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00:01Previously, on the last days of World War II, the Red Army advanced within one mile of Hitler's underground fortress in the brutal street-by-street battle for Berlin.
00:11Eastern and Western Allies came face to face for the first time at Targau in Germany.
00:16And in the Pacific, the battle for Okinawa began to show signs of a prolonged and bloody stalemate.
00:24This week, Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp to be established, is liberated.
00:30As Berlin falls to the avenging Red Army, Hitler marries his mistress.
00:35Approximately 36 hours later, he will commit suicide.
00:39And in the Pacific, US forces on Okinawa face a Japanese counterattack.
01:00The 29th of April, Germany.
01:16Troops from the US 7th Army arrive at Dachau, Germany's first concentration camp, about 12 miles northwest of Munich.
01:2311am. SS guards and Waffen SS troops quickly surrender to the Americans.
01:41The liberating soldiers discover and inspect a trainload of dead prisoners.
01:45Even battle-hardened veterans are left distraught by what they see.
01:54Some of the inmates at Dachau had been used as human guinea pigs for medical experiments.
02:00The most infamous practitioner of this corrupted science was Joseph Mengele, the camp doctor at Auschwitz, liberated three months previously.
02:13Dr. Mengele, he had a couple of barracks separated, in which he conducted experiments.
02:22One type of experiment was to see how he can produce faster cures for certain things.
02:32And then he had a second type of experiment, where they used to say, what if?
02:40What happens if we do this, or what happens if we do that?
02:44In my time, he was the one who did the selecting.
02:47So he would stand there, ramrod still, dressed impeccably, with shining boots and white gloves.
02:54And all he'd do is move his index finger and point almost all of us, going to the left.
03:05And, of course, my two sisters and I were pointed to the left.
03:11And Mila, my older sister, was selected to go to the right.
03:18And that was a line for young, able-bodied people.
03:23And my sense was that if they made such a choice, must have been a reason.
03:30Again, my instinct told me there was nothing for me to lose.
03:35And I ran away from the line in front of Mengele and joined Mila's line.
03:41But my two baby sisters, Rutka and Macia, then went alone to the gas chambers.
03:51Despite the atrocities inflicted on the inmates at Dachau, over 30,000 prisoners survived to be liberated.
03:59Eventually, we ended up with a tablespoon of moldy bread a day. That was it.
04:06I slept next to a dead man for three days so that I could get his ration.
04:13You had exactly two choices.
04:15You had a choice of firmly believing that you're going to survive.
04:21Or you did not believe and you committed suicide.
04:26For some, however, liberation is short-lived.
04:30With the promise of freedom, some run for the electric fence bordering the camp,
04:34not realising it is still activated.
04:37Several prisoners are electrocuted.
04:41Within a month, a typhus epidemic of the camp would claim more than 2,000 lives.
04:46The tragedy was that even after these camps were liberated,
04:50the death rate from disease not only continued, but for a while rose.
04:56Many survivors hunt down their tormentors.
04:59As the Allies approach, some guards attempt to disguise themselves as prisoners.
05:04But their well-fed appearance betrays them.
05:06The SS guards are attacked and beaten to death with wooden clubs and stones.
05:11Nearly 40 guards are killed.
05:14Some US troops take justice into their own hands,
05:17machine gunning dozens of SS men after they have surrendered.
05:20Over 300 are taken prisoner.
05:3012 PM. Order at Dachau is restored.
05:33The liberated prisoners are rounded up and told that,
05:36although they cannot be released immediately,
05:38food and doctors are on the way.
05:401 PM. American medical officers arrive at the scene and begin treating the survivors.
05:49Since 1933, about 32,000 people have died of starvation and disease behind the gates of Dachau.
05:56A service is held in their memory.
06:04In less than 24 hours, another Nazi camp, about 400 miles away,
06:09will be liberated by Russian troops.
06:14The 30th of April, 50 miles north of Berlin,
06:17the Red Army liberates the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
06:20Established on Himmler's orders in 1938,
06:25the camp served as the only major Nazi camp for women.
06:28The women imprisoned there were treated as brutally as male prisoners in other camps.
06:33Children were subjected to hideous medical experiments.
06:43An estimated 92,000 prisoners from all over occupied Europe perished at Ravensbrück.
06:50The Red Army finds only 3,000 survivors.
