Was up. Close and i did it. All. Picked up. On the ticket i. Thought i. Was. Heading. 945 on latvias baltic coast for several months the German Army Group north had been encircled by the red army on the couldnt peninsula. The immense human and material losses of the past years had left nonsi germanys once dreaded army in a state of collapse. And which of photographs reveal the sorry state of the trapped units. In contrast nazi propaganda was still clinging to the myth of military strength in newsreel showed the swearing in of home defense units. If you know what are you going to make even you have had even if youre right oh well thats what i mean youre. Going to want to pay for me and if youre fully open i mean im from perth and i dont know. If it can get here if you are. Denise stablished units called folks when it is made up of local home guards adolescence understands ring of regular soldiers is the men are required to swear an oath to the field but even though the military situation was already hopeless. At it. It. Was a tough. Talk. That was hit. By a. Force the longest it was about making an ultimate sacrifice your idea of sacrificing oneself for this very strong is very important under National Socialism and again thats why hitler also thought the navy was so great because they went down with all hands or that impressed and he thought that was great thats what you had to do almost once more. On the 12th of january 945. 00 the raid on. We launched a major offensive in east prussia. At 4 45 am the sky turned as bright his day as up to 300. 00 salvage guns per kilometer and on the front opened fire on the german positions. Red army cameraman filmed the apocalyptic scenes as the vam off lines of defense rapidly collapsed. Over the previous years German Forces had waged a campaign of destruction against the people of the soviet union the nazi ideology painted as racially inferior. Now the war on the east front was shifting onto the territory of the right. Many germans feared the soviet red army would exact a terrible revenge. To mention how much. They were simply afraid they had been told that the subhuman russians are coming and they were afraid of the red army that of course they also knew about the atrocities the German Forces had committed in the soviet union but that was known as the Solar Mission to that extent it was a mixture of prejudice against the russian subhumans had a realistic assessment that the red army would not be squeamish and its advance and a clear recognition of the mass crimes that germany had committed and a fear of vengeance the money its forget to 1st that. Many of the roughly 2 and a half 1000000 People Living in east prussia at the time wanted to flee their homes as fast as possible and head west but most of them couldnt. You know its an odd sort of a fluke for one boy to die for a long time the nazis had forbidden people to flee or they wanted them to stay put and oppose the advancing soviet army colonel and this was certainly one reason why the escape was later so chaotic and violent. People didnt leave until the last minute they could only take the bare necessities. And theyve been worn down by the war once is and often includes. Their fleet of these attacks middle went on his tracks mothers and their children and old man as always and your the weakest to get hit the hardest. They were left to fend for themselves and also made to suffer for the failure of an entire nation including the lack of evacuation plans exist and plan all to fight for it. Because the soviet forces had largely blocked the road to the west many people trying to flee across the frozen lagoon but coastal waters could be every bit as dangerous. Many were aiming for the baltic coast near done such from where they hoped theyd be able to continue their escape by ship. Coats like goes in half and todays news was nazi assassinated in 1986 the cruise ship was famous in germany out of hitler had personally attended its 937. 00 georgia hand. If culver did after. Fish for. 4 years the ship served as a holiday vessel for the Nazi Organization top jewish boy to strength through joy Party Members would relax on its decks as a cruise the mediterranean or the north sea. Now it was supposed to transpose evacuated refugees and soldiers westwards thousands of people were crammed together on board as it set sail and this overloading proved fatal. To avoid running aground in Shallow Water has the captain said course far out into the baltic sea where the soviet navy was also up racing. The ship was detected and so peter by a soviet submarine. At least 9300 people died in this. Siblings kind legally it was not a war crime at all because the ghost for the sailing without lights in a conflict zone and was armed and carrying soldiers. As also in a sense if you look at the laws of war the attack on the ghost loft was legal. Well there is a lot of legitimate is another question and you know you can decide for yourself but for. On the other side of the globe the war was continuing unabated the u. S. Navy was cruising off the strategically important japanese island of. About 1200 kilometers south of tokyo. In mid february 945. 00 battleships opened fire on the island which is only 21 square kilometers in size they had support from u. S. Bomb is based in the mariana islands. Evil commies are. These all kind of cargo family was operationally important because it had air bases that the money goes to escort bombers or has an Emergency Landing site for them so they sell their sights on the wall jima in 4 course. Cameraman from the us office of war information filmed as several tens of thousands of u. S. Marines landed on the island shortly before 9 in the morning 3 days after the attack had begun. Their footage of the fierce fighting over the socalled sulfa island with lacey form the basis of the documentary wolf film to the shores of. Probably green bay here for a point position for a body that kept looking right down our throat. Besides the cameraman theyve also photographers among the wall correspondents on the 23rd of february a few days after the start of the landing operation one of them