The Final Battles of World War II | Countdown to Surrender – The Last 100 Days | Ep. 2

1945 war comes to Germany the the total war Strikes Back at the Germans in all its drama to reach its climax on German soil 100 days of death and Terror there were moments of course before the Allies had crossed the Iraq there were fears that the war could even go on into 946 the Allies conquer the Third Reich for for many these 100 days were simply a struggle for life or death survival or destruction one can only imagine the horror of these final days for Hitler it was clear that he would kill himself the only question was when Hitler's end in the bunker the downfall the last 100 days was certainly the most terrible in the entire War for Germany and the German people the German capitulate unconditionally March 6th 1945 still 63 days before War's end in the morning cologne awakens to the certainty that this is the day the cathedral city will be occupied by American forces over the past few days the 104th us Infantry Division had fought its way into the city center the majority of the civilian population has been evacuated individual German soldiers surrender it is unclear how many Defenders have entrenched themselves in the city center the Americans are faced with heavy losses in houset toh house combat the verak still holds large parts of the Reich but the Allies are on the advance in the East the Red Army is at the river Oda in the West Cologne is the next Target protected by their tanks the gis approach The Old City on 6th March the New York Times warns of scenes like Stalingrad lurking snipers and verar units entrenched in Alleyways wherever there is resistance the way is cleared at the Cathedral a German tank stands in The American's way cologne is certainly symbolic of a turning point getting so close to the r as one of Germany's major cities the largest city in the West Cologne is the symbol that ultimately the Allies cannot be stopped yes if they cannot defend cologne what can be defended at all it's all about propaganda about symbols about created images of war and here of course the Allies can promote the conquest of cologne as a huge victory in saying even cologne has fallen in fact there's very little gunfire at 5:00 p.m. time the battle for cologne is over the high command of the vermar almost laconically reports the ruins of cologne were left to the enemy as propaganda Minister ysf Gobles indignantly writs in his journal that cologne capitulated in an hour is downright shameful us paramedics attend to an injured woman who got caught between the lines others are less fortunate old men consisting of nothing but skin and bone cripples with glass eyes and wooden legs the US Secret Service describes Hitler's last stand in Cologne March 8th 1945 still 61 days before War's end REM margan 50 km south of cologne stand the RS of a Railway Bridge that once spanned the Rind the day before the Americans took the ludendorf bridge German explosives had only damaged but not demolished it so the gis were able to cross the Rind for the first time within 24 hours 8,000 US troops form a bridge head on the right Bank of the rind Hitler has great hopes of holding the r line which is once again a great symbol the r Germany's Great River of Destiny must be held yet it is a very real obstacle it's not for nothing that the Allies prepare for the crossing most carefully and they are fearful who knows if we will do it at all and at what cost and all bridges are blown up except the Railway Bridge at ragen March 8th a US camera team is on site since missing the historic cross of the r they simply reenacted for the domestic Cinema [Music] audience a milestone on the road to Victory the effect was funny enough not so much in the west the real effect was in the East I.E on Stalin because what we see is the crossing taking place on the 7th the capture of the bridge the very next morning zukov is ordered straight back to Moscow to start planning the Berlin operation and this is absolutely key because the moment Stalin realizes that the Americans are across the line they might Advance very rapidly indeed and for him the vital thing is to take Berlin before the Americans as Marshal of the Soviet Union Gori zukov is largely responsible for the Red Army advance in the East he is regarded as a capable commander on this 8th March 1945 Stalin immediately demands plans for the Battle of Berlin thus for Zuko's troops the conquest of the Reich capital is the major goal a military Convoy has meanwhile arrived in Remagen as the lendorf bridge is considered unstable many GIS are to be brought to the other side of the Rind as quickly as possible in Berlin the news from Remagen is received with dismay [Music] Hitler is enraged and reacts like he always does immediately ordering those allegedly responsible to be shot Hitler finds himself between a rock and a hard place realizing that the war is lost yet hoping he will somehow manage it in the end hoping for a miracle and Hitler oscillates back and forth the news from raran is of course another blow to his hopes that he might after all somehow engender an end to the war according to the mood report of the verar propaganda the fall of ring Mar was much discussed and linked to sabotage the opinion among the broader population