dot com and still to come here on r t a look at the first major battle between the soviet union and nazi germany at the fortress of prettiest that's after a recap of the week's top stories in just a few minutes. we

are highlighting the week's top stories here with the weekly on odds here and a forty seven people are now confirmed dead after monday's passenger plane crash in northwest two more survivors of the disaster died in hospitals on sunday investigators say they found no suggestion of mechanical failure but plan to study the flight recorders more closely. there are reports of mounting civilian deaths across libya with nato accused of hitting another non military target and in rebel held benghazi some say they're being forced to flee because of their support for colonel gadhafi. and the skeptics in brussels the 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 a more. pathans. park my colleague

a builder is here and time but for now we explore the past and the present of the place where one of the most bitter battle of the second world war took place but he asked fortress to stay with us. breast fortress today it's on the territory of the sovereign republic of belarus formerly the soviet republic of belarus a fortress was once the westernmost 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 thousand nine hundred forty one german fascist 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 the 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 some ultimately dropped hundreds of bombs on the fortress soon after infantry assault groups launched the initial ground attack. is one of the officers in charge of the fortress defenses. is dodger i.e.c. often visits the monument to her father on the outskirts of arrest. this picture shows what he looks like me at the even today i guess nervous when i

come here what's failing 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. 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 onto the ratings and plunged into the river by the germans began firing i asked him as a death 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 of 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 of breast fortress. within minutes of the attack bullets and shells fragments had riddled the barracks wall. 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 bella russian territory had stalled. every week covered from the initial shock as soldiers remaining in the garrison offered stubborn resistance despite being numbered nearly two to one by their attackers. one of our rifle regiments counterattacks the german. one tried to roll back through the gates. they were met with a shower of bullets there too. money of the fastest started there. 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 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 them follows the same line along which. 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. 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.

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 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 motive and ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact. in september one nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded poland. this is german commander 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. ashore and we have the modern technology 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. and then the leisure. they told us women and children to lie down on the bridge close to want to do a piece is. can you imagine full of 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 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 but didn't. who. was standing in. with that's when we got scared over who. and when i was so my mother and sister killed while sitting right here. i took myself away as far as i cooled and the fate 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 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 older financially abreast 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. 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 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. move. to a. continuation cluster in the center of siberia one city has revolutionary

ideas for the automotive industry your expenditures then some of the infection straight out of you software to make the screen and the building blocks for russia's first nationwide four g. network tomes going top functionality optics please note the future covered. 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. 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 none of them did that. there were a russian surrender the german shouted through a loud speaker. know that we'll let you live don't be afraid they say it. was some of the spot of the loudspeaker that they hit it with a burst of machine gun fire. that was the end of the propaganda.

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 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. a mess to 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 look 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 so 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. the breast 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 plan to seize soviet territory. but most of the soviet leaders. would target britain first before unleashing any attack 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. 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 person. that. even public to listen hospitals could not be used by everybody johns had decent food 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 forests they formed 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 three. 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 a lot of scouts 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. this imagery for soldiers of the german forty fifth division. 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. solace that all weapons were the best in the world's alex. 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 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. it just so happens they 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. each year adds more names to the list of breast fortress defenders. this is the personal record of one of the fighters stip. 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. is 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 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. i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered of their own accord in the way all of those captured wounded people. 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 unprocessed. security precautions were put in place. on the eve of the top level visit to german soldiers patrolling an area near the fortress disappear. 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 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 part 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 troops. comrades lived to see that victory in one thousand nine hundred five nearly four years after those tragic events and rest fortress. it.