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00:01Previously, on the last days of World War II,
00:04US forces on Okinawa captured several Japanese strongholds,
00:08but a strategic error by US General Simon Buckner proved costly.
00:14In Europe, Allied troops apprehended several high-ranking Nazi war criminals.
00:20This week, the carnage on Okinawa continues
00:23as the Japanese withdraw to the southern tip of the island.
00:26US B-29s continue to pound targets on mainland Japan.
00:33And in Europe, Operation Keelhaul begins.
00:36British troops forcibly repatriate refugees fleeing Eastern Europe
00:40and the wrath of Stalin.
00:56May 27th, Borneo.
01:10The Japanese send 530 Australian and British POWs
01:14on a long and agonising march across the island,
01:17from Sandakan to Ranao.
01:19Fearing the invasion of Borneo, the Japanese had begun forcing POWs
01:29to make the 160-mile trek in January.
01:34The Japanese policy, the standing policy, was that
01:39if a commander thought that Allied forces were going to retake a position
01:45where he was in charge of a camp, he was to get rid of all the prisoners.
01:50He was to kill all the prisoners.
01:54Following an Allied sea bombardment,
01:56the Japanese order more evacuations from Sandakan.
01:59Only 183 men, out of the 530 who started the march, would survive to reach Ranao.
02:09Those who can't keep up are shot or bayoneted by the Japanese guards.
02:14As Allied POWs face the brutality of their captors on Borneo,
02:25the ferocity of the Japanese is also felt by US troops in the Philippines,
02:29where vicious fighting continues.
02:36May 27th, Luzon.
02:38After two weeks of bitter fighting,
02:40US ground forces have captured the village of Santa Fe.
02:44Over the next days, the troops would advance through the Cagayan Valley,
02:48mopping up enemy forces.
02:55The Cagayan Valley in north-eastern Luzon,
02:57between the Cordilleras and the Sierra Madre Mountains,
03:00would be a hotbed of Japanese resistance.
03:03The US 25th and 32nd Infantry Divisions
03:06would lose 1,500 killed in the fighting ahead.
03:09As the US Army struggles to weed out Japanese resistance in the Philippines,
03:15B-29 bombers continue their assault on mainland Japan.
03:19May 29th, mainland Japan.
03:25454 B-29s are launched in high-altitude daylight attacks.
03:30The bombers dropped 2,500 tons of incendiaries on Yokohama,
03:35a seaport on Tokyo Bay.
03:37The city's docks are torched.
03:41A third of the city is destroyed.
03:43The B-29s also drop mines along Japan's coastal waterways,
03:49which claim dozens of ships.
03:51The fighter planes assigned to protect the B-29s are P-51 Mustangs.
03:56The P gives it away.
04:01It was a pursuit aircraft.
04:04The P-51 is going to be the, the, the quiz essential escort fighter of World War II.
04:11Once we got to the target, once we had them with us,
04:14we didn't have to worry about fighters, because they took care of them.
04:19We had no fighter opposition when we had P-51 escort.
04:26When introduced into the Pacific theater,
04:28the P-51 Mustang had already proven itself as a fast, high-altitude fighter escort.
04:33It had destroyed more enemy aircraft over Europe than any other fighter.
04:40Before the P-51 entered combat,
04:42there were no escort fighters with sufficient range to protect bombers over Germany.
04:47Raids were being decimated by the Luftwaffe fighter defense.
04:51The first P-51s had a top speed of about 350 miles an hour and a range of 500 miles.
05:00But it had one crucial weakness.
05:03When it was first put into combat, it was a failure.
05:07It, uh, it could not fight at height.
05:12Its US Allison engine was not fitted with a supercharger,
05:15reducing performance at high altitude.
05:18Once the Allison engine was replaced with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine,
05:22Allied forces had a fighter bomber that not only had a top speed of 440 miles per hour,
05:27but could also operate at up to 40,000 feet.
05:30When the Merlin engine, the Rolls-Royce engine, was put onto the aircraft,
05:39a couple of things happened.
05:41One, it was the perfect match between airframe and engine.
05:45And you got now an, uh, an aircraft that had very, very long range.
05:52And it was a very fast aircraft.
