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00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,760
January 1945. The Red Army
 is poised to invade Germany.

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00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,040
The final chapter of the war in
 Europe will witness fanatical
 Nazi resistance

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00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:43,280
and brutal Soviet retribution.

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00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:48,600
Originally produced
 for Russian television in 2011,

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00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:50,880
this is the story
 of Russia s Great Patriotic War

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00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:52,280
and the Red Army s long road
 from defeat to victory.

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00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:38,160
An unexpected guest fell down
 into a German trench.

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00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,120
The NCO, a seasoned veteran
 of the Eastern Front,

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00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:47,360
immediately took note
 of the deserter s cap.

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00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:56,600
There was no customary
 red star on it.

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00:01:57,880 --> 00:01:59,760
The man was from a
 punishment battalion.

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00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,400
During his interrogation,

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00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,560
the deserter told the Germans
 about the coming Soviet
 offensive.

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00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,640
The man s punishment battalion
 was due to attack in the first
 wave.

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00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:28,680
He had become convinced
 he would not survive.

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00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,000
The German high command took the
 deserter s information
 seriously.

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00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:46,880
The Vistula front in central
 Poland had stabilized by the
 autumn of 1944.

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00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:54,400
Weeks passed, but the expected
Red Army offensive did not
 materialise.

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00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,240
German forces were withdrawn
 from Poland for a counterattack
 in the Ardennes.

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00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,160
The Fourth SS panzer corps was
 pulled out of Warsaw, and sent
 to Hungary.

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00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,120
The front defending the road to
 Berlin had been stripped bare.

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00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:17,920
But the Soviet offensive
 had only been postponed.

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00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,760
The German units in Poland
 had been rehearsing new tactics

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00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,800
to counter the initial
 Red Army onslaught.

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00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,280
The initial Soviet artillery
 barrage would often wipe out

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00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,240
German units holding
 the front line of trenches.

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00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:00,800
So the Germans decided
 that at the last moment,

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00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,560
they would withdraw the infantry
 to the second line, 2 to 3
 kilometres to the rear.

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00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:08,840
Every 3 to 500 metres,

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00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,720
they dug communication trenches
 connecting the two lines.

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00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,880
The Soviet bombardment
 would fall on empty trenches,

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00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,520
while the infantry prepared to
 meet the Soviet assault from the
 second line.

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00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,400
Most of the barbed wire and
 obstacles were placed between
the first and second lines.

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00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:32,520
The Germans prepared
 to fall back at any moment.

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00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:36,880
Behind them, panzer divisions
 including the new King Tigers

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00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:39,240
were ready to counterattack.

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00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,280
Soviet intelligence
 had severely underestimated

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00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:47,880
the strength of the
 enemy s reserves.

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00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:52,960
The Wehrmacht was preparing
 to fight for Germany

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00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:55,440
they intended to bleed
 their enemies white,

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00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,600
and force them
 to accept peace on their terms.

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00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,480
A new Soviet trick was to play
 loud music from the trenches.

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00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:21,560
It drowned out the noise of
 tanks and gun tractors as they
 moved up for the attack.

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00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,840
Finally, on 12th January,
 they put on a new record.

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00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:42,720
Through the grey dawn and
 across the snow-covered plain,

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00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,640
came the sound of An
 unbreakable union of free-born
 republics

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00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:51,760
the national anthem of the USSR.

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00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,680
As the last words of the anthem
 faded, there was a short pause,

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00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:31,640
and then the roar of
 hundreds of guns.

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00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,880
German infantry streamed back
 through the communication
 trenches.

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00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:59,080
The first shells landed as the
 Germans were still falling back
 to the second line.

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00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:03,120
They expected a long bombardment
 of the forward trenches.

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00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:05,800
But it was only a short barrage.

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00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,040
By the time the infantry
 reached their new positions,

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00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,280
the Soviet guns were pummelling
 the second line with all their
 remaining ammunition.

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00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:24,960
The German army s new defensive
 tactics had failed on this
 occasion.

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00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:30,880
But the German command
 still had its armoured reserve.

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00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,920
At Kielce, a German
heavy tank battalion

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00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,400
with 72 Tigers and King Tigers
 launched its counterattack.

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00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:54,880
By early 1945, most Soviet tank
 regiments had been reequipped
 with the new T34-85.

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00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,280
This tank had a much more
 powerful, long-barrelled 85
 millimetre gun.