snap 2 u. S. Marines raising the stars and stripes on the summit of the extinct suribachi volcano. Although the men were actually replacing the flag raised earlier that day the photo was to go down in history. Thats why the vacant is on the 2nd world war was also a war of images and symbols of the millions of photos we have from world war 2 there are not 5 or 6 that we all know. You are looking for sting of the flag and he would say most of the reenacted honest it symbolizes the american victory in the pacific. The conscience zicam puts a few. Dollars it would be several months before the americans could really claim victory in the pacific the fighting around a would jima known continued for weeks up to the picture at the volcano summit was taken the japanese defended is resorted to a particularly bloody tech take to come argument is for the japanese commander was fully aware that he could not defend the island against the americans no one was to inflict the highest possible number of losses on the americans so that the war would become unpopular and would be stopped for political reasons really not didnt work but still the number of americans just was here which you were kind of. Humans. And more than 6800 u. S. Marines were killed taking the island and almost 20000 u. S. Servicemen were wounded. On the japanese side most of the 20000. 00 or so defendants lost their lives and the 216. 00 men surrendered to the enemy is going to commissary it will cost for americans were shocked by the japanese willingness to sacrifice themselves which was evident during the defense of he would. The americans hadnt really believed that the japanese would fight quite so tenaciously to the last minute it developed that played a very big role in the fact that at some point the americans changed their minds and said we have to find another way to end the war on the span. The forces of the japanese empire when just fighting doggedly against imminent defeat so maybe gina since october 944 day commanders had also been relying on a new tactic in the pacific kamikaze flights. Pilots flew their canes directly into enemy warships usually killing themselves in the process vice admiral techie jiro nishi commander of the Japanese Naval air force had developed the idea. Just wanted to look for commercial cuban for the family car american soldiers of course found this completely shocking they hadnt expected anything like that it was a completely new form of warfare and the clicks feel warm. And i knew that. The american side hadnt reckoned with such a willingness to make sacrifices to get the squadrons of these flying bombs but when names like morning sun and mountain Cherry Blossom it wasnt difficult to recruit fanatical youngsters to the suicide squads much as does a lot things from prison tata on short if you look at the results though you have to say these attacks werent very efficient. They didnt really do much good at all. More than the americans shut down a lot of those planes before they could even reach their targets and even those that did hit the often didnt have much effect mists on the it was more a shock element. And shook even this element. Images like this also contributed to the shock footage taken of the 21st of january 945 show the consequences of a kamikaze attack on the us s. Ticonderoga near the straits of almost. All Navy Aircraft carrier survived the attack more than a 100 men on board didnt and the death toll of american troops in the pacific climbed further. Less than 2 weeks later a summit in the soviet seaside result of the altar brought together the big 3 allied leaders of the anti hitler coalition. For some years bush and the soviet union and the United States had been. Night against the nazis. Now as their forces moved into germany itself the end of the war in europe seemed only a matter of time british Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and soviet dictated Joseph Stalin and u. S. President franklin d. Roosevelt focused on concrete planning for the post will future they had sketched out at the tehran summit more than a year earlier. And i think it was important to big 3 met at the altar the 1st issue was the westward shift of poland to this for sure theyd already discussed out of tehran now it was decision time and it was clear that there would be occupation sons dont vote for i think when they talked about what to do in the pacific its almost but if you could she. Said father son the union had not participated in the fighting in the pacific but roosevelts health was declining and he wanted to bring moscow on signed to end the war quickly and avoid further heavy losses. Balts roosevelt approached stalin and told him that he needed him in the pacific he negotiated with them and got him to promise that the red army was attacked truck around 3 months after the end of the war in europe well you know what i mean stalin kept a promise to the day talk and all and. In return the western allies pledged to expand their support for the red army by bombing the german rush 2 days after the summits they trained their sights on the city of dresden. On the 13th of february 945 some 800 british lancaster bomber is took off for what was then germanys 7th largest city which had previously been largely sped air strikes. And this is it towards you wouldnt the church i wanted something to show stalin got the support of the so much so i come and so the idea took root out. They flew harriets behind the german lines on the soviet front and caused chaos there so that it would somehow help the red army but hes just. The british planes reached dressed in just before half past 10 in the evening it was a mess a camera film to explosives and incendiary bombs dropping from the edge of the attack has made no attempt to hit specific targets large areas of the says he were to be destroyed within 15 minutes 3 courses of the city center with some fine. Dust bunnies and for the fact that the attack on dresden was so devastating they had to do what the circumstances are and the president had no antiaircraft defenses its antiaircraft guns are taken to the Eastern Front but sometimes you know many of its night fighters couldnt take off all of a target it was a clear night and no defenses and the british could go in relatively low the last minute or drop it flares accurately in the bombers were able to follow them exactly so it was a textbook attack on. A few hours later on valentines day 945. 