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00:00Previously on the last days of World War II, in Germany, Allied troops faced the grisly reality of the Third Reich,
00:07encountering one concentration camp after another.
00:11In the Pacific, Tokyo was hit by more massive bombing raids, whilst battered US troops forged ahead on Okinawa.
00:19And in the US, President Roosevelt died suddenly at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia.
00:25This week, after bitter fighting, Nuremberg, the spiritual home of the Nazi Party, falls to US forces.
00:36The Red Army unleashes the long-awaited assault on Berlin.
00:41And in the Pacific, as the battle for Okinawa rages on, Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent, is fatally wounded.
00:55The 15th of April, New York.
01:20Franklin Delano Roosevelt's body is taken to Hyde Park, New York, where he was born in 1882.
01:29There, the 32nd President of the United States is laid to rest in the garden of his estate.
01:38His grave is marked with a simple headstone.
01:41The free world is stunned by Roosevelt's death and mourns his passing.
01:45Memorial services for FDR are held worldwide, including one conducted for US forces 7,000 miles away on the Pacific island of Okinawa.
01:55Harry S. Truman finds himself thrust into the center of the greatest conflict the world has ever known.
02:06It is a position for which he is frighteningly ill-prepared.
02:11He didn't have very much education. He had been an unsuccessful clothing dealer.
02:17Truman suddenly found himself, on the 12th of April, President of the World.
02:22During his few weeks as Vice President, Truman had rarely seen Roosevelt.
02:27He had not been briefed on the Manhattan Project, and was ill-informed of the emerging conflicts of interest between the US and the USSR.
02:37These two challenges are now his to face, and would later define his presidency.
02:42Even the most experienced pilot cannot bring a ship safely into harbour, unless he has the full cooperation of the crew.
02:52For the benefit of all, every individual must do his duty.
02:58As Truman is forced onto the world stage, Allied soldiers continue to confront the horrors of the Nazi regime,
03:04as concentration camps throughout Germany are liberated.
03:07The 15th of April, 150 miles west of Berlin, the British Army enters the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen.
03:19It is the first camp liberated by the British Army.
03:25The camp had been run by Joseph Kramer, known as the Beast of Belsen, and a former commandant of Auschwitz.
03:31He has purposefully denied food supplies to the starving inmates.
03:35Inside the camp, horrified soldiers stumble upon more than 10,000 corpses, piled in huge, rotting heaps.
03:45Another 30,000 prisoners are still alive, but many on the brink of death.
03:50The inmates have been starved, and kept in overcrowded and filthy conditions.
03:55The majority will not live long beyond the camp's liberation.
03:58The British had learned about Bergen-Belsen three days before, when a German officer, under a flag of truce, approached their lines and told them there had been an outbreak of typhus in the camp.
04:10He suggested that the area should be declared neutral and quarantined.
04:19So the first thing that happened when these armies moved in, the medical corps said, my God, we've got an epidemic problem here.
04:26Typhus and all this stuff is going to break out.
04:27So the situation was pretty catastrophic.
04:33As details of Nazi atrocities are reported to the outside world, the reaction is one of shock and horror.
04:43BBC correspondent Richard Dimbleby describes the horrors he witnessed at Belsen.
04:47Beyond the barrier was a whirling cloud of dust, the dust of thousands of slowly moving people, laden in itself with the deadly typhus germ.
05:02And with the dust was a smell sickly and thick, the smell of death and decay, of corruption and filth.
05:12The worst thing was the smell of the bodies.
05:15There were thousands of bodies there, piled up in front of the incinerator, by the gas chambers.
05:23A smell, a stench, and we all knew what that meant.
05:28Take your time.
05:31That means death.
05:34I passed through the barrier and found myself in the world of a nightmare.
05:40The living labored their heads against the corpses,
05:43and around them moved the awful ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people with nothing to do and no hope of life.
05:52You couldn't believe the state of these humans.
05:57And they were like zombies, and a few could talk, and they were blankets, and they just stared at you, and we stared at them.
06:10Unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them.
06:16It was as though they were waiting their turn.
06:18The shock and the trauma for people in seeing what evil the Nazis and their instruments have been capable of is very hard to overestimate.