06:53Two days before, as the Soviets approached,
06:56Ravensbrück prisoners had been forced on a death march.
06:59Those too exhausted or sick to walk had been left behind.
07:03It was a scene repeated in camps throughout Europe.
07:11All of us instinctively knew there was no way the Germans are going to let us remain alive and be liberated.
07:19We were witnesses to the worst crimes, the most horrible, horrible crimes.
07:26We were given a piece of bread and said,
07:29start walking.
07:30And people picked up any type of clothing they could find and there wasn't much around.
07:40And we started walking.
07:42And after a couple of hours or so, we stopped and rested a little bit and said, continue.
07:49And we continued like that.
07:52And people who couldn't get up were shot right there on the highway.
07:59Hours after the Red Army reaches the Ravensbrück camp,
08:01the column of death march prisoners is also found and freed.
08:05The 29th of April, Caserta, Italy, 2 p.m.
08:13Representatives of General Heinrich von Wietinghoff,
08:16commander of German troops in Italy,
08:18arrive at the headquarters of Allied Mediterranean commander,
08:21Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander.
08:23In defiance of Hitler's direct orders,
08:26the Germans agree to an unconditional surrender in Italy.
08:30It will come into effect at noon on the 2nd of May.
08:39At that time, nearly one million German troops in Italy
08:42would lay down their arms and become prisoners of war.
08:45But for now, sporadic fighting continues
08:49as the Germans fall back in the face of the Allied advance.
08:52Spearheading the assault are Sherman Firefly tanks.
09:00The Sherman tank is sometimes described as the tank
09:02that won the war in the West for the Allies.
09:07The tank was going to be used to exploit breakthroughs.
09:11They were going to use the tank to break through the German lines
09:15and then use the superior speed of the vehicle
09:19to run rampant around their rear areas.
09:22The Firefly was a British variant of the Sherman,
09:25equipped with a more powerful gun.
09:28Our British cousins are going,
09:29look, if we're going to fight the Germans,
09:32at least let's give our guys a gun
09:34that we can kill the other guy with.
09:37So they come up with a very high-velocity gun
09:41called a 17-pounder.
09:44The gun could power an armor-piercing round
09:46into the heaviest German tank
09:48at a range of 1,000 yards.
09:50Although effective, the Firefly was not without flaws.
09:54Its most valuable feature,
09:55the long-barreled 17-pounder gun,
09:57made the tank highly visible
09:59and Fireflies were a priority target for the enemy.
10:02The 29th of April.
10:09With the surrender of German forces in Italy
10:12just three days away,
10:13nearly all German heavy tanks and guns
10:15are now in Allied hands.
10:17Von Wietinghoff tells his men,
10:19hitherto you have obeyed your Fuhrer.
10:21Today, you must obey your orders.
10:23Some Germans try desperately to escape.
10:30Some even attempt to swim across the river Po.
10:37City after city has fallen.
10:39Bologna is under Allied control
10:41and Italian partisans have seized Milan and Turin.
10:44The 20-month Italian campaign draws to a close.
10:51In Berlin, Hitler has just received word
10:53of the grisly fate of Italy's former dictator, Mussolini.
10:57His friend and ally had been executed
10:59and strung up by his heels in Milan on the 28th of April.
11:03Hitler and what remains of his staff
11:06are holed up in the Fuhrerbunker,
11:08a network of fortified chambers
11:1030 feet below the gardens of the Reich Chancellery.
11:13The atmosphere in the bunker is increasingly desperate.
11:18But here, amongst his faithful,
11:20Hitler is even now revered.
11:24The 29th of April, Berlin, 1am.
11:27The city is in bloody ruins.
11:29Soviet troops, tanks and artillery
11:32surge through the broken streets.
11:34The Soviet advance on Berlin
11:36was urban warfare at its worst.
11:38Really street by street fighting,
11:40extensive shelling.
11:42This extremely brutal, close, often hand-to-hand fighting.
11:47And the people who are still fighting
11:50feel that they have no choice but to continue fighting.
11:53There is no thought of simply surrendering.
11:57It's also dangerous to surrender in many ways
12:00because you could be shot by your own officers.
12:03At this hopeless hour,
12:04Hitler decides to marry his long-term mistress, Eva Braun.
12:12The daughter of a school teacher from Munich,
12:14Eva Braun was barely out of convent school
12:16when she met Adolf Hitler.