was that it's like the first world war in reverse the Homeland was being held under harsh conditions while the front line was weakening west of the rine US troops encounter Little Resistance from the populace in mechan a small community in the Eiffel region people take note of the invasion even the German Defenders are no longer prepared to sacrifice themselves for fura folk and Fatherland in some places soldiers still determined to fight are berated as war prol longers no one knew what would happen when the occupying forces came and the fear was accordingly great what will they do with us now how will they deal with us of course there were also stories from already occupied regions and the propaganda did the rest by ex aipa the whole thing and that's why the liberators were not necessarily perceived as liberators on the contrary most people were very concerned hes AR the Nazi propaganda is now showing footage from Berlin where people are erecting barricades the mood has hardly changed it is impossible to assess the true situation or that of the enemy and how everything will turn out it is hard to believe in a good end to the war on the other hand one could not completely give up hope the best thing was not to think and speculate but do one's duty and wait and see what happens despite constant fear of Insidious bomb attacks the German people continue to do their Duty supplies are constantly rolling into the battle zones of the Eastern front where German troops are confronted by an enemy housed in their own towns and Villages and acting with a brutality unlike anything in the history of mankind a look at the propaganda of the times portrays the Soviets as beasts that would descend upon the German people ensure everything was destroyed and of course that was their greatest fear fear played a huge role especially in the East where there was massive resistance in the East the Red Army stands along a broad front on the odor but near gitz the small town of laan has been retaken by the verar 8th March 1945 61 days before the surrender prominent visitors from Berlin come to the Oda ysep Gobles wants to see the situation for himself in his journal he writes the officers accompanying me report on the fighting morale of the enemy it is not especially high they always take the position that if you hit them hard they'll soon have to [Music] run battle continues on all fronts its symbol is German man fa facing his enemies with a strength and determination unparalleled in [Music] history bearing in mind what the Nazis did in the territories of the Soviet Union and Poland the soldiers know that great punishment and retribution is coming the Nazi regime is also operating with this fear goas especially if you don't fight to the last man your women will be raped and you will be massacred and sent Siberia in these places retaken by German troops every house is marked by the cruelties of the bolik sesca the bestial are too monstrous to show all that the camera captured these are some of the victims of those accursed murderous beasts in insatiable greed the Soviet salesa swept and plundered their homes fear of the Soviet invasion was great for years this was also fermented by the propaganda in hopes of maintaining the will to fight Nazi propaganda repeatedly stressed that when the Soviet Army comes it will be brutal also already anticipating the extent of sexual violence and repeatedly painting a scenario of Horror [Music] terror is still etched in the faces of these German women they tell of the days of nameless horror defenseless and at the mercy of the brutish [Music] hordes one cannot speak of soldiers and offices in this sense only of brutish hordes who raped all women from the age of 13 to 68 and German citizens here too yes oh yes not even my 60-year-old mother was spared she was also brutally raped for the first time one can say that this kind of propaganda began to be contagious for now it's all or nothing and it's paradoxical that only at the end of the war does the propaganda suddenly take effect everyone knows that we got ourselves into this mess it's going wrong and now we all have to go down with a sinking ship and there's no choice but to defend ourselves the rare successes of the vermar are still exploited by the Nazi propaganda as in laan on the market square Geral praises the troops who have recaptured the city among them is 16-year-old vly hubner but joy at the counter offensive will be shortlived we know from the soldiers he talked to in laan off camera that he said well men the situation is clear but you're an elite division so you have to fight for the system to The Bitter End Hitler's ideology Hitler's conviction to never stop never surrender to perish if necessary he lived it in the afternoon of 8th March 1945 the propaganda Minister stages his last grand performance in the theater of the nearby city of guret YF G is in top [Applause] [Music] form for he has a stage they let him and he uses it he sees his role as minister of propaganda and just won't stop then I must call on the people to fight to their dying breath and that's what he does here we see glorious pure gbls in all his power and conviction in his role as minister of propaganda and he must have found it hugely satisfying to again have the opportunity to make such [Applause] [Applause] [Music] speeches [Music] [Music] [Applause] for when footage from guret and laan is shown in one of the last news reels however the audience reaction is somewhat other than desired certain movie theaters are now showing the news reel of Minister Dr gers speaking after the liberation of laan his Talk of the coming offensive which is to liberate the occupied territories within days or weeks is met with laughter and derision March 19th 1945 still 50 days before War's end the bridge at Remagen has meanwhile collapsed as a result of repeated German Air Raids a US Pioneer unit had still vainly tried to salvage the unstable structure Hitler's order to smash the American Bridge head on the right Bank of the rine remains ineffective instead American units are advancing to the south in rin brw a fanatical first leftenant categorically refuses to capitulate and continues to offer resistance at 3:00 on this March 19th 1945 GIS invade the village the villagers stayed in their cellers for days waiting for the fighting to end any choosing to wave the White Flag too soon was threatened with death by the soldiers these Germans too face an uncertain future you lived for many years in a dictatorship in a state that told you what to do and not to do and suddenly everything's totally different and you're on your own the state is no longer leading you by the hand so to speak in both a positive and negative sense and for many that was a dead most people were not very enthusiastic perhaps they were just relieved that the war was over as a German soldier writes to his family this war will not foreseeably end with a truce but only when the resistance of the last division in the last corner of the r is broken while us armies are advancing along the rine and south of the Eiffel British and Canadian troops have been through some heavy combat in the RV now they are pushing forward on a broad front to the lower R this is where British Field Marshal Bernard El Montgomery wants to cross the r his American partner General George S Patton is opposed for him it is out of the question for the Americans to end up second in this decisive operation he urges Eisenhower's Chief strategist Omar Bradley to take action Patton was definitely unconventional not a military leader in the usual sense well behaved always choosing the right words but the exact opposite he used very foul language an exentric who banged the table who did Unthinkable things but he was a good soldier someone who could lead his troops very competently Patton was brilliant in certain cases but also could be disastrous in others he was a mixture of uh foul M but God-fearing uh man um he was somebody who should perhaps um never have been let out except in uh wartime he was uh somebody who certainly the German generals feared more than any other Allied Commander The Eccentric star general has an aversion to long planned offensives one must adapt to the circumstances Patton believes and immediately take every opportunity to surprise the enemy his soldiers both adore him and fear Him P Patton was also an absolute expert when it came to tank warfare and assured very rapid advances and that's why he was always relied upon no matter what he did he even once praised the SS by saying well somehow they are very disciplined sons of I think that was the quote they know how to fight he got away with such things and was repeatedly deployed because he made sure that the Allies could quickly Advance into German [Music] territory in only 8 Days us General George S Patton drives the German Army Group G out of saand and the palatinate and is advancing towards the the rine on this 19th March 1945 50 days before the German surrender US soldiers are close to kants worms and bad durheim this is a big show pattern writes in his journal at 2:30 p.m. he gets permission to cross the Rind the Americans encounter Little Resistance in many places some people even welcome the enemy troops German soldiers Surrender by the thousands their commanderin-chief is beside himself Hitler assumes that if we lose the war we must all at least perish and he stages so to speak he choreographs the downfall in propaganda in his orders his radical orders which do not hold back from destroying the livelihoods of the German people he's not interested in stopping at any point and saying saying well somehow we'll come to an agreement and this includes his so-called Nero decree of March 19th 1945 in which he orders that scorched Earth should ultimately be carried out on German soil as well the so-called furus decree States all military traffic Communications industrial and Supply facilities as well as all material assets within the r which the enemy can somehow use to continue his fight immediately or in the foreseeable future are to be destroyed Hitler issued the so-called neuro decree because he said if we have to surrender territory now we might as well leave the enemy devastated territory so that he can no longer use it and that means that everything somehow useful must be flattened destroyed had that really occurred Germany would have been catapulted back into the Middle Ages and the destruction would have been far greater than was actually the case the order is contested Armament Minister Albert Shier will later report that