06:33And from that moment on, any danger that people would start feeling sorry for the Germans in their defeat and in the destruction of their country would out of the window.
06:43Bergen-Belsen became symbolic of what the Nazi regime was like, and it changed the character of the war, and it also, I think, changed humanity forever.
06:53As British soldiers struggle to control the horrific epidemics, Allied troops liberate two more prisons.
07:08The 16th of April.
07:10American infantry from the 69th Infantry Division advance on Kolditz Castle,
07:16one of the most notorious German POW camps just south of Leipzig.
07:23After a fierce battle with the SS, the GIs move in, not realising that the German guards have already laid down their arms.
07:30They wait inside the castle's courtyard, resigned to defeat.
07:39Kolditz housed around a thousand Allied prisoners, primarily officers.
07:43They included Viscount Gerald Lassell, the nephew of King George VI.
07:47On the same day that Kolditz is liberated, the Desert Rats, the 7th Armoured Division, liberates the falling Bostol prisoner of war camp in northern Germany.
08:04West of Berlin, the defence of the Reich disintegrates, as German soldiers surrender en masse.
08:09We encountered a German officer and about 2,000 of his men, and we had an advanced unit of sergeants, and that did not equal his rank.
08:31So he, uh, he said he wanted to surrender only to someone of equal rank or higher.
08:41The Allies did everything they could to try and make sure that the Germans would surrender in large numbers.
08:47Leaflets were dropped all over Germany, particularly near the front lines,
08:51which was basically guaranteeing a pass to what was called a pass to freedom.
08:56It guaranteed you safe passage to a POW camp.
09:00The 18th of April.
09:02After being completely encircled by the US First and Ninth Armies,
09:06more than 300,000 German troops surrender in the Ruhr Valley.
09:10The prisoners include nearly 30 generals.
09:18As the fighting draws to a close, US General Matthew Ridgway offers terms to his opposite number, Field Marshal Walter Modell.
09:26But Modell holds back.
09:27He is convinced the Americans will hand him over to the Soviets, from whom he expects no mercy.
09:33During the First World War, Modell won the Iron Cross, First and Second Class, akin to the British Military Cross.
09:42In the build-up to the Second World War, Modell was a pro-Nazi staff officer at the War Ministry,
09:48distinguished by his energy and resourcefulness.
09:56He appealed to Hitler.
09:58He was a gifted commander, but without the airs and graces of the traditional officer class, which Hitler so despised.
10:05Modell was a strong proponent of mobile, mechanised warfare.
10:09But it was as a defensive strategist that he would cement his reputation.
10:17In Russia in 1941, he was given command of a Panzer Corps.
10:21Despite clashes with Adolf Hitler, Modell's battlefield success earned him promotion to general in 1942.
10:31In August 1944, he was transferred to the Western Front, and ended up commanding an army group under von Rundstedt.
10:38Modell proved a brilliant commander, but Hitler's interference and the war situation meant Modell could not fend off the Allies forever.
10:45The 18th of April.
10:52Facing utter defeat, Modell orders troops under his command to disband and surrender to the Allies.
10:58Three days later, in a forest near Dusseldorf, and accompanied by just his personal aid, he walks off into the trees.
11:05Field Marshal Modell knew that this was a shameful situation for him to accept.
11:18And as the belligerent officer that he was, he walked out into the field late in the afternoon, one afternoon, with his aide.
11:26And he said, bury me at this point.
11:28And he committed suicide.
11:30He also knew that German conduct in the East would not be forgiven.
11:35Fanatical German defense intensifies, as yet another city, and the spiritual home of the Nazi party, falls to the Allies.
11:45The 20th of April.
11:47After heavy fighting, General Patch's U.S. 7th Army captures the city of Nuremberg in southern Germany, and takes 17,000 prisoners.
11:55The capture of Nuremberg is an important, symbolic victory for the Allies, precisely because of its significance for the Nazi movement.
12:06Hitler made his first appearance there in 1923.
12:10The city was the scene of huge Nazi rallies, attended by hundreds of thousands of his followers.
12:17Now, U.S. troops hoist the American flag over the Nuremberg Stadium.