12:18Working as an assistant to Hitler's photographer,
12:20she became Hitler's mistress.
12:22But Braun soon became depressed,
12:24infatuated with a man who paid her only occasional interest.
12:28After attempting suicide twice,
12:30Hitler sought to pacify her with a villa in Bavaria
12:33and a chauffeured Mercedes.
12:35When Hitler survived a 1944 assassination attempt,
12:38Brown's devotion intensified.
12:50In an emotional letter to Hitler, she wrote,
12:53From our first meeting I swore to follow you anywhere,
12:56even unto death.
12:57I live only for your love.
12:59But Hitler's feelings for Eva were more ambiguous.
13:03Their relationship was kept secret from the German public.
13:06Even many of Hitler's closest associates
13:09did not know what to make of the affair.
13:11My own view is that Hitler was such a strange person,
13:14his nocturnal habits, his vegetarianism,
13:17his impulsiveness,
13:19his very peculiar punctiliousness about his person,
13:22a really, really weird human being,
13:24that my guess is that he had no normal sexual life at all
13:28and that Eva Braun was some sort of companion.
13:32She was clearly devoted to him,
13:34but not, I think, in the normal sense of a man and a woman.
13:38Eva Braun spent the war isolated from its horrors
13:41and indifferent to German politics.
13:43Only when defeat was imminent
13:45would the reality of war touch Eva Braun's life.
13:48With the Red Army descending upon Berlin in April 1945,
13:52Eva Braun joined Hitler in the Führerbunker.
13:58The 29th of April, Berlin.
14:03As the Red Army drives through the heart of the German capital,
14:06Hitler decides to marry Eva Braun.
14:09I think, on some kind of odd level,
14:14I think Hitler thought he owed it to her.
14:16He was, after all, a very bourgeois person.
14:19Until now, Hitler has not considered marriage,
14:23nor making their relationship public.
14:25He has considered the German people his mistress.
14:28But now, as he sees it, they have failed him.
14:31Hitler declares,
14:33This will take the place of all that was denied us
14:35by my devotion to the service of my people.
14:38Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's fanatical
14:40and devoted minister of propaganda,
14:42summons Walter Wagner,
14:44a lawyer fighting with the Volkssturm in Berlin,
14:46to perform the civil ceremony.
14:50Eva wears a long black silk dress, Hitler's favourite.
14:54In accordance with German law,
14:56both Braun and Hitler swear that they are of Aryan descent.
15:00Under normal circumstances,
15:02they would produce documentation to support these assertions.
15:05But given the circumstances, this requirement is waived.
15:09Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann,
15:12Hitler's loyal officials, serve as witnesses.
15:18And so in this twilight world,
15:2130, 40 feet beneath the rubble of the Reich's Chancellery,
15:27a wedding celebration takes place.
15:31They were married, cake and tea was served,
15:34and I think some champagne was opened,
15:36and the whole thing was over in about an hour.
15:38It was a very low-key ceremony,
15:40but it was really done,
15:41and it was done as if they were all going to survive,
15:44but of course everybody knew they weren't going to.
15:46And I think by that stage Hitler knew it too,
15:47and I think Eva Braun knew it,
15:49that they weren't going to survive.
15:51Just hours after his marriage,
15:53Hitler dictates his last will and political testament
15:56to Trudeljunger, one of his secretaries.
15:59In his final testimony,
16:01Hitler claims that he never wanted war.
16:03He blames the Jews for the death and horror
16:06that has been forced upon the world.
16:12The Führer also bitterly accuses Goering and Himmler of betrayal,
16:16and urges the Reich to resist mercilessly
16:18the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry.
16:22National Socialism, Hitler boasts, would eventually prevail.
16:26Safe in this conviction, Hitler says,
16:28he will die with a joyful heart.
16:34Three copies of Hitler's last wishes are given to couriers.
16:38One is for the unsuspecting Admiral Dönitz,
16:41who is named in the document as Hitler's successor.
16:44Another copy goes to Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner,
16:50Hitler's successor as commander-in-chief of the army,
16:54and one to Nazi party headquarters in Munich.
16:58Dönitz never receives his copy of the document,
17:01but a final radio message from Berlin
17:04informs him of Hitler's wishes.
17:06To his astonishment, he will be the next President of the Reich.
