26. Defeating the Axis in Africa and Europe

26h. End of the Third Reich

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The Race to Berlin!

The Allies drove across Europe - the Soviets from the east and the Americans, British and French from the west.

The Battle of Kursk in July and August 1943 was the Germans' last big offensive of the war. It was soon abandoned to transfer troops to Italy.

After Kursk, the Soviets launched a big offensive against the Germans across a broad front. The Germans retreated to the west and fought a defensive war.

Over the next two years, the Soviets drove the Germans out of the Soviet Union, out of the Baltic, out of Poland, out of the Balkans and back into central Germany and Austria by May 1945.

At the same time as Kursk, in July 1943, the western Allies launched their offensive from North Africa into Sicily and the Italian Peninsula. This forced the Germans to cut short their offensive against the Soviets at Kursk and withdraw troops from the east front to defend Italy.

The following year, in June 1944, the western Allies launched an offensive across the British Channel into northern France and the Lowlands.

In August 1944, the western allies launched an offensive from the Mediterranean into southern France. By the end of 1944, the western Allies were at Germany's western borders.

The western Allies and the Soviets met in central Germany in April and May 1945.

On the map, at the top, is the 21st Army Group - the Allied northern front of mostly British and Canadian troops - commanded by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

This front drove eastward and northward across northern France, the Lowlands, northern Germany and reached the Jutland Peninsula by April 1945.

Below the 21st Army Group on the map is the 12th Army Group - the Allied central front, mostly American troops - commanded by American General Omar Bradley, which drove east across France and Germany into western Czechoslovakia by April 1945. .

Below 12th Army Group is the 7th Army, the Allied 'Southern Group of Armies', which invaded southern France from the Mediterranean and headed north to Alsace in August 1944. There, the Seventh Army merged with the Sixth Army Group and headed eastward into Germany and Italy.

In Italy, the US 5th Army, commanded by US General Mark Clark, drove north up the peninsula from Salerno and Anzio to the Alps.

The British 8th Army drove north from Sicily up the peninsula to Trieste on the Adriatic.

Map of the Western Front on 5 September 1944 from Normandy and Paris to Antwerp.

The day before, on 4 September 1944, the British liberated the cities of Brussels and Antwerp.

-- The thick pink line indicates the main German defensive line, the Westwall or Siegfried Line. The West Wall ran from Basel in the south, north to Karlsruhe, on through the Saarland, and north to Eindhoven.

-- The broken red lines indicate the German front lines.

-- The blue arrows indicate the direction of the Allied attacks.

Towards the end of the summer in 1944, the Allies were approaching Metz and Nancy to the east and Antwerp to the north.

The Battle of Nancy: 5 - 15 September 1944

The Battle of Metz: 27 September - 13 December 1944

The Battle of the Scheldt

Documentary (45:58)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3DnRntJQpk

Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle)

Allies capture their first German city

Oct. 21, 1944

The Battle of Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle/Bad Aachen/Óche/Aoke)

The westernmost city in Germany; capital of Charlemagne's empire and his successors (800 - 888).

Allies battle for Aachen! (1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ4r5R5kdfA

AMERICAN FIRST ARMY - AACHEN TO THE ROER RIVER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgWwHe2QY4

AMERICAN NINTH ARMY - AACHEN TO THE ROER RIVER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R89fzTqn0KA

Campaigns (Part II) - The Cambridge History of the Second World War

Map shows the directions of Allied offensives by the British and Canadian 21st Army Group and American 12th Army Group from D-Day (Operation Overlord) (June 1940) eastward across northern France into Belgium (Operation Market Garden, September 1944).

Map shows Allied front lines on 25 August 1944 (Orleans), 15 September 1944 (Brussels) and November 1944 (Arnhem - Bastogne - Metz - Belfort) and the German counter-offensive in December 1945 (Ardennes Offensive/Battle of the Bulge).

The Sixth Army led the offensive from France's Mediterranean coast to Alsace.

----------------

Armistice Day in Paris

11 November 1944

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President of the Provisional French Government Charles De Gaulle lead the march down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 11 November 1944.

France Acclaims Mr. Churchill

Silent newsreel footage

-----------------

British sink the Tirpitz

11 - 12 November 1944

The Tirpitz sunk in a Norwegian fyord in the Arctic.

Launching the Tirpitz

Death of the "Tirpitz"

British Pathe newsreel

Sinking the Tirpitz

Documentary (2014)

Timeline version (46:30)

RAF Sinks Tirpitz!