12:21The pressure on the crumbling Reich mounts as the Allies inch closer to Berlin.
12:32Despite their rapid advance west of Berlin, the U.S. 9th Army is halted near Magdeburg, on the Elba.
12:39Though they are just 80 miles from the German capital, their orders are not to cross the river.
12:44Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower had decided three weeks ago that Berlin will be left to the Soviets.
12:53Eisenhower felt very strongly that it was his business to destroy Hitler's tyranny,
12:57but also to bring home alive as many of American and British soldiers as he possibly could.
13:05And it was already settled that Berlin was going to be inside the Soviet zone of occupation.
13:09So what was the gain, apart from a symbolic triumph, by sending American and British soldiers to die in a dash for Berlin?
13:20Joseph Stalin, the unpredictable Soviet leader, is hell-bent on his Red Army capturing the city.
13:26The rape of Russia will be avenged in Berlin.
13:29The Soviet Union was the power which had provided the blood, huge quantities, torrents of blood, to defeat the Nazi Empire.
13:38And for that, Stalin was determined to have his price.
13:42Soviet troops are now lined up along the river Oda, anxiously awaiting the order to advance on the Nazi capital.
13:48More than 30 feet under the city of Berlin, within the Führerbunker,
14:04Hitler awaits reports on the progress of the Soviet offensive.
14:08Hitler believes he is surrounded by cowardice and treachery.
14:11One has to assume that by April 1945, whatever he was saying, somewhere in that tormented psyche, he knew the game was up.
14:23And I believe that by that stage, he was as ready to settle for a cataclysmic bloodbath,
14:31in his opinion, worthy of the history of the Third Reich, as for the victory which he'd once sought.
14:36Even from the depths of the Führerbunker, Hitler's words reach desperate and drained troops on the front line.
14:48Hitler has commanded that whoever gives an order to retreat is to be shot.
14:53Hitler believes that the German people, and their lack of zeal and determination, are responsible for defeat.
15:02The 16th of April, Berlin.
15:05German civilians are feeling the futility of an all-but-lost war.
15:09Most are trying to get out of Berlin, but are trapped.
15:12Like their Führer, they take refuge from the impending disaster by retreating underground.
15:21It was required by law that a hole be dug between your cellar and the adjoining cellar,
15:26so that during a raid, if your house, your apartment building came down,
15:30you could still get across into the next one, the next one, the next one, and possible with the ability to get out.
15:35It's a period of immense chaos, of panic, of basically trying to find a safe harbour.
15:42And there really weren't any.
15:43With food and water scarce, they line up for hours to receive a few ounces of sugar or a half ounce of coffee.
15:51Medical supplies are dangerously low.
15:53The level of starvation, of deprivation, of psychological trauma, of sheer nervous erosion of that nation was unprecedented.
16:08From their cellars, the people of Germany feel the rumble of the Soviet artillery bombardment.
16:14The sounds of the approaching Russian army were certainly audible to Berliners.
16:20The firing of those guns, thousands and thousands of artillery pieces, would have been audible for miles and miles.
16:27Stalin's generals, on the other hand, are brimming with confidence.
16:34The Red Army's impending offensive will be able to call on two and a half million well-equipped and highly motivated troops.
16:41They have over 6,000 tanks, 40,000 guns and mortars, 3,000 rocket launchers, and 7,500 planes.
16:55Among the Soviet aircraft, the Ilyushin Sturmovik drives fear into the hearts of retreating Germans.
17:01Amongst the most effective ground attack aircraft of the war, the Sturmovik is sometimes referred to as the flying tank.
17:13The pilot, gunner, and the plane's vital components are all well protected by an armor-plated shell.
17:19It surrounds the cockpit and the front of the fuselage.
17:23Armed with two cannon and three machine guns, it could also carry eight rockets or 800 pounds of bombs.
17:31As the Soviet Union faced defeat in 1941,
17:44Joseph Stalin demanded that manufacturers turn out Sturmoviks as quickly as possible.
17:48I demand more IL-2s, he wrote.
17:51I warn you for the last time.
17:54It was a powerful inducement.