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00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,960
It gave the crews a much better
 chance against heavily-armoured
 German tanks,

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00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:07,840
like the Tiger and Panther.

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00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,240
At Lissow, the Tigers were
 ambushed by the Soviet 61st
 Guards Tank Brigade.

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00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,560
After a ferocious battle, the
Tiger battalion was defeated.

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00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:30,160
Around Kielce, the Germans
 counterattacked with more than
 350 tanks

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00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:35,280
and self-propelled guns. But
 they failed to halt the advance
 of two Soviet tank armies.

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00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,840
The German panzer divisions
 were encircled, and destroyed.

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00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:48,200
Other Counterattacks by German
 armoured units at Pulawy and
 Magnuszew

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00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:54,240
were also unsuccessful. On 17th
 January 1945, the Red Army
 entered Warsaw.

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00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,920
A giant breach had been made
 in the German front line.

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00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:07,640
Red Army tanks advanced so fast
 that they overran airfields

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00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:09,920
were German aircraft
 were still being refuelled.

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00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:16,400
Near Lublin, they captured 60
 Luftwaffe aircraft at one
 airfield.

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00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,560
But in East Prussia, the 3rd
 Byelorussian Front had less
 success.

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00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:32,240
Here, intelligence work
 proved much more difficult.

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The local German population
 was fiercely hostile.

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00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:40,120
Many scout patrols never
 returned from their mission.

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00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:47,480
Reconnaissance failed to detect
 the withdrawal of German forces,

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00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,120
so the artillery bombardment did
 fall on empty front line
 trenches.

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00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,640
The Germans were
 falling back to Koenigsberg.

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00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,920
The Soviet Air Force
 had been grounded by blizzards

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00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:02,440
and was unable to
 support the attack.

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00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,520
Fifteen days into the offensive,
 the 2nd Ukrainian Front

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00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,080
approached the grey huts of the
 Auschwitz concentration camp,

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00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,560
surrounded by its guard towers
 and electrified fences.

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00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,960
Auschwitz was in fact
 a network of more than 40 camps,

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00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:27,360
of which Auschwitz-Birkenau
was the largest.

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00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,040
The rapid advance of the Red
 Army forced the Germans to
 hurriedly shut down operations

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00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,280
at this "factory of death".
 Himmler issued orders for the
 camp to be liquidated.

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00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,480
Surviving prisoners
 were to be evacuated or killed,

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00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,320
and all the apparatus of
 extermination was to be
 demolished with dynamite.

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00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:55,600
60,000 emaciated prisoners
 were marched away on foot.

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00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,800
Amongst them was Soviet
 partisan Irina Kharina.

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00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,880
We walked, column after column,
guarded by SS men and surrounded
 by dogs.

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00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:12,640
The snow was soaked with blood.

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00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,200
It was pink, because anyone who
 fell behind, tripped or stopped
 was shot on the spot.

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00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,720
The last crematorium was blown
 up 24 hours before the Red Army
 arrived.

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00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,040
At the last minute, the SS
 shot around 700 prisoners,

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00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,240
hoping to silence
 the last witnesses.

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00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:41,440
But in their rush to escape
 the approaching Soviet tanks,

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00:11:42,680 --> 00:11:45,080
the SS failed to carry
 out all its tasks.

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00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:51,320
The Red Army found 7,500 starved
prisoners inside the camp,

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00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,000
and enough evidence to work out
 what had happened there.

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00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,400
They found mountains of personal
 belongings taken from the dead.

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00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:07,520
The victims at this camp alone,
 90% of them Jews numbered 1.1
 million.

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00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:18,160
As the Red Army advance
 continued, the 1st Ukrainian
 Front,

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00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:22,320
under Marshal Ivan Konev,
 met determined resistance

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00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,680
around the industrial region of
 Silesia. So he chose another
 approach.

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00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:42,800
To drive the enemy from this
 vast sprawl of factories and
plants would cost men,

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00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,840
and time. And Stalin
 wanted the factories intact.

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00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,480
He described this region
 to Marshal Konev as "pure gold".

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00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:55,400
And so with the agreement
 of the General Staff,

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00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,000
Konev allowed the Germans
 to escape from Silesia.

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00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,840
A corridor 6 kilometres wide
 was left open to the south,

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00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:07,160
through which the
 Germans withdrew.

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00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:12,440
By the end of January the entire
 region was under Soviet control.