British Movietone newsreel

The Battle for Hitler's Supership

Sinking the Tirpitz

Tirpitz: The Lost Heroes

Documentary about Royal Navy midget submarines and the Tirpitz

------------------------

The Battle of Metz

27 September - 13 December 1944

Germans block Patton's US 3rd Army charge across France

Liberation of Belfort, 22 November 1944

Metz, Strasbourg, Belfort fall to the Allies

British Pathé

The French retake Strasbourg

The Liberation of Strasbourg

The Free French Tri-Colour flies over Strasbourg Cathedral

23 November 1944

World war two: French general Leclerc with the German commandant Stock Photo - Alamy

The German commander of Strasbourg, on the right in the above photo, surrenders to Leclerc, on the left.

Random Views: Happy Liberation Day

General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the 52nd Armoured Division enter Strasbourg on 23 November 1944.

Leclerc in Strasbourg

The Battle of Strasbourg

British Pathé

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0PyujRcm-0

Allies move ahead in western front

Newsreel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNBSPmrbEsQ

La (dernière) Bataille de Strasbourg

Hiver 1944-1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duga9RaxgX4

-----------------

Battle of the Bulge

German Ardennes Counter-Offensive

16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945

The Americans' biggest battle of the war

Last German offensive on the western front

The Battle of the Bulge

December 1944

US Army Newsreel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev6FIlexpsE

Battle of the Bulge

From the documentary Generals at War series

Bradley - Model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_HeshT_qk8

The Battle of the Bulge

From the documentary series The Lost Evidence

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQhEzbZ2BU

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZBIsL63Co

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtu2lIktiY

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O6vY0iZlRE

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwQJFX5OF2U

The Battle of the Bulge

SHOOTOUT!

Documentary

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2o516gRqAk

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t19A3IQ05Cs

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zzdsnPCCw

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPAw2ksjT4M

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95W_VTAa59A

Secrets of the Battle of the Bulge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewGll8GKlsQ

The Battle of the Bulge

From the documentary series Battlefield Detectives

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uf_JjAlsGY

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6B4-NKzpUg

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heaKT-bSapw

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N06_PbkRlEY

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heYbRIMyuIY

BATTLE OF THE BULGE

Colour Film

Documentary

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaTu-6PYnvc

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpxUvaCb9uQ

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pttlm1DcWzk

Battle of the Bulge

Episode 9 from the documentary series Patton 360

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOcUpzr86bU

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spHRmgs_s9s

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEcDcKZjn4c

Battle of the Bulge

TANKS!

Documentary

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTFUB5jR8ZY

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWyeMvl5DGc

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMz8TiqcNUo

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXyTLDzulkY

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir6U_6pTQr8

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O27GTbWWlTU

Panzer Attack

The Battle of the Bulge

From the documentary series Greatest Tank Battles

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leJfEeULB5M

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpLE7Y0Qa5U

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pSgF24cZAk

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah8hYdY_dLI

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6pa5Oj21XQ

Battle of the Bulge

Ardennes Counter-Offensive

December 1944

(in German)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYLo2bJhAnE

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rjtFurTyv8

The Battle of The Bulge

Documentary from the series American Experience (PBS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vml-JaMPuD8

The Malmedy Massacre

German soldiers killed American POWs

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcneLIEFZzM

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eI3EoHCPNo

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKmctuqIIvI

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJacdv6u4dQ

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he6CzrkCvn4

Joachim Peiper

Murderer of Malmedy

From the documentary series Nazi Hunters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h2Bcza-AaY

or in 5 clips

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u71mnjDrMPI

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f37Kk7faQDA

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmEOLlEafmk

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZprLOMHRk

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz2F1cNoKUo

Malmedy Massacre Trial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5X0VyAJUOo

Jochen Peiper

From his arrest in 1945 to his murder in 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fklOkSq3AlU

The Chenogne Massacre

American soldiers killed German POWs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD4bDHTHdpU

Hitler's G. I. Death Camp

Berga

Documentary (43:57)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iydEfXEv80

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Lost in WW2

Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller (1904 - 1944),

American band leader

Glenn Miller, popular swing band leader, took off in a small plane from Bedford, England bound for Paris in the afternoon of December 15, 1944.

He was never seen again.

It was assumed the plane crashed in England or in the Channel.