17:5636,000 Sturmoviks in many variants were produced during the war.
18:00As Stalin's massive army prepares to strike at Berlin, the Wehrmacht gathers its remaining strength to mount a last-ditch defense.
18:11Germany is still able to field an army of one million men, organized as Army Group Vistula.
18:18They are supported by 10,000 artillery pieces and 3,000 aircraft.
18:22This desperately outnumbered and outgunned force will be commanded by General Gotthard-Henriki.
18:32General Gotthard-Henriki became commander of Army Group Vistula after his predecessor, Heinrich Himmler,
18:38lost his nerve and took a leave of absence in March 1945.
18:42Initially, Henrich Himmler will fight stubbornly against the Red Army, but the Soviet attack is overwhelming.
18:57There's no question at all that Berlin will be taken.
19:01The question is only at what cost.
19:03Stalin's forces are poised along the Oda.
19:07The world is watching, knowing this offensive will be the final act of the war in Europe.
19:14The 16th of April.
19:16Berlin's defenses will be tested on two fronts.
19:19The Germans face Marshal Zhukov's first Belarusian front on the Oda, near Kustrin, less than 50 miles from Berlin.
19:36To the south is Marshal Konev, commanding the first Ukrainian front.
19:41Konev's men will begin a second drive over the river Neisser, near Tribal.
19:45Stalin has carefully cultivated fierce competition between the two Marshal's for the prize of Berlin.
19:53The resulting sense of urgency will cause thousands of needless deaths.
19:59An awful lot of the Soviet soldiers who died in the battle for Berlin didn't die for tactical reasons to do with beating the Germans.
20:08They died in the manic rush to satisfy the rival ambitions of Zhukov and Konev.
20:15The 16th of April, 5am.
20:18Just before dawn, three flares streak high into the sky east of Berlin.
20:23It's the signal the Soviet troops have been waiting for, for four long years.
20:27There has been a pause of several weeks before this last offensive.
20:36Time for Zhukov's massive army to assemble and prepare.
20:40Time for Soviet soldiers to practice river crossings and attacks.
20:43And for the engineers to rehearse building pontoons in combat conditions.
20:48Now the moment has arrived, and the final thrust into the heart of the Third Reich has begun.
21:02Soviet artillery bombards German positions opposite the Kustrin bridgehead.
21:06Guns are placed every 13 feet, virtually wheel to wheel along a front of 55 miles.
21:14The whole Oder valley reverberates to one of the biggest artillery barrages in history.
21:19After an hour, Zhukov's forces begin their attack on Berlin.
21:27To the south, Konev's first Ukrainian front launch their attack from the river Nysa.
21:366.15am.
21:37Konev opens his artillery barrage.
21:40After 40 minutes, aided by airstrikes and thick drifting smoke,
21:44he orders his assault troops to cross the river.
21:50Facing little opposition, Konev's troops make rapid progress,
21:54and a series of light bridges are erected.
21:589.00am.
21:59The first heavy pontoon bridge is up.
22:01Feverish activity follows.
22:03By the afternoon, the first 60-tonne load bridge is also in position.
22:08Now, the tanks and heavy artillery roll forward.
22:14In the north, Marshal Zhukov's men are not so lucky.
22:22Zhukov's troops have run up against stiff German opposition at the Silo Heights,
22:26a series of plateaus 35 miles east of Berlin.
22:35Heavy gunfire brings Red Army forces to an abrupt halt.
22:40Flooded fields hold up the tank support.
22:44Zhukov is enraged by the delay.
22:53With every passing minute, he can see his place in history
22:55being snatched away from him by his rival, Konev.
23:03Against advice and the High Command's orders,
23:06he commits his armoured reserves.
23:07As expected, the tanks get bogged down in soft ground.
23:12They can do little to help the infantry.
23:14By midnight, Zhukov's forces advance only a few miles along the front.
23:18The 17th of April.
23:27In just one day, Zhukov has lost 30,000 men.
23:32Soviet casualties are 30% greater than that of the Germans.
23:36In Moscow, Stalin is briefed on the day's events.
23:45He flies into a rage and berates Zhukov over the telephone.
