it's two thirty here in moscow you're watching our t.v. is a recap of the headlines turkey's threatens decisive action after admitting one of its warplanes was shot down by air defenses while supposedly flying on a stealth mission over the syrian coast. a tough choice for ecuador which says it wants a lot of political has accused an all bent under pressure and its decision over the requests from the world's top whistleblower julian assange for size. and egypt the muslim brotherhood a brain that tens of thousands are due to the square demanding the delayed presidential run of results now while protesting against the ruling the military's hold on power gen the blame islam is for inciting and rest. up next

a special report about the breast of fortress in belo rousseau which became the side of the first and some of the most bitter fighting jew in the one nine hundred forty one nazi invasion of the soviet union stay tuned for that. brest fortress today it's on the territory of the sovereign republic of bella roups formerly the soviet republic of belarus a fortress was once the westernmost outpost of the soviet empire each day school children 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 rest. shows what he look like me at the even today i guess nervous when i come here

what's family if i see those events in my mind's eye as if they were yesterday. today children play war in the old case mates but in the first days of the real war the unit under the command of luggage. 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. over the roof suddenly there was a noise it seemed that fonda had caught him he had jumped on to the railings and plunged into the river by the germans began firing asked him besant death in captivity he shouted those were the last words he addressed to his soldier. 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. 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 and riddled the barracks walls. i remember dust all over the place. where. i could barely breathe i wrapped myself up in

a blankets. then i heard an order your rifles and get downstairs. now i barely had time to pull all my clothes before rushing downstairs with my platoon where. only a few hours later the german plan to move through bella russian territory had. every we covered from the initial shock to soviet soldiers remaining in the garrison offered stubborn resistance despite being numbered nearly two to one by their attackers. but one of our rifle regiments counterattacked the germans faltered and tried to roll back to the gates but they were met with a shower of bullets there too. money of the fastest started there. at the beginning 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. huge fourth terrifying wave of german artillery move 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 belarus and poem follows the same line along which soviet fund 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 hand 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 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. the news.

vladimir. i have something terrible to tell you. chance 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 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 one nine hundred thirty nine german troops invaded poland. this is german commander hines good video on his tanks capture 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 europe the german military hands breast over to soviet troops in less than two years time. well again launch an assault on breast fortress fighting against the same troops also 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 ain't to communicate between the time next 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 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 at 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 magazine at the start of the war he was wounded and lost his entire family here. at all since an arrest the gravity of the

situation but didn't. who. was standing in the. news that's when we got scared over blue. and when i saw my mother and sister killed while sitting right here. i took myself away as far as i cood on the feet of those who were there in the cellar with. 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 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

a year after german troops attacked the soviet union. forces total in the autumn of one thousand forty two the fascists massacred fifty four children at an orphanage in the abreast their parents had already died in the war. while her french army commander was the children's teacher was she and the children the forced out of the orphanage and kilt all of them just in the. 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 guard soldiers flowed rees 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. war lords walk into notes we have a lot of groups of the causes of the food says all five views in the writing of god's plan that it was like many at that age that was of course with mattie when i was. here can liberate there when a certainly can't do. through the barrel of a gun effective social changes can be the afghans the. afghan men and women we believe are going to stand up to it across. without a sufficient it's a push up and actually stop people in the obama administration talking about how

much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan.

the second midday 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 sellers was direct hits in the aerial bombardment. improve your mood there was a hospital for the wounded here consume of blood while the makeshift mortuary was over there at the end of the corners 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. thinking 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 the german war

correspondents pro-trade the event but cameraman were unable to film an emerging from sellers with their hands raised as a sign of surrender none of them did that. russian surrender german shouted through a loudspeaker. 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 if. that was the end of the propaganda that's a pretty good at. 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 another fighters managed to reach the river several times under the cover of darkness. to reach the western boob we were sometimes crawling

sometimes running some filled flasks with water used our mess tins our helmets then we would go back to trying to make no noise we had to do it on to a the germans fired flares all the time they certainly would have opened fire if they'd 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 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. in the nineteenth century the

brest 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. from the start of the war 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. operation barbarossa the german plan to seize soviet territory was ready in december nineteen fourteen but most of the soviet leaders as soon that hitler would target britain first before unleashing any attack on the soviet union. but a. stalin was already aware of the plan by february not in forty one but the

problem was that the germans regularly postpone the invasion and initially it was i proven my fifteen min while stalin was desperately trying to delay war until autumn with the. present fortress where the first assault was launched actually consisted of several forts situated on islands around the main fortification in the center of 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. a second rate person there's a toilet that we're in this even public tell this in hospitals could not be used but everybody johns had decent food the others were not so lucky the germans felt

they were muftis of the domain everywhere you could see signs saying no germans only oh i intreat felt both no and trying to. already during the first days of the war many people in breast and its environs started sneaking out of town. in the force of belorussia they formed groups of guerrilla warfare by cd because love learn new skills those of a machine gun are here in the forest dugouts in june one thousand nine hundred one could have. children and 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 force for about three years in the daytime 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 in trouble but all 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 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 cohen. we were the strongest anyway invest and we believed it funk i. loosely because of our successes in

western europe and 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. when there are also protests on many of our fighters particularly the partisans died in this home but i'm just looking through the woods you can 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 keep fairly well underground.

this is a soviet helmet it was a direct hit. you can see where the shot entered and exited. when the search party returns to base the objects are carefully examined the latest expedition has turned up. a flask and medals. but the searchers regard so-called medallions as the most valuable. 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 too and it just so happens that we're from the same places the dead soldier we're 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 as more names to the list of breast fortress defenders. this is the personal record of one of the fighters stip lofsky 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 sick 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 wit missing so when my uncle's name was finally written on the memorial plate it was a very touching moment for my family as 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 my. i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered in their own accord in the way all of those captured were ended people then just because there were unable to use their weapons. but nobody raised their hands before to the death to the last man there were of course. 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. that 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 where hitler saw here is known to have made a strong impression on him before he even took a stone lying amongst the ruins with him. after the fall of berlin the stone was found in hitler's office at the chancellor e. of the third reich. 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 that we should forget the past it must not be forgotten. but we might forgive.

children our play and 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 and the ultimate victory over fascist troops. could make of it his comrades live to see that victory in one thousand nine hundred five nearly four years after those tragic events and rest fortress.

the ability to be. eager to feed. the. elite. says.