For educational purposes
April 1945. Safe in his heavily fortified FYhrerbunker in the centre of Berlin, Hitler prepares for the Allies' final attack.
April 1945. Safe in his heavily fortified FYhrerbunker in the centre of Berlin, Hitler prepares for the Allies' final attack.
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00:00Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany and Hitler's power base, a gleaming city at the heart of
00:10the Führer's plan for an empire to outshine the Romans.
00:14Adolf Hitler fancied himself as an architect.
00:18But then the Russians arrive, and Hitler must prepare Berlin for battle.
00:26It was all about elevating the most powerful cannons above the city rooftops.
00:32The city becomes a fortress.
00:35Buried at its centre, the indestructible Führer bunker.
00:40This is where Hitler's going to make his last stand.
00:44One million Russian soldiers, five layers of Nazi defences, and a battle to decide the
00:51future of the world.
00:53This is the story of Fortress Berlin.
01:02The biggest construction project of World War II, ordered by Hitler to secure world
01:08domination.
01:12Now they survive as dark reminders of the Führer's fanatical military ambitions.
01:18These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:26April the 28th, 1945.
01:31The tanks of the Soviet Red Army roll through the streets of war-torn Berlin.
01:38German troops, many just children, lie in wait to defend their city from the Russian
01:43hordes.
01:46Eighteen-year-old soldier Dieter Borkowski will be an eyewitness to these unfolding events.
02:01All over the city are haunting reminders of these last days of the Nazi capital.
02:15Historian and World War II expert Michael Dempsey has spent years piecing together the
02:19evidence.
02:22The Battle of Berlin was of a scale we can scarcely imagine.
02:28Over a million Soviet Red Army soldiers are entering the city, less than 100,000 are defending
02:33it.
02:34The scale, the intensity, the brutality of this Battle of Berlin would beg a belief but
02:40for the evidence.
02:48Just ten years earlier, in 1935, the picture was very different.
02:54Berlin was the seat of Nazi power, a cosmopolitan world city and one of the cultural capitals
03:00of Europe.
03:03Hitler and his chief architect, Albert Speer, had embarked on an ambitious construction
03:07programme to transform the skyline of Berlin.
03:12Adolf Hitler always fancied himself as something of an artist, as perhaps an architect, a man
03:20with high cultural potential.
03:22Colossal government buildings, airports and stadiums, all showcased at the 1936 Olympic
03:30Games.
03:33Hitler had even greater plans for the capital, to make it the centre of a 1,000-year Reich
03:39that would match the Roman Empire in scale and longevity.
03:45Hitler's new, created Berlin, with its vast domes, huge streets, massive, giant, outsized
03:52edifices.
03:54This is very much part of the German psyche.
04:00Hitler lays the foundation for his 1,000-year Reich by conquering large swathes of Europe.
04:09But in 1944, British and American troops land on the French coast and advance from the west.
04:16In the east, the Russians push back from Stalingrad until they cross the frozen River Oder, bringing
04:22them to within 48 kilometres of Berlin and Hitler.
04:29The Allies are on the verge of ending World War II in Europe.
04:33The battle along this river could decide the fate of Germany.
04:37All the weapons you have are the last we have.
04:42You must fight fanatically to stop the Russian offensive.
04:52Hitler will never surrender.
04:56He's a man of extremes.
04:58So it's the 1,000-year Reich or it's collapsing in Armageddon.
05:03There's no middle ground.
05:04It's always one or the other in his mind.
05:08The Führer clings to the hope that one of his wonder weapons might yet turn the war
05:12back in his favour.
05:15To buy time, he holds out in Berlin, creating a castle of concrete and steel and ordering
05:22every last German to defend it to the death.
05:27Berlin of course is going to become a fortress because it's the capital of the Third Reich.
05:30This is where Hitler's going to make his last stand.