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00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:23,200
When Albert Speer,
 Hitler s Minister of Armaments,

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00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,040
sent the Fuehrer a memorandum on
the significance of the loss of
 Silesia,

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00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:29,920
it began with the words,
 "The war is lost."

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00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:35,720
After the destruction of the
 Ruhr industries by Allied
 bombing,

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00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:42,360
Silesian mines provided 60% of
 German coal. With the loss of
 Silesia,

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00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:47,320
1945 s coal output would be
 one-quarter of the previous
 year s,

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00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:50,840
and her steel output,
 just one-sixth.

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00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:55,080
Speer continued.

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00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:03,720
With the loss of Silesia,
 German industry will not be able
 to meet

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00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,480
the front s requirement for
 ammunition, weapons, and tanks.

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00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:12,680
It meant defeat within the year.

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00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:14,760
But this information was kept
 within Hitler s inner circle.

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00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,280
Hitler continued to demand
 self-sacrifice and fanatical
 resistance from his followers.

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00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:30,240
To salvage the disastrous
 situation on the Eastern Front,

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00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,600
he turned to one of his oldest
 allies, SS Reichsfuehrer
 Heinrich Himmler.

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00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,880
Hitler appointed him head of the
 newly formed Army Group Vistula
  

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00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,120
despite his total lack of
 experience of military command.

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00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:51,720
One man who was appalled by this
decision was the talented panzer
 general

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00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:55,880
Heinz Guderian, now Chief
 of the Army General Staff.

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00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:00,480
Guderian, knowing Himmler would
 need all the help he could get,

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00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:05,520
appointed Walther Wenck an
 experienced staff officer as
 his Chief of Staff.

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00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:14,920
Hitler gave this role to Himmler
 because he believed only a true
 Nazi

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00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,160
could instil the troops with the
 necessary "fanaticism" to defeat
 the enemy.

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00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,200
It was an illustration of how
 far the Fuehrer had become
 detached from reality.

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00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:31,840
Soviet tank crews walked
 amongst snow-covered aircraft

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00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:36,720
at the Poznan airfield
 dozens of Heinkel One-Elevens,

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00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,600
grounded by lack of fuel. The
 days of the Third Reich were
 numbered.

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00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,440
But the German garrison of
 Poznan was in no hurry to
 surrender.

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00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,080
The commander of the 1st
 Tank Army, General Katukov,

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00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,400
soon found that the city was
 a tank-crew s worst nightmare

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00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:04,320
narrow streets,
 and well-prepared killing zones.

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00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:22,080
Katukov was authorized to
 continue the advance to Berlin.

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00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,080
Poznan would be left to General
 Chuikov, the hero of Stalingrad,

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00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:27,200
and his 8th Guards Army.

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00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:35,640
Chuikov s orders were to take
 Poznan by storm it lay in a
 crucial position,

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00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:37,520
at the heart of the local road
 and rail network.

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00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,360
Chuikov s troops began
 their assault on 26th January.

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00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,760
Chuikov left an escape
 route open to the west.

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00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,200
He hoped the Germans
 would withdraw,

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00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,680
so he could take the city
 quickly and at minimal cost.

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00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,160
But the besieged garrison
 made no attempt to break out.

159
00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:14,080
This was a real fortress, held
 by 20,000 Germans behind 3 metre
 thick stone walls.

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00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:19,760
Soviet artillery pounded away at
 the city s 18th century
 fortifications

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00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:21,960
to limited effect.

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00:17:26,120 --> 00:17:30,240
Hitler had advocated the
 fortress or festung strategy
 in 1943

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00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,240
it meant holding designated
 fortresses at all costs,

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00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,480
even after they
 had become completely cut-off.

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00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:43,600
In Ukraine and Byelorussia the
 strategy found little support
 amongst his generals.

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00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:49,280
But by 1945, as the fighting
 reached German soil,

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00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,400
fewer generals were willing
 to stand up to the Fuehrer.

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00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,480
A Festung that held important
 road and rail junctions

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00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,800
made it difficult for the Red
 Army to resupply its forward
 units.

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00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:05,760
On the other hand, the
 strategy meant valuable German

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00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:08,520
units became trapped
 and isolated.

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00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,080
The second assault on Poznan
 began on 28th January.

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00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,600
Chuikov preceded it with
 an ultimatum to the garrison.

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00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:29,760
I, General Chuikov, propose
 that you lay down your arms and
 surrender.