23:51Zhukov swears that the Silo Heights will be in Soviet hands within 24 hours.
23:55After an attack by 800 bombers and a massive artillery barrage,
24:07the tanks and infantry surge forward again.
24:10By nightfall, the Silo Heights fall to the Soviets.
24:13But beyond the heights, Soviet troops confront a second line of defence
24:19and sustain heavy casualties.
24:22Stalin steps in, ordering Konev to adjust his line of attack.
24:26By the end of the day, Zhukov and Konev are neck and neck
24:30in the bloody race to Berlin.
24:35The 20th of April, 11am.
24:38Marshal Zhukov and his men reach the outskirts of Berlin.
24:43Following an air raid by British mosquitoes,
24:49Soviet artillery opens up on the ravaged city.
24:58German troops facing the assault on Berlin's outer defences
25:01fight for their lives and for the existence of Nazi Germany.
25:13But the German defenders are rocked by the force and scale
25:17of the Soviet bombardment.
25:19The carnage is horrifying.
25:21The medics are unable to cope,
25:23treating only those able to go back into battle.
25:26Others are left to die.
25:32Berlin's defence is in the hands of a mix of old men,
25:35loyal SS soldiers and boys of the Hitler youth.
25:38The German youth had been told that the Red Army would kill them
25:45or ship them all to Siberia.
25:47So they resist fanatically.
25:57The 20th of April.
25:58The Red Army is on Hitler's doorstep.
26:02But amid the chaos and destruction,
26:04the Führer pauses to mark his 56th birthday.
26:08Hitler spent his birthday in the Führer bunker,
26:12surrounded by the attacking Red Army,
26:15in an extreme state of depression, paranoia, borderline insanity.
26:22Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler,
26:24Field Marshal Keitel and other Nazi dignitaries
26:27convene for the muted celebration.
26:29All the dignitaries of the Third Reich
26:31made their way into Berlin.
26:32You have to imagine what this is like.
26:34The whole city is ruins.
26:37But on April 20th, they were all there.
26:39All the big wigs of the NSDAP had shown up.
26:42I think it's a reflection of the enormously powerful hold
26:45the man still had on this,
26:47the top leadership of the party and of the state.
26:51It was always important to be there on the Führer's birthday.
26:54You don't miss that.
26:55Even if it's Berlin and it's 1945 and the Russians are coming.
26:59During his birthday celebration,
27:02some urge Hitler to flee the bunker and seek refuge in Bavaria.
27:06Hitler refuses.
27:10Hitler knew that once he left Berlin
27:14that he would look undignified.
27:17Hitler had written in Mein Kampf
27:20that his destiny would be to either rule the world
27:23or see Germany fall apart and be destroyed and go up in flames.
27:28And that's exactly what happened.
27:32The Führer's mistress, Eva Braun, also remains at his side.
27:36She says that she would not want to remain in a Germany without him,
27:40that it would not be for a true German to live in.
27:46Later in the day, Adolf Hitler emerges
27:48from his subterranean fortress for the last time.
27:51He meets a group of Hitler youth in the Chancelry Garden
27:54and presents them with medals for their bravery
27:57in attacking Soviet tanks.
28:00This is the last time Adolf Hitler would be seen in public.
28:11That evening, Hitler goes to bed earlier than usual,
28:14leaving some of his entourage, including Eva Braun,
28:17to dance and drink champagne.
28:18When this meeting on Hitler's birthday breaks up,
28:23this is the point at which Himmler and Göring
28:26go to their respective destinations in North and South Germany
28:29and begin their machinations, their negotiations
28:32for some sort of separate peace.
28:35It must have been clear to anybody
28:37that Hitler was completely detached from reality.
28:39Above ground, weary Berliners who have endured
28:46countless bombing raids and the destruction of their city
28:49wait for the war to come to its bitter and inevitable conclusion.
28:53The 21st of April,
29:00Zhukov's forces reach the eastern suburbs of Berlin,
29:04but their advance is once again slowed by German defences.
29:07To the south, Konev is rapidly penetrating the city's southern limits.
29:20As the Red Army tightens the noose around Berlin,
29:23Hitler becomes desperate.