05:35Hitler's plan is to encircle Berlin in five layers of formidable structures, starting
05:40with the first obstacle, 59 kilometres of tank traps at sea-low heights, an outer ring
05:47of defence, including the Teltow Canal, an inner ring at the stronghold of Tempelhof
05:53Airport, three enormous flak towers, a final layer of waterways and the core of the fortress,
06:03the Citadel.
06:05It is here that the Reichstag and Hitler's bunker are located.
06:14This is a car park in the middle of Berlin, probably the most interesting car park in
06:19the world, given that it is the authentic historical site of Hitler's bunker.
06:26Eight metres beneath this car park are the remains of the infamous Führer bunker.
06:33After the war, the Allies tried to demolish it to prevent it becoming a Nazi shrine, but
06:39it was too strong.
06:42It wasn't until 1988 that the lid of that concrete case was actually destroyed over
06:49a six-month period.
06:53The story of its construction and the start of Fortress Berlin begins with Allied bombing
06:58raids over the capital.
07:02The Führer no longer feels safe.
07:06From the outset, Hitler has always been a bit obsessed with being underground.
07:10It goes back to his experiences in the trenches in the First World War.
07:13You find a lot of people who have lived through the First World War, they feel secure underground.
07:20The Nazis bury the Führer bunker deep beneath the Chancellery Gardens.
07:25There are 30 small rooms distributed over two levels and Hitler's room is in the deepest
07:30section with the most protection.
07:35Seventy-five miles south of Berlin, in the town of Sossen, are the remains of another
07:40Nazi complex that gives a unique insight into Hitler's bunker.
07:50Former armoured squadron leader Nigel Dunkley is an expert in the fall of Berlin.
08:00Right, here we are in the Sossen-Wunsdorf bunker complex.
08:09This bunker complex was built by the same company that also built Hitler's bunker,
08:14so it's the last thing that we've got anywhere near or in Berlin which is pretty well identical
08:20in construction and in atmosphere to Hitler's bunker.
08:26These bunkers cover an area of nearly 5,000 square metres.
08:38It was the German military communication nerve centre, the Nazi equivalent of the Pentagon.
08:46To protect it from Allied air attack, the engineers didn't just bury it 11 metres below
08:50ground.
08:52They also gave it an impenetrable roof, something Hitler wanted in his bunker too.
09:02This is three metres of reinforced concrete, reinforced with steel rods.
09:06Now over Hitler's bunker, he had 4.5 metres of reinforced concrete designed to protect
09:13him from anything that either the Soviets or anybody else could throw at him.
09:20Hitler's bunker is in the middle of the fortress.
09:23Like a castle, it's surrounded with water.
09:28The river Spree and the Landwehr Canal encircle the citadel in a natural moat.
09:34The next layer is the three flak towers, fortresses 50 metres high, each bristling with 20 anti-aircraft
09:42weapons.
09:48Only one still exists, and access to its extraordinary interior is limited.
09:54Local guide Sean Davies is an expert on their construction.
09:59We're standing on the only side of the building that still survives, the north face of the
10:04flak tower.
10:05And it really gives us an idea of the scale of the building.
10:10These flak towers will soon become the most important defensive structures in the whole
10:14of Berlin.
10:16But they get their start when Allied forces begin to bomb the city.
10:24The first British bombing raid found Berlin relatively likely protected.
10:28The reason is very simple, the Nazis had traditionally not thought that the British, and indeed any
10:34other air force, would successfully bomb Germany.
10:39Hitler needs to protect Berlin, to preserve it for its future as the capital of his empire.
10:46The Nazis immediately embarked on a building programme to create air raid shelters and
10:51fortresses to protect the cities from future bombing raids.
10:57And that's what Hitler was involved in.
11:00The flak tower design is Hitler's brainchild, and he employs his favourite architect to
11:05oversee the project, Albert Speer.
11:16This is how I see the new flak towers, are they a viable design?
11:23Of course, they are impregnable, and they've been guarding this new fabulous city of ours
11:29for centuries.
11:31Well, Albert Speer is a very interesting character, because he's an architect, and he buys into
11:37Hitler, and he buys into what the Nazis represent.
