in the twentieth century it was in effect

a death trap for the seven thousand strong soviet garrison. from the start of the war all 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 parisian barbarossa the german plan to seize soviet territory was ready in december nineteen forty but most of the soviet leaders as soon as hitler would target britain first before unleashing any attack on the soviet. one but a. stalin was already aware of the plan by february not in forty one the problem was that the germans regularly postponed the invasion initially was i proved in my fifteen meanwhile stalin was desperately trying to delay it war until

autumn with. breast fortress where the first assault was launched actually consisted of several forts situated on islands around the main fortification in the the eastern seaboard offered the most stubborn resistance. most of the fortress defenders still expected reinforcements down 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 now and untermensch a second person. that. even public tell this in hospitals could not be used by everybody johns had decent food the obvious we're not so lucky. to see if they don't name every way you could see a sign saying. it's only oh i entreat for no answer 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 forcible russia they form groups of guerrilla warfare. because love learn new skills those a machine gun here in the forest dugouts in june one nine hundred forty one the kind of. children women were hiding in there and if all of us lived here and all of us were helping each other. the partisans stayed in the forests for about three years and the day 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 frontline.

exposes were placed under this truck so that nobody could see them and. the germans sent reconnaissance parties to check the tracks but that didn't help a lot of scouts and a little as the train came closer we singled out the wagon carrying military equipment to be blown up. quick and the wagon was no more. this image tracer soldiers of the german forty fifth division appeared soon after the assault on the fortress and takeover of the town of brest german troops had already swept across poland france and much of europe but in storming the russia they encountered the most ferocious resistance to date. and. the best bit solace that all weapons were the best in the world's alex. we were the strongest anyone invest and we believed it i. mostly because of our successes in western europe like the operation in france but it was far from the truth and fell.

these for so with memorials commemorate fighters whose bodies have been recovered by search parties since the war 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 what with their also good. many of our fights is particularly the partisans died in this home but i just movies you would see you could see the dead lying in groups of ten or child they never made it out of the forest. then a group of volunteers sets out on an expedition and they comb the site a meter after meter. weapons and other objects made of metal keep fairly well underground. this is a soviet helmet it was a direct hit. you can see where the shot entered and exited.

the returns to base the objects are carefully examined the latest expedition has turned up in spawns a flask and metals. but the searchers regard so-called medallions as the most valuable find. 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. or it just so happens that we're from the same place as the dead soldier we're going to look for his relatives and now one more fallen soldier has a name. if papers identifying the dead are found they're sent to officials at state archive each year adds more names to the list of breast fortress defenders. this is the

personal record of one of the fighters stip armstrong he's lofsky his identity was verified just a few years ago. now his name is inscribed on a memorial wall in the central alley of breast fortress it has replaced another plate saying unknown soldier study sloughs his niece is his only surviving relative just recently did she learn of her uncle's fate. then yes next thing that people want to see the grief of somebody they loved least flower whisenant and think about that person there is nothing more painful than the witnessing 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 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 mobile and i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered of their own accord in the way all of those captured were in the tables in the room with their list or were unable to use their weapons. but nobody raised their hands before to the death to the last man they were. 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 present. security precautions were put in place. on the eve of the top level visit to german soldiers patrolling an area near the fortress and disappear. for hitler and mussolini entered the fortress through

a bridge that used to be right here where hitler saw here is known to have made a strong impression on him and 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 e. of the third reich. at church in brest fortress. there are traces of shells on the walls and inside the dome. it was from here that the defenders of brest 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 always to forget the past it must not be forgotten. but we might forgive. children now play and rest 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 fashions troops could make of it his comrades lived to see that victory in one thousand nine hundred five nearly four years after those tragic events and rest fortress.

they faced this is not a provocation but warm. forces should just everybody is sure to support the trees because they have no idea about the hardships to face. they want to use this is it of them to do this and bring in the army the life of abusing.