05:57The P-51 is generally conceded to be the finest piston-driven aircraft ever made.
06:04Uh, we could turn out a lot of them, and we did.
06:08Armed with six wing-mounted machine guns,
06:10more than 15,000 P-51 Mustangs were produced by war's end,
06:15forever changing the balance of power in the skies.
06:22B-29s have now been bombing mainland Japan for 11 months,
06:26wreaking havoc and terrorizing the civilian population.
06:30Fire raids have gutted many of Japan's cities,
06:33including Tokyo, Kobe and Osaka.
06:37Conventional bombing of Japan will claim an estimated 260,000 lives
06:41and leave millions homeless before the war is over.
06:45President Truman promises the relentless wave of destruction
06:48will continue until Japan admits defeat.
06:52June the 1st, Washington D.C.
06:55In an address to Congress, Truman declares that the primary task facing the U.S.
06:59is to win the war in Japan,
07:01to win it completely and to win it as quickly as possible.
07:05There can be no peace in the world
07:08until the military power of Japan is destroyed,
07:12with the same completeness as was the power of the European dictators.
07:18We have no desire or intention to destroy or enslave the Japanese people.
07:25But only surrender can prevent the kind of war
07:28which they have seen come to Germany as a result of continued useless resistance.
07:38But the Japanese Imperial Command remains unwilling to consider surrender,
07:43despite the destruction wreaked around them.
07:48Japanese troops continue to hold out on the island of Okinawa.
07:52Cut off from the rest of the world by a massive Allied naval blockade,
07:55they have no means of resupply.
08:03Forced into the southern tip of the island,
08:05the remnants of the garrison intend to fight to the death,
08:08causing as many casualties as possible.
08:10May the 29th, Okinawa.
08:15Following some of the bloodiest combat on Sugarloaf Hill,
08:18the 6th Marine Division finally secures the capital city of Naha.
08:27Inside the city, not a building is intact.
08:30Meanwhile, the 1st Marine Division makes an opportunistic dash to Shuri Castle,
08:36a symbolic Japanese stronghold on Okinawa.
08:387.30 a.m., a Marine battalion advances towards the Shuri Ridge,
08:49where patrols have indicated a possible weakness in the Japanese lines.
08:55Within three hours, the Shuri Castle is occupied by U.S. forces.
08:58The 500-year-old castle and former headquarters of General Ushijima
09:04once dominated the region from its 290-acre estate.
09:08Now, it is almost completely destroyed.
09:12The imposing citadel with walls of coral blocks,
09:1620 feet thick at their base and 40 feet in height,
09:19now lies in ruins.
09:20The city of Shuri, the ancient capital of Okinawa, has been reduced to rubble.
09:30It has been hit by an estimated 200,000 rounds of artillery and naval gunfire.
09:36The devastation is so great,
09:39the landscape is described as looking like a crater of the moon.
09:42May 31st, Okinawa.
09:52Shuri finally falls to U.S. forces.
09:55The American flag now flies over the ancient city.
09:58Most of the Japanese garrison have secretly withdrawn to the south.
10:01One of the weapons that provides cover for advancing U.S. infantry is the Browning Automatic Rifle.
10:16This is your lifeblood. This is the way you're going to live.
10:20So it was kind of important to understand that.
10:23The BAR, the Browning Automatic Rifle, was invented by John Browning in 1917
10:28and widely used by U.S. infantry since the First World War.
10:33At 550 rounds per minute, with an effective range of 600 yards,
10:38the .30 caliber BAR was an incredibly effective machine gun.
10:46The offensive role is to suppress the enemy's fire,
10:50to lay down, literally, a continuous stream of fire
10:55so that the enemy cannot stick his head up and shoot at you while you're advancing on him.
11:01So effective was the BAR that many men cited it as the weapon to which they owed their lives in the Pacific.
11:08He who loses the firefight is normally going to lose the close fight.
11:12So, the Browning was absolutely superb because it could deliver tremendous amounts of firepower.
11:20Tremendous amounts of continuous firepower.
11:23The BAR's main handicap was its weight, 21 pounds when fully loaded with ammunition,
11:30which was carried by an assistant to the gunner.