11:41But he's a hugely capable, clever, highly motivated individual.
11:49Hitler's design requires over 100,000 tonnes of tough concrete and steel.
11:58Every day, 3,700 tonnes is shipped to the capital just to build the flak towers.
12:04The railway timetable is changed to accommodate a never-ending stream of material.
12:13Despite their scale, each of these bastions of Fortress Berlin are constructed in just
12:18eight months.
12:26The flak tower was all about elevating the most powerful cannons in the German arsenal
12:32above the city rooftops, giving them a perfect field of fire.
12:39The square tower has four turrets, each with dual 128mm flak guns, powerful weapons designed
12:48to bring down Allied bombers.
12:51But when the Russians arrive, these guns will be pointed down the streets.
12:58One of the soldiers tasked with manning these flak tower guns is 18-year-old Dieter Borkowski,
13:03who kept a diary recounting his exploits.
13:11By 1945, teenagers like Dieter are typical of the inexperienced troops left to defend
13:17Hitler's capital.
13:48At just 18, Nazi Germany is all Dieter has known.
14:00He will soon have to defend his family, his Führer, and his nation.
14:10February 1945.
14:12The Soviet forces camped on the River Oder plan their attack on Berlin as their army
14:17grows with reinforcements from Russia.
14:26The Allies send their bombers to flatten Berlin and ease the way for the Russians to invade.
14:38From this height, we could look out straight over the northern approach to Berlin, and
14:44of course, the anti-aircraft guns would have had absolutely no problem turning and facing
14:50in any direction that the enemy bombers were using to fly into Berlin.
14:59On top of the flak towers, anti-aircraft gunners battle to bring down the Allied planes.
15:09With guns capable of firing 13 kilometres, they can create 360 degrees of cover, and
15:24the sheer power of these weapons must be calculated into the building's design.
15:34Every time a shot was fired, it created somewhere in the region of 40 tonnes that punched down
15:40onto the building.
15:42The Allied bombers directly hit the flak towers numerous times, but Albert Speer's design
15:49is working.
15:51The sheer volume of material in the structures makes them indestructible.
15:55The man responsible for what remains of these flak towers is Sascha Kiel.
16:01This is a very good point to show you how thick the wall was.
16:05We have here two metres of steel concrete, and I'm standing in the wall.
16:09You have to imagine that the ceiling is double, four metres of steel concrete and more.
16:20The bombing of the city is relentless.
16:23Berliners turn to the enormous flak towers for protection, over 15,000 crowd into each
16:29one.
16:38In the citadel, Hitler also seeks shelter.
16:45He has no choice but to move his command centre underground, into the safety of his
16:50bunker.
17:03Hitler is determined to fight to the end, to fight for every yard, and he's not going
17:07to leave Berlin.
17:08He's going to hunker down in his bunker and stay there until the bitter end.
17:14The Nazi elite have access to other purpose-built shelters.
17:24So here we're in a Luftschutzraum, an air protection room, an air raid shelter.
17:32This is actually quite a small shelter, but it would have been packed, especially towards
17:36the end of the war.
17:40We've got some sort of light comedy on the wall around me.
17:46It's enough, perhaps, just to make this place seem more homely.
17:57After every raid, Berliners like Dieter Borkowski emerge to find their magnificent city bombed
18:03into oblivion.
18:08When you look at pictures of Berlin by the spring of 1945, this is a post-apocalyptic
18:14world.
18:15It's a world of shattered buildings, of barely a single pane of glass still intact.
18:22There's rubble everywhere, there's gaunt, thin, emaciated people, there's disease, there's
18:29open sewage.
18:31This is a town, a city, that has already been destroyed before the Soviets have got within
18:36artillery range of the capital.
18:42Berliners are terrified of the advancing Russians, and they have a fearsome reputation.
18:48Earlier in the war, the Nazi army had marched all the way to the gates of Moscow, inflicting
18:53brutal atrocities on the people who stood in their way.