17:14The 29th of April, Berlin.
17:17In the evening, Hitler holds what would be his last conference
17:20with General Weidling, Berlin's military commander.
17:24Weidling offers the Führer no hope.
17:27Street by street, his exhausted men are losing the battle for Berlin.
17:31Weidling knows that the Chancellery will be overrun in a matter of days,
17:35and his troops are running out of ammunition.
17:38After a short silence, Hitler tells Weidling that,
17:41once their ammunition runs out,
17:43his men should form small groups
17:45and attempt to break through Soviet lines to the west,
17:48or take refuge in the woods and fight on.
17:51Under no circumstances are they to surrender.
17:5711pm. Hitler signals Field Marshal Keitel,
18:00now stationed at Dobbin, about 100 miles from Berlin,
18:03near the Baltic coast.
18:05Hitler asks Keitel when and where German troops would break through
18:09and come to Berlin's aid.
18:16The 30th of April, 1am.
18:19Two hours later, Hitler receives Keitel's reply.
18:22German troops outside Berlin are outgummed
18:25and completely surrounded by the Red Army.
18:28There would be no rescue.
18:33Determined not to end up like Mussolini,
18:35nor to be captured by the Soviets,
18:37Hitler has chosen to commit suicide.
18:40Hitler was mortified by the prospect
18:43of falling into the hands of the Russians, alive.
18:46He said, I don't want to be taken back in a cage
18:49for Stalin to show in the Soviet Union.
18:51He also didn't want anything to happen to his body to be shown.
18:55So, he was concerned about this.
18:58He wasn't going to make it.
18:59He wasn't going to survive.
19:00This was clear.
19:01He will go down with Berlin.
19:04It was only when he knew that, basically,
19:06within a matter of 24 hours,
19:08the Soviets would be knocking at the door violently,
19:13that he basically decided it was all up,
19:16it was all over.
19:17There was no escape, basically.
19:19Hitler's new bride, Eva Braun,
19:21does not wish to live on without him.
19:23A shadow of his former self,
19:25Hitler's health has deteriorated.
19:27The lines of defeat and despair
19:29are etched deep into his sallow face.
19:34Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889.
19:37The man who would rule Greater Germany as dictator
19:41was in his youth an impoverished artist in Vienna,
19:44at one point living in a refuge for the homeless.
19:50With the outbreak of the First World War,
19:52Hitler joined the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry
19:55and served on the Western Front.
20:01After the war, he settled in Munich
20:03and joined a fledgling political group
20:05known as the German Workers' Party.
20:13With his strong personality and skills as a narrator,
20:16Hitler soon seized control of the party
20:19and turned it towards his own vision of National Socialism.
20:23In 1924, in prison after a failed attempt
20:26to overthrow the government,
20:27he wrote Mein Kampf, My Struggle,
20:30which became the Bible of the Nazi movement.
20:34Hitler called upon the German people
20:36to resist Jews and Bolsheviks,
20:38to reject the shameful terms imposed on Germany
20:40after World War I,
20:41and to rise up again as a powerful nation.
20:45As Germany was gripped by the Great Depression,
20:47record unemployment and political uncertainty,
20:50the Nazi party rose to power.
20:55In 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor
20:57by President von Hindenburg.
21:00Hindenburg died the following year,
21:02but Hitler had already been awarded dictatorial powers
21:05by the Nazi-controlled Reichstag.
21:08He embarked on a massive rearmament program.
21:10In 1938, Hitler used the threat of war to annex Austria
21:16and part of Czechoslovakia.
21:19Germany's invasion of Poland led Britain and France
21:21to declare war on Germany in 1939.
21:25But Poland and then France were rapidly defeated
21:27by the blitzkrieg tactics of Germany's Wehrmacht.
21:31Victory allowed the Nazis to implement
21:33extreme racial policies across Europe.
21:36This would culminate in the decision to exterminate the Jews.
21:39It is estimated that six million Jewish men,
21:42women and children were killed.
21:44Five million non-Jews, including Poles,
21:47Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies and homosexuals,
21:50were also killed during the Holocaust.
21:57The 30th of April, Berlin.
22:00Soviet troops are closing in on the heart of the Reich.
22:03Victory flags are handed out among the ranks.
22:06Stalin has issued a decree
22:07that the first man to succeed in raising the Soviet flag
22:10over the Reichstag would be a hero of the Soviet Union.