00 and then we can bomb is attack dressed in again this time in daylight the u. S. News reports it. Leader and 1st division of the airports today gave its 200000. 00 tons of bombs to happen in our lovely at least in part is the way. The imposing transport hub on the album river was hit by a total of 4 waves of attacks. Here blasting away for the russians now 45 miles away lynx would give out a large drive from east to west monday when. The Anglo American air strikes devastated the city and killed up to 25000 people. I could never have believed that an officer of the dressed in missing person santa that death could ever take people in so many different ways and. Dismembered apparently sleeping peacefully distorted by pain completely cold up dressed naked or as a miserable heap of ashes. And above all this the pungent smoke and the m. Bearable smell of decay. Pictures taken months after the attacks still give an impression of the extent of the catastrophe. On the western front the very last was now being pushed further onto the defensive the allies had occupied athan the 1st major german city to be liberated in the previous also. The surprise german offensive in the battle of the bulge in december had slowed down the us British Advance and it would be another month before the americans could start moving east again. Just over the border and yearly they met with fierce resistance. The german news real reported. I believe in barter and driver valen compete in both iraq. For their good night and i 1st felt incompetent and either from point are going to be over on 5 home youve got. The german defenders blew up the nearby river dam so the river levels rose noticeably. And the u. S. Forces had to wait until the floods had subsided before they could cross the river on the 23rd of february and enter the center of healing. The g. I. s encountered a shocking picture hewletts no longer existed the town had been under fire for months and compass artillery shells and bombs had rained down on it. The last inhabitants had been evacuated in december of the previous years. What remained was a field of rubble where the german defenders had dug in and with fighting a pointless and those who battle in the ruins against the american occupiers at the beginning of march why diaz and how it the Supreme Commander of the allied forces in europe came to look at you that for himself one of the places he visited was the historic citadel for a long time it had been considered impregnable and no enemy soldier had entered it since the napoleonic wars the footage shows he it with eisenhower was intended to send a clear signal that the entire german reich could be conquered like the same trees old fortress. Meanwhile in the east the raid on the continue to advance steady in addition to east prussia in the north it was also sweeping further south into side lisa a region in present day code and that was of great strategic importance because of its industrial base. Our tanks ran everything down a Red Army Soldier wrote in his diary on the 23rd of january day tracks class in vehicles horses and anything else on the road the reasons for the red army success name is a cheery r. C. In both men and material as well as serious tactical mistakes made by hitler that no one had called into question for years so i remember that armed forces since november 1043 hitler had been putting his priorities on the west a lot was going wrong there in june july and august 1940 but he stuck to his vision he said i have to give these western allies who kicked us out of france another major blow now kicked the music its like well and thats just so and so at a time when the red army was mounting one of the biggest offensives ever on the west till he was focusing on the west and so turning himself into stalins best allies. Part of what started. In the years many germans had fled to say leisure to escape from the western allies bombing. Had been largely spared from aerial bombardment but now the soviet advance put them right in the middle of the war. Like in east prussia most people here only had one goal to escape from the red. Of it 1st delish saw and then doesnt enjoy will be terrible as it could be in order vi because what we did during the Eastern Campaign especially against soviet civilians but also in poland in titians have a list of often poor in the crimes we committed will return to washington as vengeance yes vote. So on so what kiran. Those fear is often proved to be justified many Red Army Soldiers committed atrocities in revenge for the crimes of the family and the s. S. Divide as cadets who will see an escalation of violence against the german civilian population here the shooting of civilians the shooting of women and children. This issue some found on one can the abduction of german civilians. In 2 vilest and the mass reap of women must forgive article from fall one dislikes a while ago by don gotten caught on at the Sexual Violence against german women can be explained by various factors. Does there come on the one hand it is said that a womans body in symbolic of the nation which means that any desecration to use the term from that time so many desecration or dishonor through Sexual Violence therefore also means the desecration or dishonor of the entire nation and. Not see on. Nazi propaganda regularly focused on these desecrations and. Continue to feel the climate of fear and hatred among the population this is a new israel from january 945. Even from dark in brooklyn to be doubting our leaders our running god im tired and wanted to come out of there to fight. Even weve been going to high only i found out of it quite we have been trying to become an officer here a lot of politics and theyre not an individual dont you dont darken their own you very funny our lord our indeed and to be a lower income youre from h