18:57But when the war turned, the Russians fought all the way back to the edge of the German
19:02capital.
19:03With one thing on their minds.
19:08The Soviet army had fought relentlessly through areas that extended from Stalingrad all the
19:13way to the gates of Berlin.
19:15They'd seen horrific things.
19:16They had seen what Nazi soldiers had done as they progressed towards, through the occupied
19:22territories where the Reich had been.
19:24And they arrived at the gates, ready to take revenge.
19:35Refugees fleeing from the East arrive in the city, with tales of the treatment Berliners
19:40can expect from the Soviets.
19:43Silence!
19:44What did she say?
19:49Nothing.
19:50Don't lie!
19:51She said, when the Russians come, they'll take us to the mines in Siberia, and our women
20:05will all be turned into prostitutes.
20:20March 1945.
20:22After camping on the River Oder for two months, the Soviets have stockpiled over seven million
20:27shells, ready to fire at Berlin.
20:31The Allies in the West have crossed the River Rhine.
20:35Against the advice of his generals, Hitler is determined to defend his capital, even
20:40without his promised wonder weapons.
20:44Albert Speer, his architect, came to him and said, listen, we need to do something in order
20:48to protect German industry so that we can rebuild properly after the defeat.
20:53Hitler said, after the defeat?
20:54Are you kidding?
20:55There will be no defeat.
20:56And the next day issued his mural order, scorched earth policy, that Berlin would not be left
21:01standing with anything of value that Soviets could use.
21:06The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the
21:14slightest regard to our population.
21:19I order anything of value which could in any way be used by the enemy to be destroyed.
21:29Nothing should be left.
21:31Nothing.
21:32In a stunning turn, Hitler proposes demolishing industrial complexes, strategic railways and
21:40ancient bridges.
21:44Destroying priceless architectural wonders is something that horrifies his chief architect.
21:53At this stage of the war, it makes no sense for us to undertake demolitions which may
21:58strike at the very life of the nation.
22:01We must leave nothing for the Russians.
22:04But by destroying everything?
22:06If you could believe that the war can still be won, if you could at least have faith in
22:11that, all would be well.
22:13Do you?
22:16I cannot with the best will in the world.
22:22I do not want to be another swine in your entourage who tells you they believe in victory
22:27when I don't.
22:34You have 24 hours to think over your answer.
22:52On March the 30th, 1945, Albert Speer bends to Hitler's will.
22:58He starts the strategic demolition of the Nazi industrial machine.
23:0348 kilometers away, the Soviet forces are camped on the west bank of the river Oder,
23:1016 kilometers from the first line of defense Silo Heights, ready to attack.
23:18They have now assembled 41 heavily armored divisions and over 9,000 assault guns.
23:25The Russians weren't even considering attacking unless they had ten to one, and preferably
23:2940 to one, at least, at the main point of attack.
23:33In other words, overwhelming numbers.
23:37One million Russian troops, 2,500 tanks and 1,500 rocket launchers.
23:46Hitler's generals know they're hugely outnumbered, but the Fuhrer won't listen to their concerns.
23:59These generals, they tell me this is not possible and that is not possible, unbelievable.
24:08The army must hold the Russians at the Oder.
24:15The sort of 30 miles to Berlin between the river Oder and the capital is open.
24:21So this is your sort of last defense before the Red Army reaches the capital, the heart
24:26of the Third Reich.
24:29The German generals know the only way to hold back the Red Army is to take advantage of
24:34natural terrain between the Soviet camp on the river and the capital.
24:40So we are standing on the Seelow Heights, and this is the last high ground before you
24:45get to the city itself, making this an ideal position for the Germans to then defend.
24:51From Seelow Heights, the Germans will see the enemy's 2,500 tanks advance.
24:58The Nazis need to reduce Russian tank numbers and even the odds.
25:03Ingeniously, they exploit what already exists in the German countryside.