22:13The Reichstag, the German parliament building, had always been perceived by the Soviets as the symbolic heart of Berlin, and both Marshal Konev and Marshal Zhukov were furiously competitive about who got there first. An awful lot of Russian soldiers died.
22:16Urged on by their own marshals just to get their first to get their first to get their first to get their first to get their first.
22:215 a.m.
22:22Soviet troops open up a ferocious artillery and rocket ship.
22:24rocket barrage on the Reichstag on the Reichstag.
22:26The bombardment continues until mid-hour.
22:275 a.m.
22:28The bombardment continues until mid-afternoon.
22:295 a.m.
22:30Soviet troops open up a ferocious artillery and rocket barrage.
22:31The bombardment continues until mid-afternoon.
22:326 p.m.
22:336 p.m.
22:34Soviet infantry breached German defences and poor entrepires.
22:356 p.m.
22:37And did persons with the war.
22:38In the war.
22:39So, the soldiers with the troops with the tanks and the soldiers with the soldiers, the soldiers by the troops, Bernie Tsukov, were furiously competitive about who got there first.
22:45An awful lot of Russian soldiers died.
22:46Urged on by their own marshals just to get there first.
22:505 a.m.
22:51Soviet troops open up a ferocious artillery and rocket barrage on the Reichstag.
22:53The bombardment continues until mid-afternoon.
22:576 p.m.
23:00Soviet infantry breach German defences and pour into the building.
23:04But knowing this is their last stand, the Nazis guarding the Reichstag
23:08attempt to fend off the invading troops with desperate determination.
23:12The Soviets fight for every room, every corridor and every staircase.
23:2210.50pm. Two Russian sergeants make it to the roof of the Reichstag
23:26and raise the Soviet banner.
23:28The next morning, the scene would be re-enacted for the cameras.
23:36Zhukov's men got through to the Reichstag and it was Zhukov's men
23:40who had the glory, after bitter fighting inside the building,
23:43of at last hoisting the flag, which became one of the most famous images
23:48of the Second World War, of these two Soviet soldiers
23:52who climbed up through the rubble when firing still going on all around them
23:56to hang the red flag over the Reichstag
23:58and symbolically declare their triumph over Hitler's capital.
24:02It is an iconic moment of the last days of the war.
24:06But Soviet troops must continue to fight their way through Berlin.
24:10Now, they are only a few hundred yards from the Chancellery and Hitler's bunker.
24:14Little do they know, Hitler has already evaded justice.
24:18The 30th of April, 3.30pm.
24:26As the Red Army storms the German Reichstag, Hitler joins his wife in her bedroom.
24:32A few minutes later, they emerge and bid a final farewell to their closest staff.
24:44Meanwhile, the men and women upstairs decide that, if they are to die,
24:48they might as well have one last party.
24:50In that last 24 hours of Hitler's life, after this wedding ceremony,
24:57this very bizarre wedding ceremony, order in the bunker kind of broke down.
25:02The orderlies and so on, who were two floors up from Hitler's private quarters,
25:08had a rousing party.
25:11It was drinking and singing, and it was a release of tension.
25:15The newlyweds retire to Hitler's bedroom.
25:20First, there is complete silence.
25:23Then, a single shot rings out.
25:25Hitler's personal valet, Heinz Linger, followed by three or four others,
25:30force open the door to Hitler's bedroom.
25:33Inside, they find Hitler's lifeless body slumped on a couch,
25:37a pistol at his feet.
25:40The aroma of almonds fills the air, an indication of cyanide.
25:44Hitler had taken a capsule of the poison and then shot himself.
25:49Eva Braun is curled up at the other end of the sofa.
25:53She, too, has taken cyanide.
25:55The bodies are carried out of the bunker into the Chancellery Garden.
25:59They're laid in a trench doused with petrol and set on fire.
26:07Hitler not only was going to commit suicide,
26:09but then he wanted his body and Eva Braun's body to be burned.
26:13Beyond recognition, so that the Russians would have no satisfaction.
26:17So, men had to run out into the streets of Berlin,
26:22with shells going off all around them,
26:23and somehow round up enough gasoline to make sure that this was done.
26:28People who were charged with this task retreated quickly back underground.
26:32They emerged later to see the burned corpses,
26:35and a cursory effort is made to bury the bodies.