in a private conversation Hitler explained that as a result of selection by the war the German people consisted only of the mediocre who had shown themselves to be inferior to the stronger people of the East at some point in the winter of 40 4 45 a change comes over Albert where he realizes we won't win the war anymore so we might as well do a bit of preparation for the new times ahead he travels to the front he also talks to industrialists and they all agree which spare concedes that the Nero decree will not be implemented in March 1945 as planned although some paralysis here and there is likely some things will get blown up there will be no scorched Earth where everything gets blown to bits by the end of March after two Fierce arguments Shier is able to convince the dictator to essentially mitigate his Nero decree and the minister of armaments pulls off an added coup when he has given sole responsibility for implementing the measures March 20th 1945 still 49 days before War's end that afternoon in the garden of the Berlin Reich chancell Adolf Hitler makes his last appearance for the Nazi propaganda the scenes are shown a few days later in the German weekly news reel Hitler is rapidly deteriorating physically watching these final scenes of him awarding the Iron Cross to these very young soldiers these Hitler youths you don't think you're seeing a 56y old man but someone very much older under the burden of War certainly the psychological burden as well Hitler's health is deteriorating and here he is once again presenting the yunga or young God who fights for the regime who is decorated the Hitler Youth who then distinguish themselves in the battle for Silesia and Elsewhere on the odor front and so on in order to give fresh hope to a Yung guarder who fight in the People's Army and other units after the dictator has disappeared off stage the youngsters are introduced as the Russians Advanced closer to laan I volunteered as a messenger for the Combat Commander of laan my mission was to bring reports to the individual company command posts added to that I often brought Bazookas and rations to the main battle line I brought the Bazookas in hand carts or barrows into the hkl under enemy fire 12-year-old Alfred chesh is hailed in the official Nazi newspaper valker Bak as a role model for the battling youth in the struggle to be or not to be March 23rd 1945 still 46 days before War's end nearin on the Rind from where the Americans are planning to cross the river at [Music] night but on his own authority General Patton has brought the operation forward by 24 hours on the morning of March 23rd 1945 everything is decided in nin supplies roll through the city cam teams of the US Signal Corps record the world historical event the largest amphibious Landing operations since D-Day Patton thus steals the show from his British allies who are preparing to cross the River on the lower rine the Allies stand in a broad front of the rine while Montgomery and his armies are close to vessel still waiting for the order to attack the Americans have formed a bridge head at nearin the few German def Defenders on the Eastern Bank of the Ry surrender without resistance on this March 23rd 1945 an excited pattern calls General Omar Bradley Brad for God's sake tell everybody we made it over tell the world that the third Army did it before Monty even began the crossing it's Patton's Triumph and he wants to celebrate it properly Patton would like to take every opportunity of demonstrating should we say a fairly popular or often even vulgar contempt uh for the enemy he would certainly have done that if it was a question of that the Soviets were on the other side because uh he certainly uh hated the Soviets just as much as he hated the Nazis farther south the next day in oppenheim patteron crosses the rain in a jeep he stops in the middle of the Pontoon bridge and pisses into Germany's iconic River I took a piss in the Rind he wrote succinctly in his notes I've waited a long time for this he allegedly said later to American reporters I deliberately didn't piss this morning so that I had the full load March 25th 1945 still 44 days before War's end the Royal Air Force B German positions and traffic routes on the lower rine in order to block The Retreat into the ru area the few who won the Battle of Britain have today become the many for the Battle of Germany just 24 hours after the start of operation plunder the British control a bridge head about 10 km wide on the other side of the rind the British commanders had meticulously prepared the gigantic maneuver in the War Room of the war cabinet in London prime minister Winston Churchill however is unaware that the Americans are thwarting his plans he believes that the Allies under British leadership will conquer the rural area from the lower rine the Prime Minister travels to the headquarters of field Marshal Montgomery to attend the spectacle in person Winston Churchill crosses the rine on this 25th of March 1945 although he now knows that Patton stole his Thunder he puts a good face on the matter Church wanted to be there he wanted to be seen but also it was a way of him demonstrating that Britain was a key player amongst the big three and that he himself played a leading role that's why he crossed the r with