11:33The crew of the cumbersome weapon were usually at the front of any advance.
11:37I think the guys that were the greatest were the BAR man.
11:45Browning automatic rifle, 20 shots, deadly weapon Japanese hated the BAR.
11:53They were the guys absolutely out front, the riflemen and the BAR men.
11:59They paid a heavy price.
12:06Each platoon of US Marines in the Pacific bristled with nine BARs.
12:11As US forces take Shuri, the remnants of the Japanese 32nd Army abandon their defensive positions and move south.
12:22Japanese commander General Ushijima has received word from Tokyo that no reinforcements would be able to reach him.
12:33Intent on holding out as long as possible, Ushijima had ordered his men to abandon the Shuri Line and retreat to the far south of the island.
12:40Only a skeleton force remains behind, expected to fend off US forces for as long as possible by fighting to the death.
12:55US General Simon Buckner has assumed that the enemy will hold the Shuri Line to the end.
13:01His intelligence officer and division commanders also believe the Japanese are planning a last stand around Shuri.
13:08But a break in the cloud cover on the 26th of May allows aerial reconnaissance to detect that major movement is underway behind the enemy line.
13:19Observers spot large columns travelling south just below Shuri, the largest enemy troop movement seen in the Okinawan campaign.
13:27The aircraft call in devastating fire from ships and attack aircraft.
13:33In the wake of the attacks, several miles of the muddy roads were strewn with wrecked trucks, field guns and corpses.
13:41But Buckner has let Ushijima slip away.
13:47May 30th, Okinawa.
13:50US intelligence officers brief the commanders on the enemy's whereabouts.
13:53The bulk of Japanese forces have, in fact, abandoned the Shuri Line.
13:59They were able to use pre-planned routes of escape, use pre-planned routes of withdrawal, some of it under cover of darkness.
14:08Ushijima's withdrawal to a new line further south is carefully planned and expertly executed.
14:14Ushijima and his 32nd army regroup on a steep ridge just three miles from the southernmost tip of the island.
14:22The highest point of this four-mile-long cliff is the Yeiju-Dake Ridge, which rises 290 feet above the adjoining valley floor.
14:31The American troops who would have to fight up its slopes nickname it the Big Apple.
14:36Ushijima must now prepare for his last stand.
14:41But for the Japanese, a special code being used by American forces makes anticipating their next move difficult.
14:48The men who transmit these secret messages are the code-talkers.
14:56Navajo code-talkers used a special code based on their native language to transmit messages.
15:05Many American soldiers staked their lives on the success of the Navajo code.
15:12The idea of using Native American languages as code dated from the First World War,
15:18but was most successful with Navajo code-talkers in World War II.
15:25Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary and affluent Navajo speaker,
15:30approached the Marines with the idea in 1942.
15:33Johnston recognized that Navajo, a complex language spoken only in the American Southwest,
15:44could be a secret weapon for the military.
15:47The language is spoken only, you know, no writing or anything.
15:53It's very difficult.
15:55I was raised at home, spoke nothing but Navajo before I entered school.
16:00Rather than simply translating messages from English to Navajo, the wind-talkers, as they came to be known,
16:09took each letter of an English word and substituted it for a Navajo word beginning with that letter,
16:15spelling out names, locations and other important information.
16:18Most of them are related to animals and things like that.
16:24It was like A was an apple, the lasana.
16:28B was shush, which means bear. It's something like shacha.
16:32But if they shush, that means sea is a cat.
16:42Some commonly used words were substituted with Navajo words.
16:46Dahi tehe, the Navajo word for hummingbird, for example, was used to relay information about fighter planes.
16:55Soldier with Beeselot, the army, they call it hichayil ni, dog face, meaning your army.
17:10The marine, they call it kousakali, meaning leather neck, meaning leather neck.
17:16Sailor, they call them chalakai, white cap, meaning the sailor wears a white cap.
17:23Even a native Navajo speaker would be unable to decipher a message without being well-versed in secret protocols.
17:31About 400 Navajos served as code-talkers working with incredible speed and efficiency in every U.S. Marine campaign of the Pacific War.
17:43Each Navajo code-talker had to memorise it.