26:39But in all the shelling, in fact,
26:41the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun are scattered around the Chancellery Garden.
26:47Adolf Hitler is dead at the age of 56.
26:50Smoke from his remains rises over the ruins of Berlin.
26:54Hitler probably got what he wanted,
27:01that the world has remained gripped to this day
27:03by these terrible scenes that were played out in the bunker
27:06in the last two weeks of the war.
27:08The 30th of April, Berlin.
27:11Following Hitler's suicide,
27:12Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann immediately take action.
27:16They send General Hans Krebs, Army Chief of Staff,
27:19to negotiate a ceasefire with the Soviets.
27:23The 1st of May, 4 a.m.
27:26After being promised safe passage by Red Army commanders,
27:29Krebs meets with Soviet General Vasily Chuikov to request a ceasefire.
27:36When the news is relayed to Marshal Zhukov,
27:39he immediately notifies Stalin in Moscow.
27:42Stalin refuses to negotiate a ceasefire
27:45and demands nothing less than total surrender.
27:50Zhukov sends word to Goebbels and Bormann
27:52that they have until 10.15 a.m., roughly six hours,
27:56to agree to unconditional surrender.
27:58If they refuse, Zhukov vows to destroy what's left of Berlin.
28:0510.55 a.m., 40 minutes past their deadline.
28:09With still no response,
28:10the Red Army resumes their assault on Berlin.
28:13Goebbels knows it is all over.
28:15He can expect little mercy from the Soviets.
28:188.45 p.m.
28:21Goebbels paces in his study.
28:24His wife, Magda, and Dr. Ludwig Stumpfeger,
28:27Hitler's personal physician,
28:28force poison into the mouths of their six young children
28:31as they lie asleep in bed.
28:33Then Goebbels and Magda walk up into the Chancellery Garden.
28:38According to some accounts,
28:39Goebbels shoots his wife before shooting himself.
28:42Others would claim they asked an SS orderly to shoot them both.
28:45Then their bodies too are burnt.
28:51Less than an hour later,
28:52Admiral Dönitz makes a solemn address on Hamburg radio.
28:56With the booming notes of Bruckner's 7th Symphony in the background,
29:00he informs the people of Germany,
29:02who still have access to electricity,
29:04that Hitler has died leading his people into battle.
29:08The announcement is made by Dönitz
29:11that Hitler had died in the defense of Berlin.
29:14He had gone down, nothing but suicide.
29:17He had gone down in heroic glory.
29:23Dönitz also informs the world
29:25that he is the new leader of Germany.
29:27As the news of Hitler's death breaks,
29:30those remaining in the bunker also commit suicide
29:33or attempt to escape.
29:35Hitler's secretary, Traudel Junge,
29:37is arrested by the Soviets.
29:39Several weeks later,
29:40she was released,
29:41only to be recaptured and interrogated again
29:44by US intelligence officers.
29:4811pm.
29:49Alleged to be en route to Dönitz,
29:51Bormann disappears from the Chancellery
29:53and vanishes into the deadly streets of Berlin.
29:57He would never be seen again.
30:04The 2nd of May, 6am.
30:06Berlin's military commander, General Weidling, reaches a decision.
30:10He tells his remaining troops
30:12that he can no longer carry the responsibility
30:14for more deaths in a hopeless battle
30:16and informs them that he has decided to surrender.
30:19With that, he sends a radio message to the Soviets,
30:24offering to surrender Berlin.
30:26The Soviets send out messages to individual German units,
30:29calling for immediate surrender, promising fair treatment.
30:34Amid Berlin's smouldering ruins,
30:36Weidling and his senior officers lay down their arms.
30:42At the sight of the surrendering Germans,
30:44Soviet soldiers leap off their tanks
30:46and wild celebrations begin.
30:483pm.
30:51The German capital is now in the hands of the Red Army.
30:54The Soviets take 480,000 prisoners.
30:57But the victory has come at a high price.
31:00The battle for Berlin involved 3.5 million men on both sides,
31:06along with thousands of tanks and artillery.
31:13An estimated 150,000 German civilians are dead.
31:16The avenging Red Army has also paid dearly.
31:20In the battle for Berlin,
31:21more than 300,000 Soviet soldiers have been killed.
31:27It was one of the most chaotic, ghastly,
31:30bloody, brutal battles in human history.