25:09So they're going to adapt the irrigation ditches that crisscross this landscape, and they're
25:13going to adapt them to form anti-tank ditches.
25:16An anti-tank ditch must be wider than the length of the tank tracks, so it can't drive
25:21over the top.
25:22The ditch edge is angled to 70 degrees, gentle enough for the tank to drive straight into
25:28the trap.
25:30So they will have to be bridged by engineers.
25:33That will cause the tanks to stop.
25:36A static tank is easier to hit than a moving tank, and again, around these obstacles, you
25:41can concentrate anti-tank weapons.
25:45The Germans create over 58 kilometers of trenches and anti-tank ditches to defend Seelow Heights.
26:05The final battle, the fight for Berlin, begins at 3 a.m. on April the 16th, 1945.
26:15At first light, Russian tanks and infantry surge forward.
26:22The Soviets were in a rush at this point.
26:24They wanted to make their way as fast as possible into Fortress Berlin.
26:30But at the end of the first day, the Russians still haven't taken Seelow Heights.
26:37To their horror, they discovered that the German defenses were much more effective than
26:43they had imagined.
26:45Amazingly, even though they're outnumbered 10 to 1, the Germans hold back the mighty
26:51Red Army for four days.
26:57No amount of German ingenuity and solid, determined defense was going to last forever.
27:06It really was only a question of time before sheer weight of numbers and dogged determination
27:13on the Soviet side won the day.
27:19Eventually Russian engineers bridge the tank traps, and on April the 19th, the Soviets
27:24overcome Seelow Heights.
27:27They've lost over 30,000 men and 700 tanks, but are one step closer to Berlin.
27:39At the Führerbunker, Hitler is celebrating his 56th birthday.
27:45In what will be his last public appearance and the last footage of him, he greets a selection
27:50of the Hitler youth who survived Seelow Heights.
27:55Adolf Hitler is congratulating and indeed decorating boys with medals of honor, the
28:03Iron Cross, for their courage in taking on Soviet tanks, in many cases at close range.
28:12Outside Berlin, nearly 2,000 Russian tanks are storming towards the outer defense ring
28:16of the city.
28:19To combat these tanks, the Nazis have a revolutionary weapon, a lightweight anti-tank missile.
28:25The Panzerfaust.
28:26No, no, no, stupid.
28:27You have to keep it down.
28:28Have a look.
28:29I'll show you.
28:38This ground-breaking missile can pierce nearly 10 centimeters of armor at a range of a hundred
28:43meters.
28:59The Panzerfaust, literally the tank fist, was ahead of its time.
29:03It was very simple technology.
29:05In fact, you could give this to a young boy or an old man and they would fire it with
29:11confidence because this is a recoilless weapon.
29:15There's no kick.
29:16And indeed, if you can get close enough to the tank, you can be confident that the warhead
29:21will do its work.
29:23In the city, Berliners old and young train with this latest in Nazi weapon engineering.
29:29And soon, they will be tested.
29:34The Soviets reach the Teltow Canal.
29:3825th of April, the Soviet Red Army managed to cross this canal.
29:42Somehow they get inflatable boats across here.
29:45They then establish a bridgehead and then they're bringing up barges to create improvised
29:50pontoon bridges to bring more infantry and more Soviet armor, more tanks in their wake.
29:56They are then moving and moving fast up to the next concentric ring within Berlin's defense
30:01system, the inner ring.
30:06The Teltow Canal, Berlin's outer defense ring, crumbles in just four days.
30:12The Soviets are now less than six kilometers from the Führerbunker.
30:19Hitler's generals want to flee and he is furious.
30:26You all offer me cowardice and biteness.
30:30All around me is disloyalty.
30:34For years, you, my generals, have resisted me constantly, for years.
30:42You are traitors, traitors.
30:47I can no longer lead you villains.
30:51Every order, a waste of my breath.
30:57But gentlemen, if you believe that I will leave Berlin, you are sorely mistaken.
31:08I'd rather put a bullet through my head.
31:14Hitler is going nowhere.