17:47We did everything by memory because that's the way the Navajo tribe is.
17:55They have their songs, prayers and things like that.
17:58They are knowing, the Navajos are knowing for memorising all that in their head.
18:03In 1945, machines could take half an hour to encode, transmit, receive and decode a three-line message.
18:13Code-talkers could do it in 20 seconds.
18:15During the battle for Iwo Jima, Navajo code-talkers handled more than 800 critical messages in 48 hours.
18:26The vital information has to do with the location where the actual battles are and relate all the information back to the headquarters.
18:36There is no indication that any code-talkers message was ever successfully deciphered by the enemy.
18:44We develop a code, code within code, and we use it during the battle.
18:52We save many lives, materials, supplies, money.
18:57Despite their contribution, Navajo code-talkers would not receive any sort of official honour until 1982.
19:08Ground forces have been engaged on Okinawa for two months, and the cost to human life is staggering.
19:15The Japanese have lost more than 50,000 men killed.
19:19American forces have suffered 26,000 combat casualties.
19:23About 14,000 Americans have been diagnosed with combat fatigue.
19:32News of the rising death toll horrifies the American public.
19:40Truman turns to one of his predecessors for advice.
19:43May 28th, Washington, 10.30am.
19:49Truman and former US President Herbert Hoover meet privately.
19:53Hoover reinforces what Truman already knows,
19:57that something must be done to minimise the loss of life in the Pacific.
20:01Truman has been aware of the atomic bomb programme for less than two months.
20:04After taking office in April, he had been advised by his Secretary of War, Henry Stimson,
20:10that this secret weapon might prevent up to one million American casualties,
20:14and shorten the war by at least a year.
20:17This is one of the first things he learned about when he became President,
20:20that this extraordinary weapon was in development and would soon be tested.
20:24Stimson gave him a quick briefing within a day of the President's being appointed,
20:27because, of course, he needed to know they were spending billions of dollars on this decisive weapon.
20:34The decision to drop the bomb must be made by President Truman,
20:39but it's a call he's not ready to make.
20:42Nevertheless, assembly of the world's first atomic bomb would begin in 44 days,
20:47and on a small island in the Pacific, preparations for its delivery are underway.
20:51May 29th, Tinian Island. The USS Cape Victory carrying men of the 509th Composite Group docks in the northern Marianas.
21:06Unbeknownst to them, this group of men would be charged with delivering the most powerful weapon the world has ever known.
21:12The 509th Composite Group was the group of pilots and crew put together specifically to deliver the first atomic bombs over Japan.
21:26A special unit of the US Army Air Force, the 509th, was assembled in 1944 under Colonel Tibbetts.
21:33On the 17th of December 1944, the special group was established at Wendover, Utah, a location chosen for its isolation.
21:45The men engaged in intensive training with modified B-29s, under a veil of secrecy.
21:52Oh, there are an awful lot of rumors floating around from people who were not in the group.
21:57Some of our people were in Salt Lake City at one time, and they were in a bar, as most of us usually were,
22:06and they were being questioned by this fellow about what is the 509th group doing out there at Wendover.
22:12And they all said, well, we're all training to be propeller specialists in the jet propelled outfit.
22:19And, as you probably know, jets don't have propellers, I'll just tell you that right now.
22:25A number of skilled workers, such as welders and machinists, were transferred to the 509th.
22:31Men were chosen from both Air Force and ground units for this top priority mission.
22:35The 509th eventually numbered 200 officers and 1,500 enlisted men.
22:47In early 1945, the group conducted intensive training in the operation and maintenance of the B-29,
22:54and the execution of radar bombing missions from 30,000 feet.
22:59The crews trained in 15 specially modified B-29 bombers,
23:02stripped of their guns and other equipment so they could fly high and fast.
23:07The streamlined bombers were earmarked for special weapons delivery.
23:13They had to figure out how to drop these bombs.
23:16This was a bomb that was going to put up a molten fireball 20,000 feet in the air.
23:23They were going to drop them from 29,000 feet.
23:26The training program was designed to prepare the crews for a high-altitude release,
23:30followed by an escape maneuver to avoid the atomic shock wave that could destroy the aircraft.