31:34In the wake of the battle,
31:35Marshal Zhukov immediately launches a search for Hitler's body.
31:39As Soviet troops scavenge the ruins for the Führer's remains,
31:42the world responds to the news of his death.
31:45News of the fall of Berlin reaches the new head of the Reich.
31:51But Dönitz is desperate to win as much time as possible.
31:56Dönitz begins to negotiate with the Allies for surrender,
32:00trying at the same time to leave as much time
32:03for the remnants of German forces to escape to the West,
32:07closer to American lines,
32:09so that those soldiers can surrender to Americans.
32:12If Dönitz had any sane view about the interests of the German people,
32:15he would have just rushed to make an unconditional surrender,
32:18but of course he wouldn't do that.
32:20He went on behaving as if he was the leader of a real government,
32:24with some real chance of making a deal.
32:26And so through these days, while people were still fighting and dying,
32:30that Dönitz tried to make terms with the Allies.
32:34The 3rd of May.
32:36Dönitz orders the new head of the German Navy,
32:38Admiral Hans von Friedeberg,
32:40to meet with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
32:43The meeting takes place in Montgomery's caravan,
32:48parked on Lüneburg Heath, a few miles from Hamburg.
32:51Upon the delegation's arrival, Montgomery sarcastically asks,
32:55Who are you? What do you want?
32:57The offer is made to surrender all German forces in the North,
33:00but only to the Western Allies.
33:03In return, they ask that the safety of the civilian population be guaranteed.
33:07But Montgomery demands that they surrender to all the Allies,
33:11including the Soviets.
33:16Von Friedeberg insists that it's unthinkable to surrender to the Soviets,
33:20who the Nazis consider to be savages.
33:22Montgomery tells them they should have thought of that
33:25before they invaded Russia.
33:27When Montgomery's demands are relayed to Dönitz, he accepts.
33:32The 4th of May, 6.30pm.
33:37Von Friedeberg signs the formal document
33:40surrendering all German armed forces in the Netherlands,
33:43North-West Germany and Denmark.
33:45All hostilities are to cease at 8am the next day.
33:53But the surrender only includes German troops
33:55who have been fighting Montgomery's 21st Army Group in the North.
33:59The Germans must now meet with General Eisenhower,
34:02the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
34:04Eisenhower has made it clear that he will only accept a full
34:08and unconditional surrender to both Western and Eastern Allies.
34:12The 5th of May.
34:15Von Friedeberg and his colleagues travelled to Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims,
34:19in North-Eastern France.
34:21Eisenhower refuses to see them.
34:26He has no intentions of bargaining.
34:28He delegates the negotiations to his Chief of Staff, General Walter Smith.
34:32With the Germans still attempting to strike a separate peace with the Western Allies,
34:36the discussion breaks down.
34:38A final agreement will not be reached for another week.
34:43The Germans are not alone in their distrust of the Soviets.
34:46Across the Atlantic, delegates meeting in San Francisco discuss the fate of Poland.
34:51Many have grave suspicions about Stalin.
34:55The 4th of May, San Francisco.
34:59During the UN Conference on International Organization,
35:02discussions on the future of Poland are suspended.
35:05Western Allies learn that prominent Poles are being arrested by the occupying Soviet forces.
35:10The information is disclosed by Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov.
35:15The Soviets accuse the Poles of plotting against the Red Army.
35:18Churchill's worst fears about Stalin appear to be well grounded.
35:27September 1939, it was for the freedom of Poland that France and Britain had gone to war with Hitler.
35:34And now he saw, as America still seemed reluctant to perceive,
35:39that Poland was disappearing into the Soviet Empire.
35:42Stalin, by 1944, had developed an extraordinary appetite,
35:46not only for revenge, but for conquest.
35:49As Stalin's true motives become apparent, tensions mount among the Allies.
35:57But more than 5,000 miles away,
35:59the Allies are still deeply entrenched in a savage war against Japan.
36:06In the Pacific, the battle for Okinawa is showing signs of becoming a prolonged and bloody stalemate.
36:16Japanese defenders on the island have fallen back to the town of Shuri.
36:21US troops, under the command of General Simon Buckner,
36:24have made little headway against the well-dug-in enemy forces.
36:30The 30th of April.
36:31The 1st Marine Division replaces the worn-out 27th Division.
