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next a special report about the breast fortress in belarus 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 coming up next year on r t h e to. brest fortress today it's on the territory of the sovereign republic of belarus formerly the soviet republic of belarus the 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 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 dr 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 well it's fairly 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 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. over the roof suddenly there was a noise it seemed that the father had caught him because he had jumped on to the ratings and plunged into the river by the germans began firing i asked him that's a death in captivity he shouted those were the last words he addressed to his soldiers. in accordance with their plan to attack the soviet union the germans had amassed three armies close to the border among these army groups center was the most powerful its mission was to encircle and destroy soviet troops and other russia 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 thousand forty one sound 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 dust all over the place. where. i could barely breathe i wrapped myself up in

a blankets were both almost blew through and i heard an order from your rifles and get downstairs. now 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 the soviet soldiers remaining in the garrison offered stubborn resistance despite being number nearly two to one by their attackers. and one of our rifle regiments counterattacks the germans faltered and tried to roll back to the gates but they were met with a shower of bullets there are too. many of the fastest started there. at the beginning of the huns edmund shown 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. it's a huge force terrifying wave of german artillery moved from its. into russian territory and when they were done we knew we had to go in. another 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 front here 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 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 motto 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 goody on well again launch an assault on breast fortress fighting against the same troops salutes in the interim dispenser units will have gained valuable experience in successful offensive operations in europe. and be. assured 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 by nancy hughes 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 be pieces. can you imagine for a five guns firing it's a time you can shatter your brain. my son slava had one of his its 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 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 children didn't. who. was standing in this new huge. that's when we got scared over blue. and when i saw my mother and sister killed while i was 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 the fortress. this is a monument to the victims of the wars of first days numbers building houses a museum. at a 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 of total in the

awesome of nine hundred forty two the fascists massacred fifty four children at an orphanage me abreast their parents had already died in the war palin and her whole scare while her french army commander was the children's teacher was she and the children the forced out of the orphanage and killed all of them as 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. they've been living this way since the seventeenth century. their rituals are strict. their communities are isolated. they clearly distinguish between their role and the alien. and guard their family and thing as a treasure. june

twenty 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 that build back in the nineteenth century the cellars was still a direct hits in the aerial bombardment. in for the year there was a hospital for the wounded here but while the makeshift mortuary was over there at the end of the chorus or 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. doesn't apply will secure beach. 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 and emerging from cellars with their hands raised as a sign of surrender none of them did that. this russian surrender german shouted through a loudspeaker. we know they will let you live don't be afraid they said. when some of the spotted the loudspeaker they hit it with a burst of machine gun fire if. 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 have another fighters managed to reach the river several times under the cover of darkness. well here both to reach the western boob we were sometimes crawling sometimes running some filled flasks with water use their mess tins or helmets then

we would go back to trying to make no noise we had to do without way the germans fired flares all the time they certainly would have opened fire if they'd spotted else. no days mining engineers still look for wartime ammunition in the western but . 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. careful slowly slowly but 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. in the nineteenth century 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. 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 nineteenth forty but most of the soviet leaders as soon as 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 before the problem was that the germans regularly postpone the. initially it was i proven my

fifteen min while stalin was desperately trying to delay war until autumn with the . breast 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 not. a second rate person there's a toilet that we live by jail in this even public tell this in hospitals could not be used but everybody johns had decent food the obvious were not so lucky the germans felt they were of the domain everywhere you could see signs saying. germans

only oh i. know an attorney is 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 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 well 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 front line.

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 wagon carrying military equipment to be blown up. quick and the wagon was no more. this imagery for soldiers of the german forty fifth division at 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 solace that all weapons were the best in the world's alex. we were the strongest anyway invest and we believed it. loosely because of all 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 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 keep fairly well underground.

this is a soviet helmet it was a direct hit. you can see where the shot entered and exited. 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 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 a 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. and yes in that sick that's what 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 way it 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 months 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 farewell motherland i'm dying but i'm not surrendering. nobody surrendered to their own a code in the way all of those captured wounded people. just because there were unable to use their weapons. but nobody raised their hands before to the death to the last minute there 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 unpresidential defenders. 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. for fear of 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 but 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. church in breast fortress. there are traces of shells on the walls and inside the dome. 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 past it must not be forgotten. but 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 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.

why russia would be soo much brighter if you knew all about sun from funds to impressions.