23:39They had to figure out a whole new way to make the plane get away.
23:43A turning dive that came very close to exceeding the capacity of the wings to take that kind of force.
23:51We were told by the scientists, we think the planes will be okay if you're 11 miles away when the bomb explodes.
23:59Well, that was unlike any other bombing.
24:04Other bombing, you just kept right on going straight and the bombs didn't bother you.
24:08This one, you had to do something special.
24:10That something special was a 150-degree turn, which the scientists had calculated out,
24:15was the fastest way to put distance between us and the bomb.
24:19In test runs, the 509th dropped 10,000-pound bombs loaded with high explosive.
24:25Nicknamed pumpkin bombs, they matched the dimensions of an atomic bomb.
24:29But with the exception of their commander, the men of the 509th were not privy to the true nature of their mission.
24:41The statements in the memoirs that the crew and the pilots of the 509th left behind
24:46really indicate that they didn't know what they were training for, except, of course, for Tibbetts.
24:51The unit trained relentlessly for eight months.
25:00Once Colonel Tibbetts declared the group ready, the 509th moved to their new home,
25:05Northfield Tinian in the Marianas, nearly 1,500 miles from Tokyo.
25:10By June 1945, the entire group had arrived to embark on yet more training.
25:15As casualties in the Pacific continue to mount, and the world inches closer to the atomic age,
25:25Americans across the world pause to remember those who've died fighting for their country.
25:31Among them, men who have just fought their way across Europe.
25:35May the 30th, America's Memorial Day.
25:38In Germany, infantrymen who have fought their way through Italy, France and Germany,
25:44stand shoulder to shoulder in Kaufburen Square to pay tribute to their fallen comrades.
25:49In the words of General Dahlquist,
25:52there is not one among us who has not lost cherished and dear friends.
25:56We cannot, so long as we live, forget these men,
26:00because we lived with them and fought with them.
26:03They are, in fact, a part of us.
26:08May the 31st, Washington.
26:11Robert Oppenheimer states that radiation would be life-threatening to anyone or anything
26:16within two-thirds of a mile of an atomic blast.
26:19He also calculates that the explosion will create a tremendously bright luminescence,
26:24rising to a height of up to 20,000 feet.
26:29June the 1st, the atomic bomb think tank, known as the Interim Committee, convenes.
26:34There was a great deal of discussion both within the Target Committee, which was basically a military group,
26:41and the Interim Committee, which was the political and State Department diplomatic group,
26:46advising the President on the future use of nuclear weapons.
26:50Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, presides over a meeting to discuss potential targets.
26:54The Committee decides that the best target would be a war plant surrounded by workers' homes.
27:01However, one Japanese city Stimson rejects is Kyoto.
27:04Kyoto was, to Japan, what Rome is to the Catholic Church, if you will.
27:16It was the primary religious centre.
27:19The old temples were there. Many old shrines were there.
27:23And from General Groves' point of view, it was his first choice of target
27:28because he wanted to teach those damn Japanese a lesson.
27:32Henry Stimson was aware of its significance as a religious centre,
27:37and he simply flatly told Groves, no, we're not going to bomb Kyoto.
27:43It's a fine line in war between humiliating the enemy to the point where he refuses to cooperate after the war is over.
27:53And that's the line that Stimson didn't want to cross.
27:56They also agree that no warning should be given to Japan before the bomb drops.
28:02If you announced a demonstration and brought people there to see it,
28:06and the bomb didn't work, then you really were in trouble.
28:12Whereas if you dropped a bomb unannounced on a city and it didn't work, nobody would know.
28:18In war, you don't give the enemy evidence that you're full of compassion.
28:24A Japanese military perspective on our demonstrating a weapon would have been,
28:30well, what sort of cowards are they?
28:32If they've got a weapon, why don't they use it?
28:35And in fact, it might have prolonged the war.
28:38That was the kind of debate that went on.
28:40Those were the arguments that were discussed.
28:43And the conclusion was there's no substitute for simply going ahead and dropping the bomb by surprise.
28:47The committee unanimously recommends that the bomb be dropped as soon as possible.
28:53As the fighting continues in the East, a fresh crisis is brewing in Europe.