36:35The 6th Marine Division also prepares to head south and join the front line.
36:40For the Japanese, the situation is desperate.
36:48Reserves of food and ammunition are dwindling, and they can expect no reinforcements.
36:54Completely blockaded by US ships, General Ushijima, commander of Japanese forces on Okinawa,
37:00has no means to resupply.
37:02To make matters worse,
37:07Ushijima is coming under pressure from the Japanese High Command in Tokyo.
37:11They want him to take the fight to the enemy.
37:19The 2nd of May,
37:20Ushijima's Chief of Staff, General Cho,
37:23calls a meeting of senior officers at the Shuri Castle.
37:26He berates them bitterly for their failure to push the invaders back.
37:30He declares that by not going on the offensive,
37:33they are losing face and damaging the morale of Japanese troops.
37:39The son of Cho was extremely aggressive,
37:41and he very much was in favour of this counter-offensive.
37:44He thought this would be a means to overwhelm the Americans
37:47through the show of Japanese spiritual superiority,
37:50that the assault was everything.
37:52But Ushijima's staff is divided.
37:57Many believe a counter-offensive would simply squander
38:00what little resources are left.
38:02Following Cho's tirade,
38:04Ushijima reluctantly agrees to mount a counter-offensive.
38:11An attack would be made across the neck of southern Okinawa,
38:14from Meda in the centre of the island,
38:16to Uki in the east.
38:18Ushijima fears that the assault will be a disaster.
38:25The 3rd of May, as night falls,
38:27the Japanese offensive begins with an enormous artillery barrage
38:30on the U.S. 7th Division.
38:35Ushijima's counter-attack is led by the 24th Division,
38:3915,000 well-armed and trained soldiers.
38:42At 5 a.m., the Japanese infantry attack through their own artillery barrage.
38:47They take no prisoners and expect no mercy themselves.
38:51They fought to the death and even killed themselves
38:55if they were in a hopeless situation.
38:59Fortunately, their equipment was inferior to ours.
39:04As Ushijima and several of his officers have feared,
39:08it is not long before the superior firepower of U.S. forces begins to tell.
39:14They are supported by their few remaining light tanks,
39:17which are no match for their American counterparts.
39:19The Japanese just have no ability to overcome the American armour,
39:29to overcome the American firepower.
39:31When they are exposed, as they were during these counter-offensives,
39:34they are immediately vulnerable to American attack.
39:38The weight of the American artillery support defeats many attacks
39:43before they are even launched.
39:45Japanese forces can make no significant advance
39:47into such a hurricane of fire, and their losses are staggering.
39:52The 5th of May, the Japanese launch a second wave of attacks.
39:56This time, they manage to break through the lines
39:58between the U.S. 7th and 77th Divisions in the Tanabaru sector,
40:02causing alarm at divisional headquarters.
40:05The Japanese get one mile behind the American lines,
40:10but eventually they are cut off
40:12and come under heavy attack from U.S. infantry and artillery.
40:16The contest can have only one outcome.
40:24As they retreat,
40:25the Japanese leave the ground littered with bodies and weapons.
40:29By midnight, the fighting has ended.
40:32The Japanese counter-offensive proves disastrous.
40:35Ushijima loses 5,000 of his best men.
40:42American artillery also locates and destroys 19 of his heavy guns.
40:47In return, the Japanese kill or wound about 700 U.S. soldiers.
40:51Now, Ushijima is back on the defensive.
40:56He knows that he cannot win on Okinawa.
40:59But over the next eight weeks,
41:01he will protect every inch of ground
41:03and delay the U.S. victory for as long as possible.
41:07Many more lives will be lost before the battle for Okinawa is over.
41:11Next, on the last days of World War II,
41:16after nearly six years of war, Germany finally surrenders.
41:21We knew it was going to happen.
41:22It was just a question of whether it would be today or tomorrow or the next day.
41:26But isolated groups desperately fight on across Europe.
41:29The Second World War didn't end dramatically one day when all the guns fell silent.
41:38And in the Pacific, the U.S. suffered devastating losses.
41:42The USS Bunker Hill is hit by two kamikaze planes
41:46as Marines on Okinawa fight through a bloodbath.
41:50You can't go anywhere.
41:51And the only way to get out of there is to get wounded or killed.
42:10The USS Buker Hill
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