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00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,880
I guarantee your life and that
 you will return home after the
 war.

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00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,040
Otherwise you will
 be destroyed.

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00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:42,760
Few of the defenders
 took up the offer.

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00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,440
The garrison commander, Major
 General Gonnel, was a dedicated
 Nazi.

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00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:55,080
He had no intention
 of surrendering.

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00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:04,280
Meanwhile, Katukov s tanks
 had bypassed Poznan

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00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:08,440
and were heading west, towards
 Berlin. But at the old
 Polish German border,

182
00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:12,640
they encountered the Ostwall
 "the East Wall".

183
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,280
The Ostwall was an
 old fortified line,

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00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,480
which Germany had begun building
 along its border with Poland in
 1934.

185
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,960
But in 1938 Hitler decided that
 these defences were no longer a
 priority,

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00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,960
and halted further work on the
 line. In 1944, as the Red Army
 closed in,

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00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:36,800
the fortifications were
 hurriedly prepared for action.

188
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,400
The line was composed of a
 series of redoubts called
 "Panzerwerks".

189
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,240
Reinforced steel cupolas
 provided firing points,

190
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:49,000
and the approaches were covered
 by concrete anti-tank obstacles

191
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:51,800
known as "dragons teeth".

192
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,840
The Panzerwerks held enough
 food, water and ammunition to
 hold out for weeks.

193
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,200
The problem for the German high
 command was finding the men to
 garrison them.

194
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,640
Only rag-tag units could be
 spared, and many of these
 arrived late.

195
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:21,040
One Soviet tank brigade drove
 straight through unmanned
 fortifications.

196
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,440
But a few hours later,
 the German army arrived,

197
00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:30,280
and began digging sections of
 rail into the road, making it
 impassable for tanks.

198
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,600
The next brigade to come down
 the road ran into fierce
 resistance.

199
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,360
The brigade in front...
 had been cut-off.

200
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:54,440
All attempts to break
 through were unsuccessful.

201
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,680
The armoured cupolas
 were impervious to tank rounds,

202
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,400
and in the rapid advance, the
 infantry and heavy artillery had
 been left far behind.

203
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:15,440
That night the men listened to
 the sounds of heavy fighting
 behind the German line,

204
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:16,480
where their comrades
 were cut-off.

205
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,880
If German reserves arrived,
the brigade would be wiped out.

206
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:30,200
But not all sections of the
 Ostwall were held with such
 determination.

207
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,520
The men holding the line near
 Schwiebus didn t even have
 uniforms.

208
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,720
They were men of
 the "Volkssturm".

209
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,720
Towards the end of 1944, with
 the German army increasingly
 short of manpower,

210
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,320
Hitler authorized the raising
 of a national militia.

211
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:52,760
It was called the Volkssturm,

212
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,520
and Hitler confidently believed
 it would raise 6 million men,

213
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:00,240
and initiate a people s war
against the invader.

214
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:07,840
These hopes were
 wildly optimistic. At Poznan,

215
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,840
the Nazis hoped to raise 24
 Volkssturm battalions, but could
 raise only one.

216
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,880
All German males
 between 16 and 60

217
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:21,440
were eligible for conscription
 into the Volkssturm.

218
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:25,280
The punishment for
 desertion was death.

219
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:32,440
To ensure Volkssturm battalions
 possessed the necessary
 fanaticism

220
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,960
to defeat the enemy, they were
 placed under the command of the
 Gauleiters

221
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,480
the local Nazi Party bosses
rather than under army control.

222
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:46,760
The Volkssturm received few
 weapons and little ammunition,

223
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:48,560
although they had plenty of
 Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons.

224
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,760
They received no uniforms
 just an armband,

225
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:55,920
which they wore over
 their civilian clothing.

226
00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,960
Predictably, such units proved
 ineffective in combat.

227
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,440
At Schwiebus, they could do
 little to hold up the Soviet 1st
 Guards Tank Brigade.

228
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:16,200
The trapped Soviet brigade was
 rescued, and the advance
 continued to the Oder River.

229
00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:21,840
Similar events unfolded
 to the north at Meseritz.

230
00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:25,520
The 60-year-old
 Oberleutnant Herman Step,

231
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,920
commander of the
 128th Volkssturm Battalion,

232
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,400
described what happened
 to his Soviet captors.

233
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,840
Volkssturm units around Meseritz
 surrendered without firing a
 shot.