28:59In the war-ravaged continent, many are on the brink of starvation.
29:03May 28th, Herbert Hoover informs President Truman that something must be done to alleviate Europe's severe food shortage.
29:12The former US Food Administrator tells Truman that the continent is surviving on meagre supplies from the last harvest,
29:19and those rations may soon run out.
29:21He urges the president to increase wheat exports tenfold to the areas controlled by the Western Allies,
29:28a boost from 100,000 tonnes to 1 million tonnes each month.
29:35Hoover punctuates his advice with words of warning.
29:39Bare subsistence means hunger.
29:41And hunger means communism.
29:43As post-war Europe is gripped by starvation and turmoil, a Nazi war criminal is apprehended.
29:53But unusually, this man was born in America and raised in the UK.
29:58One of the dilemmas that the British faced at the end of the war was what was to be done about a number of prominent traitors
30:07who were captured in Germany. Most notable among them was William Joyce,
30:14who had become notorious during the war, broadcasting from Germany as Lord Haw-Haw in English on behalf of the Nazis.
30:22May 28th, Flensburg, Germany. William Joyce is taken into custody.
30:28Joyce was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of three, his family moved to Ireland.
30:35When Joyce was 17, the family moved again, this time to London in 1922.
30:42In early 1933, Joyce joined the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley.
30:49After serving as Mosley's propaganda director, he left to establish his own fascist organisation,
30:56the National Socialist League.
30:58In 1939, Joyce left for Germany, where he quickly found work with Joseph Goebel's propaganda ministry.
31:05His first radio broadcast was on the air only two weeks after France and Britain declared war on Germany.
31:12Germany calling. Germany calling. Germany calling.
31:17Joyce would spend the next six years spreading Nazi propaganda.
31:21He tried to frighten listeners with news of impending bombing raids,
31:24and urged Britain to surrender ahead of the inevitable German victory.
31:29Joyce reserved much of his venom for Winston Churchill, whom he described as a spiteful old man.
31:35His criminal sense of irresponsibility has brought the English people and the British Empire the edge of the fascists.
31:43Joyce would enjoy great success inside the Third Reich, becoming a German citizen in 1940.
31:51He later received one of the country's highest civilian awards from Hitler himself.
31:54As the Allies swept through Germany, Joyce signed off for the last time on April 30th 1945.
32:01Following a drunken broadcast from Hamburg, he escaped to Flensburg near the Danish border.
32:05You may not hear from me again for a few months. I say,
32:15and farewell.
32:32May 28th, Flensburg.
32:34Just outside the city, Joyce, now a fugitive, encounters two British officers gathering firewood.
32:40firewood we took a 1500 weight truck drove into this forest here and as we got deeper and deeper
32:48into it we suddenly saw a very odd tramp like figure appear on our left I engaged him in
32:56conversation and by that time I was quite certain that it was William Joyce but the problem was that
33:02left hand in his pocket and I was certainly was carrying a gun I challenged him and said you
33:07wouldn't be William Joyce by any chance would he and his hand dropped back to his pocket I thought
33:13he was going for his gun I drew my own pistol aimed low and fired Joyce is not carrying a gun his pockets
33:21contain two passports one of them is in his name the other is under the pseudonym Wilhelm Hansen
33:27Joyce is taken into custody and sent to London on a stretcher here was this man whose voice they'd
33:33had to listen to mocking them from Germany from Hitler's capital year after year and now there
33:38he was and it was felt there was no choice but to execute him he will be found guilty of treason and
33:45hanged in January 1946 June the first Austria as part of operation keelhall thousands of Eastern
33:56Europeans who have fought alongside the Third Reich have been sent back to their homeland into the
34:01hands of Stalin one of the most controversial issues at the end of the war was what was to
34:08be done with the very large numbers of Soviet citizens who had served in German uniform and whom an
34:18arrangement had been made with Stalin would all be returned to him as his citizens and everybody had
34:24a pretty good and pretty accurate idea of what Stalin would do with him when he got it had been decided at
34:30the Yalta conference back in February that the Allies would return all Soviet citizens found in the
34:35Allied zone of occupation the agreement includes the return of Soviet POWs as well as thousands of Nazi
34:43sympathizers and anti-communists attempting to escape Stalin's Roth the British plan to hand over about