29:25He orders his armies fighting on the Elbe to relieve Berlin.
29:28But it's too late.
29:30The Red Army is poised to strike the fatal blow.
29:37Halfway around the world,
29:39US forces make a painstaking advance on Okinawa.
29:42The Marines have endured a week of vicious fighting
29:45against fanatical Japanese fighters.
29:47The 15th of April, Okinawa.
29:51The Japanese resist desperately,
29:53forcing American troops to fight and die for every yard of ground.
29:58Little resistance was met when the Americans first landed on Okinawa
30:01on the 1st of April.
30:03But the battle has now become a relentless bloodbath.
30:08General Simon Buckner, leading the 10th Army,
30:11has quickly bisected the island,
30:13leaving Japanese defenders isolated in the north and south.
30:16But things aren't quite going according to plan.
30:20On the 9th of April,
30:22US Marines ran into the Shuri line of defences,
30:25fortified positions in rugged hills
30:27that brought the American advance in the south to a standstill.
30:31After his troops get bogged down,
30:33some of his generals, especially his Marine generals,
30:36advise Buckner to land the 2nd Marine Division on the enemy's flank.
30:42But Buckner will not do that.
30:44He feels he doesn't have enough landing craft
30:46to give this kind of invasion the logistical support it needs.
30:50So his troops are going to drive dead ahead,
30:53fight the kind of battle that the Japanese wanted him to fight,
30:56and the 10th Army is going to suffer about a 35% casualty rate on Okinawa.
31:02That's a high rate of attrition.
31:05Who wants to go into a battle where you have a one out of three chance of becoming a casualty?
31:16US Marines are intent on capturing Mount Yaitake on the Motobu Peninsula,
31:21which is now cut off from the rest of the island.
31:24The rugged terrain is impassable for tanks.
31:27Marine infantry must lead the advance.
31:29The Americans are constantly harassed by snipers and mortar fire.
31:43US troops also face desperate hand-to-hand fighting.
31:48Unarmed combat has been practiced by Okinawans for more than 1,000 years.
31:52The island's rulers had banned people from carrying weapons.
31:58A martial art emerged called karate, meaning empty hand.
32:08Two weeks after landing, the Marines are ready to attack Mount Yaitake.
32:12The 16th of April.
32:17Supported by artillery and airstrikes, the Marines storm forward.
32:22As they approach the Yaitake crest, mortars and grenades rain down amongst them.
32:35But by late afternoon, a company of Marines is digging in on the top of the mountain.
32:40But the battle for the peninsula is not over.
32:49The 17th of April.
32:51US forces begin clearing the slopes of Yaitake.
32:54The Japanese can offer only light resistance.
32:57By the end of the next day, Motobu Peninsula is secure.
33:05246 US Marines have been killed, and four times as many wounded.
33:10US troops count more than 2,500 dead Japanese soldiers.
33:16Only 46 Japanese prisoners have been taken.
33:22While organized resistance on the northern part of Okinawa collapses,
33:26US commanders on the ground realize that the enemy has massed his strength in the south.
33:31There, the bulk of Japanese forces are dug deep into the rugged hills.
33:38It will take a massive effort to dislodge them.
33:41It's almost indescribable, the level of carnage that the American soldiers and the Japanese soldiers encounter in these engagements.
33:52Possibly unlike anything that troops had encountered anywhere up to this point in the war.
33:56Now, US Army infantry, under the command of Major General John Hodge, prepare to move south.
34:03They are faced with the daunting prospect of flushing out more than 80,000 Japanese soldiers,
34:09most of whom would prefer to die rather than surrender.
34:12Honour was a very important concept to the Japanese soldier.
34:16It was as important as it was to his enemy, except that for him, honour meant if you have to sacrifice your life, you do that willingly.
34:25In fact, either you win or you die.
34:27The 19th of April, 6am, the US Navy and land artillery mount the most concentrated bombardment of the Pacific War.
34:42Six battleships, six cruisers and six destroyers mount an offshore barrage.
34:50600 planes add their bombs, rockets and napalm to the maelstrom.
34:5719,000 shells fall on the enemy in the first 40 minutes.