234
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,920
The Red Army broke
 through to the Oder,

235
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,720
and established bridgeheads
 just 70 kilometres from Berlin.

236
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,360
Only there was the advance
 halted by the arrival of German
 reserves.

237
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,800
By February 1945, the Soviet
1st Byelorussian Front

238
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,320
had fought its way across
 Germany to within 70 kilometres
 of the capital, Berlin.

239
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,440
In just three weeks,
 across a 500 kilometre front,

240
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,640
the Red Army had
 advanced 500 kilometres.

241
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,920
Thousands of German civilians
 fled their homes fearing the
 vengeance of the Red Army.

242
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:23,520
Their fears proved
 well justified.

243
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,200
Soviet soldiers had long been
 taught to despise their enemy.

244
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:31,640
Germany was
 "the lair of the fascist beast",

245
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,160
and many set out to avenge
bitter grievances.

246
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,200
Amongst them... was
 Yevgeny Bessonov.

247
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,840
We entered towns and saw
 two-storey houses with nice
 tiled roofs.

248
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,120
At first, we would set fire
 to these houses.

249
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,760
We couldn t forget the sight of
 our own villages, burned to the
 ground,

250
00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:55,880
with only chimneys standing
 amongst the ashes.

251
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,360
It was not just property that
 felt the wrath of the Red Army.

252
00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:28,840
Soviet soldiers, many
 fuelled by alcohol,

253
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:31,040
were responsible for the rape
 of thousands of German women,

254
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:33,200
many of whom they then murdered.

255
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:36,960
Prisoners and civilians were
 frequently shot out of hand.

256
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,480
Some Soviet soldiers were,
 for a time, out of control.

257
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,600
Lazar Tsents was
 with the Red Army.

258
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:49,440
In 1945 nobody would lay
 their hands on prisoners,

259
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,320
but in 1944 "vigilantism"
 was common.

260
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,960
Once a master sergeant that I
 didn t know took five Germans
 outside

261
00:27:57,960 --> 00:27:59,880
and started shooting
 them one by one.

262
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,800
I approached him, took his gun,
 and said, You d better kill
 them in battle.

263
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:10,840
The looting of German
 property was systematic.

264
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,400
The soldiers gathered luxuries
 they d never known before:

265
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,840
jars of stewed fruit,
 jam, and stewed meat.

266
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,280
They took anything that was
 in short supply back home,

267
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,280
including clothes,
 fabric and shoes.

268
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,240
There was even an official
 postal service for sending loot
 back home to families.

269
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,960
Privates could send 5 kilograms
 per month officers, 10.

270
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,760
As the advance continued,
 commanders recognised that the
 brutal treatment

271
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,360
of German civilians was
 inspiring the enemy to fight
 harder.

272
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:19,920
They tried to clamp
 down on such behaviour.

273
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:54,640
Nevertheless, many officers
 continued to turn a blind eye to
 their men s behaviour.

274
00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:00,800
As the Red Army entered East
 Prussia, Stalin himself was
 persuaded

275
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,880
to issue an order forbidding the
 mistreatment of German
 civilians.

276
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,120
Similar orders were issued by
 the military councils of the
 various fronts and armies.

277
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:19,240
One order, signed by Marshal
Rokossovsky, commanding the 2nd
 Byelorussian Front,

278
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,760
urged all ranks "to eradicate
 all activities shameful

279
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,480
to the Red Army with the
 force of a red-hot iron".

280
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:44,400
In February 1945, as Churchill,
 Roosevelt and Stalin

281
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,920
gathered at Yalta to decide
 the future of post-war Europe,

282
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,560
recent Red Army successes
 put Stalin in a strong position.

283
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,280
The western allies made major
 concessions to Stalin over the
 Soviet-Polish border.

284
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,880
They allowed the Soviet Union
 to keep much of the territory

285
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:09,920
it had seized from Poland in
 1939, including the city of
 Lvov,

286
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:12,680
although Białystok
 would be returned.

287
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,160
In compensation, Poland would
 receive German territory

288
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:20,880
east of the Oder and
 most of East Prussia.

289
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,400
A final decision was reached
 on the demilitarization

290
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,080
and denazification of Germany:

291
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,680
It is our inflexible purpose to
 destroy German militarism and
 Nazism,

292
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:41,160
and to ensure that Germany will
 never again be able to disturb
 the peace of the world.