31:17He still believes his fortress Berlin will not fall to the Soviets, but they're closing
31:22in fast and have reached one of the most formidable structures in the inner defense
31:26ring, Tempelhof Airport.
31:30As a command post, this is where you've got food stored, ammunition stored.
31:34Everything that's required for a defense is going to be concentrated in this particular
31:41kind of a building, in this fortress within a fortress.
31:45It's an important prize for the Soviets, as they desperately need an airport to resupply
31:50their exhausted army.
31:54But the Germans have turned the airport into a stronghold.
32:01So what you've got here is a series of towers behind me.
32:05It's like a castle in that respect.
32:06Call it the Great Wall of China, in a way.
32:09You've got these flat towers where you can sight artillery without a problem, and indeed,
32:15this is a raised trench wall, in a way.
32:17You can sight artillery behind this visual screen that could fire then at higher elevation
32:23and take on the Soviets.
32:30The fighting is intense, and evidence of it can still be seen in the burnt-out tunnels
32:35under Tempelhof.
32:36This would have been a really confusing, chaotic environment.
32:56Lots of noise, people shouting orders to and fro when you're coming into these spaces,
33:00with the electricity out, filled with smoke and dust, brick dust and what-have-you.
33:05Eventually, the sheer volume of troops in the Red Army wins out.
33:18And by April the 27th, the Soviets have control of Tempelhof.
33:23It is a massive strategic victory.
33:2636 hours after the battle ends in this particular place, they're actually flying biplanes into
33:33this particular part of Berlin to get Soviet casualties out, resupply fighter aircraft
33:40that are coming in.
33:41The Soviets resupply and push on.
33:47They face strong resistance from the remaining Berliners defending the city.
34:09Berlin has been hit with over two million artillery rounds, and the resulting debris
34:14forms natural tank obstacles and barricades.
34:19The more confusing the terrain for the tank, the better chance I have of catching that
34:24tank at close range, take out the turret, and then take out the main armament in the
34:29process.
34:37Russian tank superiority counts for little, as the Hitler Youth, with their portable Panzerfaust,
34:43adopt hit-and-run tactics.
35:06Every hour, the Red Army inches closer to the Führerbunker and Hitler.
35:14Berliners driven back by the advancing tanks seek refuge in the indestructible flag towers.
35:20There's somewhere in the region of 15,000 civilians should have come inside.
35:27The key word there is, of course, should, because we know that people were crowding
35:31into these buildings, three to four times the official number of civilians pushing their
35:37way inside.
35:38Up to 60,000 citizens cower in each of the three flag towers, relying on the massive
35:46concrete for survival.
35:49Outside, the Red Army throw everything they have at these last great Nazi structures.
35:58The Russian tanks stood over there, some 300 meters, and they tried to blast through
36:04the three-meter-strong concrete, steel-concrete wall, but they didn't manage.
36:12Despite the entire might of the Soviet Army being turned on the flag towers, they are
36:17still standing.
36:18They were able to resist the Soviets.
36:23They couldn't do anything about the Soviets swallowing up the rest of the Berlin, which
36:28simply meant, of course, that the Soviets just had to wait.
36:32At some point, the people inside would have to give up.
36:38The Russians simply leave the flag towers and flood past towards Hitler's bunker and
36:42the Reichstag.
36:45The next defensive line is the water surrounding the citadel.
36:50The Germans have blown every bridge across, except one.
36:55The outer ring of defence has been broken, the inner ring of defence has been broken,
37:00and now we are at the defence line for the citadel itself, the citadel on the other side
37:06of the water here.
37:07But German army engineers have failed to break, destroy the Moltke Bridge.
37:14This bridge is the last major defensive strongpoint between the Soviet Army and Hitler's bunker
37:20itself.
37:29April the 28th, 1945.
37:32At dusk, the Soviets launch their attack on Berlin's citadel.
37:37If they can seize control of the Moltke Bridge, the city will fall.
37:43This bridge was heavily and bitterly defended.