34:5330,000 anti-communist Cossacks and their families to the Red Army even though some had fled Russia at the
34:59time of the Bolshevik Revolution and are not covered by the Yalta agreement the Cossacks refused to allow
35:09themselves to be herded into trucks British troops resort to force and panic ensues in what becomes known as the
35:17Peggetts massacre some claim hundreds are killed the Cossacks face execution or deportation to Stalin's
35:28infamous gulag labor camps many prefer to take their own lives it was mainly that type of thing of the
35:34summer slash the wrists with glass broken glass thousands of wretched Cossacks Ukrainians and such like
35:44were herded aboard trucks and ship sometimes screaming in some cases killing themselves rather
35:49than go were dispatched over the frontier into the hands of the Soviets by whom they were of course shot a
35:56few days earlier approximately 2,500 more Cossacks had been invited to meet with the British to discuss
36:03their future the gathering was merely a ruse they were in fact being taken back to the Soviet lines
36:09Maria Platinov's uncle was among them and I said where are you going and he just smiled he said
36:15don't Mary don't you worry because you know what we have a work of British officer and they told us
36:21there is just a conference and at supper time I come back and I will tell you what it's all about
36:27so we say goodbye and he waved to me and I never saw him again the British and Americans hand back more
36:39than four million Soviet prisoners and refugees to Stalin for many it is a death sentence meanwhile a
36:47voice offering hope and salvation emerges from war-torn Italy June the second Rome Pope Pius XII
36:55delivers a message of reconciliation to those who have inherited the bitter legacy of the Third Reich in
37:00his address the Pope appeals to the people of Germany to cast off Nazism and start a new life
37:07but for some the words ring hollow a lot of people didn't come well out of the war and it must be said
37:21that the Pope was one of them that it appeared to the world whether justly or not that the Pope had
37:28paced the interests of the Catholic Church far ahead of those of suffering humanity at large and
37:36especially ahead of the Jews it may reasonably be argued that even if the Pope had taken a stronger
37:44position about the fate of the Jews that it wouldn't have done much good because Hitler wouldn't have taken
37:49much notice many believe Pius XII failed to condemn Hitler's murderous policies even though news of the
37:56atrocities had filtered through to the Vatican Pius XII had ascended the papal throne six months before the
38:02outbreak of war in Europe he had believed the Vatican should remain neutral mindful of the fact that many Roman
38:09Catholics lived within Germany history is entitled to notice and to draw appropriate conclusions from the fact that
38:21unlike so many brave people including some very distinguished Catholic Churchmen that the Pope appeared to think that his duty was to his church
38:32not to the terrible sufferings of others outside of the terrible sufferings of others outside it
38:39opinions would remain divided over the Pope's wartime role whether he had done enough to intervene as terrible suffering engulfed Europe
38:47whether an open conflict with Nazism would have spared suffering or merely created more Hitler himself said of Pius this is the only human being who has always contradicted me and who has never obeyed me and who has never obeyed me and who has never obeyed me.
38:59Next on the last days of world war two allied leaders convene in Berlin to shape the future of post-war Germany but inside the fallen capital tensions brew between East and West it was almost literally as if the Soviet sphere had been contaminated by democracy by these Westerners.
39:06In Berlin Soviet troops stumble upon what they believe to be the charred remains of Hitler's body.
39:13They announced that they had found the body and the body and the body had been identified by dental records.
39:20And in the Pacific fanatical Japanese troops struggle to hold out on the southern tip of Okinawa as US Marines stage a seaborne assault on the Oruku Peninsula.
39:27Countless civilians are caught in the crossfire.
39:28Countless civilians are caught in the crossfire.
39:34The Okinawan civilians and the Japanese troops are in such close proximity that the Americans can't distinguish between them and don't attempt to.
39:44Now what I want to look after this is a question is that we need more to be able to avoid the war.
39:56And they do not have to try to have a KFM to apply to some of the defenses.
39:59These soldiers have been favored by the American troops, the US forces have been evidenced by the force of the Wkoon battalion.
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