293
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,600
Germany was to be divided
into four zones of occupation:

294
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:53,440
in addition to the USSR, USA,
 and Great Britain, one would
 also go to France.

295
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,240
The German capital,
 situated in the Soviet Zone,

296
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,400
would itself be
 divided into 4 zones.

297
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,360
Churchill pushed Stalin to
 commit to free and fair
 elections in Poland,

298
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:17,440
so that the country might
 chose its own government.

299
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,280
Stalin agreed. But it was a
 promise he would never honour.

300
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,680
Stalin made a further promise
 that the USSR would join the war

301
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,680
against Japan within
90 days of Germany s surrender.

302
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,520
Meanwhile at Poznan,
 Chuikov s 8th Guards Army

303
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:49,600
cleared German defenders
 from the rubble.

304
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,800
The 2nd Assault Engineer Brigade
 prepared to storm the city s
 fortifications.

305
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:06,840
Their main obstacle was a
 fire-swept moat, 10 metres wide
 and 8 metres deep.

306
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,480
Under the cover of a
 smokescreen, the engineers
 rolled barrels

307
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:16,480
filled with explosives
 into position.

308
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:44,840
The fuse was to be lit
 at the last moment,

309
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,760
and the barrel rolled
 forward into the moat.

310
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,560
The explosion would kill German
 soldiers at their loopholes.

311
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,880
Soviet assault groups waited to
 cross the moat, and capture the
 wall.

312
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:24,880
Within, lay the citadel
 Fort Winiary.

313
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:30,000
These formidable fortifications
 were held by several thousand
 diehards

314
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,320
under the command of the
 fanatical Major General Ernst
 Gonell.

315
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:38,720
The assault began
 on 18th February.

316
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,440
Heavy artillery opened fire on
 the forts at point blank range.

317
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,440
The guns blew breaches in the
 walls wide enough for men to get
through.

318
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:02,000
Now the barrels of explosive
 were lit, and rolled into the
 moat.

319
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,840
Survivors were left deafened,
 and concussed.

320
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,360
The assault groups crossed the
 moat using ladders and
 duckboards,

321
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,480
and fought their
 way into the city.

322
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:41,920
The engineers built a
 bridge over the moat

323
00:35:43,240 --> 00:35:45,960
to get tanks and self-propelled
 guns into the city.

324
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:51,240
The armoured vehicles
 brought resistance to an end.

325
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:57,200
The month long siege was over.

326
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,560
General Gonell lay down on a
 Swastika flag and shot himself.

327
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:09,440
His deputy General Mattern led
 more than 4,000 survivors into
 captivity.

328
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:17,000
But elsewhere, the Nazis planned
 a last desperate counter-attack
 to save Berlin.

329
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,880
Heinrich Himmler, the commander
 of Army Group Vistula,

330
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,200
hoped to turn the tables on the
 Red Army as it approached
 Berlin.

331
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,800
His staff planned a
 counterattack by the 11th SS
 Panzer Army.

332
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,960
Operation Solstice would be
 launched from Pomerania,

333
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,560
against the northern flank of
 Zhukov s 1st Byelorussian Front.

334
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:50,160
The Waffen-SS grew out of the
 paramilitary wing of the Nazi
 Party.

335
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,960
In 1939 it had just 3 regiments
 which proved unreliable in
 combat.

336
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,640
But as the war went on, the
 Waffen-SS expanded to more than
 30 divisions,

337
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,080
and forged a reputation
 as an elite fighting force.

338
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:08,880
Its units were the first
 to receive new equipment.

339
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:13,360
By 1945, the Waffen-SS
 was a multinational force,

340
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:16,960
its divisions manned by
 volunteers from across Europe.

341
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:21,360
Many were now gathered in
Pomerania, including the SS
 Nordland,

342
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,080
Nederland, Wallonien,
 Langemarck, Frundsberg, and
 Polizei.

343
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,400
The German counterattack
 began on 16th February 1945.

344
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:40,120
But it could make little headway
 against Belov s 61st Army

345
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,120
and Bogdanov s 2nd
 Guards Tank Army.

346
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,200
Then came Zhukov s response.

347
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:51,200
He redirected two Soviet tank
 armies against the German forces
 in Pomerania.

348
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:59,880
Within 5 days, T-34s from
 the tank armies of Katukov

349
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:03,240
and Bogdanov had reached the
 Baltic Sea, trapping German
forces,

350
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,840
who desperately sought
 to escape by sea.