37:47The closer that you got to the citadel, the more desperate and the more fanatical the
37:53troops would become.
37:56Defending this bridge is the last hope for the Nazis.
37:59If the Soviets cross, they are within touching distance of their ultimate prize, Hitler in
38:05his bunker.
38:06It was extremely important for the Soviets to get the body of Hitler, to be able to show
38:10it to their public.
38:11They had fought so hard against him, against a regime that was a top-down regime, with
38:14Hitler as the leader, the Führer.
38:19The Soviets secure the bridge by midnight.
38:22They are at last in the citadel.
38:25There is now only the Führer bunker between the Soviets and Hitler.
38:30He puts his last plan into action.
38:36On the 29th, he marries Eva Braun, his long-term mistress, rewarding her for her misplaced
38:47loyalty.
38:49On the 30th of April, at approximately 3.30pm, he will commit suicide with her in the bunker
38:59itself.
39:05Hitler knew what had happened to Mussolini in Italy.
39:07He'd been urinated on in public, he'd been taken and hung in a main square in Milan.
39:12Hitler had his body incinerated in order to avoid that fate.
39:23From the Führer's headquarters, it is announced that our Führer, Adolf Hitler, this afternoon
39:33at his command post in the Reich Chancellery, fighting till his last breath against Bolshevism,
39:41fell for Germany.
39:49After the news of Hitler's death, Berliners felt abandoned and betrayed by the man who
39:54had set himself up as their leader, as if he were the father of the nation.
40:00Inside the flak tower, Dieter discovers tragic casualties.
40:05Nearly 4,000 Berliners decide to end their lives during the battle, instead of surrendering
40:10to the Soviets.
40:16Sergeant, have you seen Inge Dobrofsky?
40:23She is dead.
40:27Lieutenant Seidler shot her.
40:43The Soviets are outside the government buildings and the Reichstag.
40:50Three attempted assaults are held off, with heavy Soviet losses.
40:55They have to blast their way in through the bricked up entrances and resume hand-to-hand
41:00fighting.
41:06Eventually, by 2240 hours on the 30th of April 1945, the red flag of the Soviet Union is
41:12raised above this building.
41:15That means that systematically, every line of defence put in their way by the Germans
41:22has been broken by the Soviet Red Army.
41:25Beyond that, Nazi Germany is shown to be defeated and the war in Europe is all but over.
41:41A modern city, revered just a few years earlier, has been reduced to rubble.
41:49Just seven hours after Hitler's suicide, Fortress Berlin has fallen.
42:01A quarter of the city lay in ruins.
42:04500,000 apartments were destroyed.
42:07The infrastructure of a very modern city was in tatters, there was no safe drinking water.
42:11You had women forced into slave labour, moving stones from this rubble to clear streets.
42:17More than anything else, the stench.
42:19The stench of collapsed buildings with bodies that were rotting under it.
42:25The Soviet forces lost over 80,000 men in the Battle of Berlin.
42:30German casualties number close to double that.
42:40I think we should remember that the Battle of Berlin should never have been fought,
42:45and that the only reason it was fought was because Adolf Hitler,
42:49the man who could always have surrendered and bowed to the inevitable, didn't.
42:54And the whole of this city, and much more besides, would then be sacrificed on the altar of his ego.
43:02Albert Speer serves 20 years in jail for his role in Nazi war crimes.
43:07When released in 1966, he writes about his experience as the architect of the Third Reich.
43:16Dieter studies history at Berlin University and becomes a journalist.
43:20He dies of natural causes in 2000, aged 71.
43:26After Berlin falls, Nazi Germany officially surrenders one week later, on May 8, 1945,
43:33and victory in Europe is declared.
43:37With the Japanese surrender nearly four months later, World War II is at an end.
43:45Despite all the military technology and megastructures pioneered by the Nazis,
43:50Hitler's Third Reich has ultimately failed,
43:53and over 60 million people have lost their lives in the deadliest conflict in history.