35:03But the Japanese are dug in deep and wait for the massive bombardment to ease up.
35:09The defenders are almost unscathed and ferociously fight off the American infantry attacks that follow.
35:22As US troops struggle to penetrate well-fortified Japanese positions,
35:26the US 77th Division is ordered to seize the island of Iershima,
35:31a small island off the west coast of Okinawa.
35:35Iershima is home to a much-needed airfield.
35:38It's about five miles long and two miles wide, enclosed by a coral reef.
35:43Cliffs with hundreds of caves border its north and northwest coast.
35:48Because of its shape, the island is described as a huge, immovable aircraft carrier.
35:52In preparation for the landing, the battleship USS Texas, two cruisers and four destroyers
36:03pound targets on the island for three days.
36:06The 16th of April, Iershima.
36:15US troops head for the beach.
36:17Waves of US amphibious tanks and tractors drive towards the landing site from more than three miles offshore.
36:36They're met with only scattered light resistance during the first hours.
36:40Soon, the assault battalions are more than a mile inland.
36:44Minefields prove the greatest obstacle.
36:46The Japanese wait for nightfall before launching their counterattack on the invader.
36:52US forces are attacked by a reckless and desperate enemy.
36:55Some with spears, others who strap bombs to their bodies.
36:59Many Japanese are gunned down in suicidal charges.
37:02The Japanese believe that the noblest form of warfare was getting close with a bladed weapon,
37:13the samurai sword or the bayonet.
37:16Even though the Japanese had great defensive tactics,
37:21once they were in close contact with the enemy, they would get impatient.
37:24And they would want to try and finish the enemy, and they would try to overwhelm them.
37:32As the battle rages on, the 77th Infantry play host to a famous visitor.
37:37Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent.
37:40But the visit would end in tragedy.
37:49Described as a frail little man, a gentle soul who hated war,
37:54Ernie Pyle is one of the war's most distinguished and revered correspondents.
37:58His reporting skills earned him respect from all levels of the military.
38:06Following Pearl Harbor, Pyle jumped at the chance to follow US forces into battle.
38:11Ernie Pyle could interact at all levels, from GIs to generals.
38:17But he was most skilful at conveying the experiences of ordinary soldiers.
38:22In 1944, his war reporting won him the Pulitzer Prize.
38:33The 18th of April.
38:35Bound for an observation post and then division headquarters,
38:38a group of men, including Ernie Pyle, take off in a jeep.
38:43Along the way, they're met with a burst of machine gun fire.
38:47All the men are thrown from the vehicle.
38:52Each man yells out that he is safe.
38:54But then there is another burst of machine gun fire.
38:57Ernie Pyle is shot through the temple.
39:00The man who had written six columns a week for 24 US newspapers is gone.
39:11His body is recovered by American soldiers.
39:14A draft of a newspaper column,
39:16which he had hoped to publish at the end of the war in Europe,
39:19is found in his pocket.
39:22The 18th of April.
39:27The Americans face a desperate and formidable enemy on Ioshima.
39:31Determined not to yield the airfield,
39:33the Japanese resist with all their might.
39:36Even civilians are pressed into the fight.
39:38The scale of resistance on the tiny island
39:40takes the US forces completely by surprise.
39:43The Japanese government has led civilians to believe that US soldiers
39:51will inflict humiliating torture and death on anyone they capture.
39:56They defend their island with the same fanatical ferocity as soldiers,
40:00even though they are armed with little more than wooden clubs and spears.
40:04The 21st of April.
40:10After six days of fierce fighting,
40:12Ioshima is finally in American hands.
40:15The Americans have taken over 1,000 casualties with 172 dead.
40:20The Japanese lose 4,700 dead.
40:23Next, on the last days of World War II,
40:28Berlin falls to the Red Army street by street.
40:33The Soviet advance on Berlin was urban warfare at its worst.
40:39Soviet and American troops come face to face for the first time.
40:43It was basically a highly symbolic moment, of course,
40:49because that meant that the war against Germany was over.
40:54And in the Pacific,
40:55there is no respite from the murderous close-quarter fighting.
40:59The American troops come face to face for the first time.
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