351
00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:14,400
After this catastrophe,
 Hitler allowed Heinrich Himmler

352
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,760
to resign his command
 of Army Group Vistula.

353
00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:27,880
Most Soviet guns were modern
 designs from the 1930s.

354
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:30,600
But some were much older.

355
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:37,160
The 305 millimetre howitzers
 still bore the double-headed
 eagle of the Romanovs.

356
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:59,440
Their target was the
 fortress-city of Koenigsberg,
 capital of East Prussia.

357
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:06,080
In early April there was a lull
 across much of the front, but
here the battle raged.

358
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,280
The walls had to be smashed, and
 the air force could not help

359
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,240
it had been grounded
 again by bad weather.

360
00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:18,840
The heavy siege guns fired
 one round every 3 minutes.

361
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,920
There would be four days of this
 before the assault began.

362
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:30,440
Koenigsberg was defended by a
 series of modernised 19th
 century forts,

363
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:33,800
their thick walls protected
 by tons of earth.

364
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,320
But the Red Army bombardment
 was overwhelming.

365
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,560
By 1945, the German situation
 in East Prussia was desperate.

366
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,480
In late January Soviet troops
 had reached the Vistula Lagoon,

367
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,440
cutting off all German
 forces in East Prussia.

368
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,040
Communication with the rest of
 Germany was only possible by
 sea.

369
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,480
But the Germans
 stubbornly fought on.

370
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:22,800
When the Commander of the 3rd
 Byelorussian Front was killed in
 action,

371
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,560
Stalin sent Marshal Vasilevsky
 to replace him.

372
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:31,400
Stalin urged him to secure a
 "swift liquidation of the
 enemy",

373
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,960
to allow the Red army to
 reinforce its assault on Berlin.

374
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:41,640
But after assessing
 the situation,

375
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:43,920
Vasilevsky decided
 against an immediate assault.

376
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:47,400
He ordered three more
 weeks of preparation.

377
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,400
First, he ordered an attack
 on German forces pinned

378
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:58,600
against the coast south-west
 of Koenigsberg.

379
00:41:00,720 --> 00:41:05,600
The pocket was eliminated in
 late March. Now, it was time to
 attack the city itself.

380
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,840
The Red Army had assembled
 quarter of a million men

381
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:13,480
for the final assault
 on Koenigsberg.

382
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,960
They were supported by more than
 5,000 guns and 500 armoured
vehicles.

383
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:23,760
They conducted a thorough
 aerial reconnaissance

384
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:25,000
of the city and its approaches.

385
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:30,760
Soviet intelligence estimated
 the Koenigsberg garrison

386
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:34,160
to be about 60,000 strong. It
 turned out to be a serious
 underestimate.

387
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:40,880
The final assault began
 on 6th April 1945.

388
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,920
The partially destroyed outlying
 forts offered no serious
 resistance.

389
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:51,080
But on the approaches to the
 city, the Soviet advance bogged
 down.

390
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:57,480
There were more Germans
 than they had reckoned with,

391
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:00,920
and the air force was still
 grounded by bad weather.

392
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:16,640
But on 7th April, the skies
 cleared. 500 Soviet bombers
 appeared overhead.

393
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,320
The Luftwaffe... was
 nowhere to be seen.

394
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,320
Thousands of bombs
 rained down on the city.

395
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:47,600
After the bombing,
 chaos reigned in Koenigsberg.

396
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,600
Communications across
 the city had been cut.

397
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,680
On 8th April, the
 remnants of the garrison

398
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:58,800
were driven back into the
 centre and east of the city.

399
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:03,600
Communications with the
 port of Pillau were cut.

400
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:13,360
Further resistance was
 pointless. The next day the
 garrison surrendered.

401
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:35,120
The true number of casualties
 was lost amidst the chaos, and
 the propaganda.

402
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:43,080
The Red Army claimed more than
 40,000 enemy dead. It took up to
 70,000 prisoners.

403
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:51,440
Soviet casualties were up to
 60,000 many more than were
 reported at the time.

404
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:56,400
Koenigsberg...
 had been virtually destroyed.

405
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:06,480
The East Prussian campaign
 had reached its conclusion.

406
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:13,320
The victorious Soviet forces
 rolled west once more, to
prepare for the final battle.

407
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:22,400
The 2nd Byelorussian Front would
 now take up positions along the
 River Oder.

408
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:29,120
And then all would be in
 place... for the final assault
 on Berlin.