Montgomery against the orders of Eisenhower Eisenhower would not want to have exposed the British prime minister to any kind of danger with the Prime Minister making another crossing of the r the advancing armies roll on into the Reich with Relentless speed as Germany's Doom approaches the soldiers of the Allied armies pay tribute to Britain's man of Destiny whose courage and steadfastness in the dark years will be remembered in the hour of Victory Churchill is said to have repeatedly shouted now we have them now they're finished at the same time US units are advancing on the right Bank of the Ry to cover their Retreat the German defense has Set Fire to the fields and woods but scorched Earth cannot stop the superiority of the gis they have an easy time of it with the Germans for the Americans the the battle is long over conscious of Victory they smirk the British would have used cannons to crack a walnut the Advance on the ru area offers the opportunity for more propaganda campaigns for the camera a US grenade is specially dedicated to the cannon king of Essen for hair crop within a week the Allies will have cut off all supply lines in the rur area 25th of March 1945 the Nazi gaigher has bills posted in Essen we will crush the enemy again with brutal force women and children are no longer allowed in this combat zone food housing bread milk water light Etc will all be cut off there will no longer be any means of survival total evacuation is therefore imperative the US Air Force clears the way for the advancing front the gis are to encounter as Little Resistance as possible as they advance in order to keep losses to a minimum the plan pays off 25th March 1945 44 days before the end of the war a 23-year-old woman in a small village in the Vestal region writes in her diary suddenly somebody shouts the Americans are coming you can no longer think you can only say with schilla everything is running rescuing Taking Flight a sad picture unfolds before our eyes behind the village is this our proud German verar ever more German soldiers lay down their weapons many villages and towns are surrendered without a fight General Patton writes to his wife it seems to me the war is over in Cologne a camera team from the US Air Force captures scenes of citizens who have returned to the cathedral City we're only allowed to show ourselves on the street during the day no civilian may be seen on the street after 700 p.m. it's teeming with regulations and [Music] directives this time we are to be thoroughly exorcised from militarism and national socialism not one iota of what our world has been until now is permitted to stand April 1st 1945 still 37 days before War's end the relationship between the British and the Americans remains tense the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces General isenhower plans to direct the US Army primarily towards Central and Southern Germany Montgomery is to advance with his troops towards Hamburg and Denmark Winston Churchill is appalled Churchill wanted to advance as far to the east as possible to keep pressure on the Soviets and when he found that in fact Eisenhower was in direct contact with the Russians without informing the British and this was a um famous and notorious uh communication which was sent at the end of March basically outlining what his plan was going to be and he told the Russians even before he told the British uh what he was planning to do and this caused caused um very serious concerns in British circles not surprisingly Churchill does not think much of Us Secret Service reports claiming that Hitler plans to continue the fight from an Alpine Fortress but Eisenhower has already notified Stalin by telegram that he has no interest in conquering Berlin Stalin replies when he hears that Eisenhower is much more interested he thinks that Berlin's got no further strategic value and that Eisenhower is much more interested in meeting up to the middle of Germany and also to the South where he thinks there is going to be an alpen feston Stalin encourages this idea and in his reply on the 1st of April he says basically oh I'm only going to send reconnaissance forces against Berlin and that went happen take place until May uh but it's quite right we should meet up uh further to the South it was the biggest April Fool in I think probably in history the British must yield on April 1st 1945 the war cabinet approves Eisenhower's plan as far as Churchill is concerned the West is thereby leaving all of Central and Eastern Europe to Stalin but from his point of view there is actually one good thing about the decision it is clear to all that the conquest of Berlin would only come at Great sacrifice neither the Americans nor ultimately the British want that we want to crush Germany we want to defeat Germany and as soon as possible with the fewest possible casualties then it might be more sensible to prevent a big final battle in the Alps which would again claim more victims but to quickly crush the retreating Germans rather than fight a battle in the ruins of Berlin which makes no military sense anyway and would only cost thousands more British and American lives to quote a situation report of April 1st 1945 by the Allied High command the enemy faces a situation in the west that is beyond his control it is pointless to prolong operations Hitler is defeated however like all other napoleons he will not leave without fighting to his last breath it only remains to be seen how long this breath will last or if the Germans are prepared to join in [Music] on this 1st April 1945 37 days before the German surrender The Siege ring is closed US troops have conquered Frankfurt and mine and are advancing towards the HS Mountains and thuringia the Americans are concerned that German partisan units are forming behind the front hate is the prayer Revenge the war cry with this slogan the radio station verwolf appeals to the German people on April 1st 1945 this is werewolf station speaking the station of the German Freedom Movement in the enemy occupied territories we werewolves will give everything for our people and if we have nothing to give but our lives then we will die for our people the vves Clare that enemy soldiers and German collaborators are to be hunted down everywhere in the occupied territories the idea was that this would be a Guerilla campaign fored behind uh the lines of the advancing enemies to disrupt supply lines Etc as so often with the uh Germans in those period they're very good on the symbols they even have a flag and and and a radio transmitter and so on on but the reality was actually quite different I mean there were about 200 Hitler Youth uh members who had trained up to become members of this organization but nothing much really happens werewolf is something to be feared especially by the German population too so they don't get the idea of hoisting the white flag on the one hand it was aimed at smaller actions of sabotage but on the other at propaganda success like the murder of air Whoever has Allied himself With the Enemy must be killed we've passed a fair judgment here and that should of course act as a warning there is distrust especially among the Americans they are afraid of fanatical partisans among the friendly waving Germans so the propaganda catches on but there are in fact only a few isolated vvol campaigns for example one night the mayor of a small town near haford is shot dead on his own doorstep although a party member he had refused to blow up a power station and capitulated without a fight April 9th 1945 still 29 days before War's end the flossenburg concentration camp in Northern Bavaria here in early April 1945 over 15,000 people are ined and used by the SS as slave labor when the Americans Liberate the camp at the end of April 1945 this footage is filmed they find 1,500 survivors and many corpses disease hunger and exhaustion have caused the death toll to rise rapidly but executions were also Common Place in the final days of the regime they just want to kill all those still sitting in the dungeons of the regime they are not to survive we won't survive ourselves according to their logic Hitler and his Entourage everyone who believes in him will not survive so the enemies of the German people should not survive either and that's why the execution sites are active the regime does its best to ensure that nobody survives kind of us investigators discover that prominent Nazi opponents were executed in flossenburg on the 9th of April 1945 by personal order of Hitler among them dietr Bon hooer the world famous Theologian had been arrested by the Gestapo because of his contacts to the resistance boner was really a man of God in the truest sense of the word someone one who lived for his faith and above all for his church for the confessing church that opposed national socialism and his participation in the resistance was his downfall for a long time nothing could be proven against him but after July 20th they suddenly had something in hand and so he was executed shortly before the end of the war for Bon hoofer death is only the end of his Earthly existence at dawn on April 9 1945 he goes to the Gallows an eyewitness later reports that never before had he seen a man go to his death so piously the responsible SS officer sent an encrypted radio message to gestapo headquarters in Berlin mission accomplished as ordered confirmation not required the remains of Bon Huer are burned in the crematorium of flossenburg his final resting place is to be found in the Memorial's so-called Valley of [Music] Death at the end Hitler and the Nazi leadership fall into a veritable murderous frenzy all those involved in the assassination attempt of July 20 1944 and still languishing in the regime's prisons are murdered those accused used of high treason die on The Gallows or under the [Music] guillotine there was also a certain symbolic effect in saying people who took part in the resistance will be executed before the end of the war just to warn the population watch out look what's happening to them even though our situation is very difficult if you do the same you will have a big problem in Berlin's pleden Z prison alone 57 people will be beheaded by mid April hadamar a small town on the southern edge of the Vestal on the munber stands a psychiatric institution which is converted into an extermination Factory by the Nazis hadamar has been occupied by the Americans since late March 1945 with horror us investigat discover what happened here during the war in the course of the euthanasia program initially the disabled and mentally ill was systematically murdered in a gas chamber later patients were killed with Lethal Injections or targeted malnutrition in a neighboring Village a young woman is keeping a diary for her Soldier boyfriend on April 9th she notes the Dreadful fact has now been proven today it was revealed that 26,000 people were killed in the insane asylum in Hadar is this permissible in the eyes of God and the world the blood of these poor tormented Souls screams to heaven for vengeance and for this you've all spent years out there on the front to fight and bleed for a delusion and for nothing poor betrayed youth on this 9th April 1945 29 days before the end of the war the Red Army reaches Vienna in East Prussia the battle for the capital of kingburg has been raging for days here since late January about 130,000 Germans have been boxed in Soviet cameramen shoot these spectacular scenes of street fighting in the Town Center the major attack is completely chaotic and the Red Army suffers appalling losses on this day an article with the headline enough is enough appears in the military newspaper rot aan intended to fuel hatred among the soldiers it says that the Germans are maneaters and there is no Germany there is only a huge gang of thugs that runs away whenever there is any talk of responsibility I don't think one must forget that the excesses committed by soldiers occur when there is no regulated Handover and there is no surrender after surrender there are generally few if any excesses at all because a few hours sometimes even a day or two have passed between the action of battle and the surrender then feelings have cooled down but when fighting is ended by Fierce resistance which costs the attackers half their number then the danger of looting Massacre and excess is extremely high as the soldiers avenge their comrades and attack the enemy in the heat of battle on April 9th 1945 faced with a hopeless situation the commanding German general Otto lash decides to surrender The Fortress kingburg whereupon Hitler has him sentenced to death kingburg becomes the Soviet kaliningrad K cigb is a case that proves the opposite of what is usually said about the Red Army we know that the capture or Surrender of the city was relatively civilized and carried out according to the rules of Martial law that seems quite astonishing at first there is a capitulation and a regular capture of the German troops who are then LED away as prisoners of War 92,000 German soldiers are heading for captivity immediately after the conquest the civilian population is driven from the city since late January 1945 the Red Army has stood at the Oda preparing its major attack the Oder Brook Wetland is one of the last obst Les on the way to Berlin it is only 75 km to the German Capital Soviet troops have been busy for months building makeshift bridges over a distance of 200 km a huge force is to cross the River on the far side of the Oda are the headquarters of field Marshall giori zukov who is to lead the main strike against Berlin with his 11 armies of the first White Russian front the real plan is for zukov to go straight for Berlin and Surround it first not to flight into the City and the reason for that was to make sure that the Americans could not break through from the West one reason of course was the obvious symbolic importance of Berlin the whole idea that who controls Berlin controls Germany and who controls Germany controls Central Europe but the other one was the of uh Berlin the symbol the lir of the fascist Beast um the Soviets had the right to occupy Berlin because of what they had suffered 63 km outside the imperial capital a German fighter division takes up position to repel the red Army's imminent attack a newsreal cameraman films the last vermark contingent The Defenders are still only dealing with Soviet reconnaissance PLS surrender here is not an [Music] option what is the consequence when I as a soldier lie at the Oda front with the Red Army before me 99% would probably know it's game over we don't have a chance but what are the consequences should I go home my home is probably behind the Soviet front what should I do the field je Marie is behind me somehow I still want to defend Berlin defend my home I am fighting for Hitler for Germany however I construct it if I stick with it I will only stop when I go into captivity or when an officer says it's over this is for footage of slain Red Army soldiers is no longer shown in German Cinemas outside Berlin a soldier writes to his wife both are fanatical supporters of Hitler dearest we bore everything together together and together we are grateful for every gift together that's just it what are we alone what meaning does it all have what we have become not you and I we that is the Beautiful the great for which we choose to Bear everything should it only remain to US 29 days still to go before the unconditional surrender [Music]

Channel: criminals and crime fighters

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Keywords: world war 2, ww2, world war, war, documentary, history documentary, hitler, war in ukraine, ukraine war, ukraine, stalin, stalingrad, fight, Allied bombers, bombs, wwii, world war ii

Id: AI1N6ioL4Ho

Length: 52min 37sec (3157 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024