Missing with Miller were the British pilot, Flight Officer John ("Johnny") R. Stuart Morgan, and F. Lt. Col. Norman F. Baessell of the U. S. Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) in France.

Baessell was returning to France in a US 8th Air Force (AAF) Service Command UC-64A “Norseman” aircraft and invited Miller, who wanted to reach Paris ahead of his band, to accompany him.

The plane was typical for such flights and was to follow a regular transport route from England to Paris.

What happened to the plane?

Was it the plane a farmer reported hearing crash in the Chiltern Hills shortly afterward?

Was it the plane spotted by a factory worker at Woodley Airfield flying east of Reading, south of the Chiltern Hills, and heading for the Channel coast?

Was it the plane shot down by American anti-aircraft gunners guarding the coast as it headed out into the Channel?

Was it the plane hit by bombs jettisoned in the Channel by British bombers returning from an aborted raid of Germany?

Was the plane shot down by still-active German anti-aircraft gunners on the French coast as it approached France?

Noorduyn "Norseman" C-64 # 44-70285 in an artist's impression of the plane flying over Beachy Head in eastern Sussex and south over the Channel.

The plane was painted olive drab.

Did it actually get this far?

map goes here

Twinwood Farm - Chiltern Hills - Woodley - Sussex

Glenn Miller Missing

BBC announcement, December 24, 1944

Nine days afterward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBSCyzocONQ

Glenn Miller

1980 documentary with Leonard Nimoy from the series In Search Of considers the possibility that Miller’s plane crashed in the Chiltern Hills, 20 kilometers to the south of Bedford. shortly after take-off.

- Radio contact with Miller’s plane was lost a few minutes after take-off in Bedford (a very long distance from the Channel). No radio contact with the plane was made anywhere else.

- Radar covering the Channel did not spot the plane.

- A farmer in the Chiltern Hills heard a plane crash in a field shortly after Miller's plane took off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLTCeOdwLic

or in two clips:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGRDXLhesw

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRkmyLr47G4

A Norseman like Miller's plane was spotted flying east of Reading by a factory worker at Woodley Airfield; it was heading toward the Sussex coast

2012 article

A Norseman like Miller's plane was spotted above Woodley Airfield (west of London), which is south of the Chiltern Hills.

Line highlighted: "1 Norseman going ESE"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083068/Sighting-Glenn-Millers-doomed-plane-amateur-spotter-shatters-theory-aircraft-downed-falling-WWII-bomb.html

Following Glenn Miller

An American army courier recalls flying from England to France in a Norseman just after Miller's plane took off and following the same flight path. He left from Bobbington. By the time his plane reached the coast the weather was clear.

As the plane approached the French coast German anti-aircraft gunners, yet to be mopped up by the Allies, opened up. Thus he wondered if Miller had not been shot down by Germans gunners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKWdWbdfZow

Glenn Miller Death Mystery

Brief documentary mentions some of the stories about Miller's death, including the possibility that Miller's plane, flying low over the sea, was hit by bombs jettisoned by British bombers flying above.

- RAF Lancaster bombers returning from an aborted raid over Siegen, Germany jettisoned bombs at sea before landing, accidently hitting a small plane flying below them.

Were the bombers flying over the North Sea, as expected, or the Channel?

Map of RAF aborted Lancaster bombing raid of Siegen, Germany on December 15, 1944, with rendezvous points, outward and homeward legs, abort point and bomb drop site. The bomb drop site is indicated as south of Brighton, one-third of the way across the Channel to France.

If regulations were followed, the bombs would have been jettisoned over the North Sea, far from the Channel. But some on this mission recall taking a different route home and dropping the bombs in the Channel instead.

- Record of Miller’s plane still in service in New York after the war.

- “American intelligence officials” claimed the plane crash was a cover-up.

- An Alton Miller turned up many years later in a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in California.

and others . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3domqnOZD0

Glenn Miller - America's Musical Hero

(First 4 clip of 5 clips only)

- Miller's pilot said he would be flying low over the Channel

- Miller's plane was without de-icing equipment, or the de-icing equipment failed, and the plane froze over the Channel (Note: airmen maintain that all Norsemen had de-icing equipment)

- Miller's plane caught the blast of a bomb exploding on the ocean surface after it was jettisoned by RAF bombers flying overhead

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip33g113FHc

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFwwA-GCDgs

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxl8LbOe4_8

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBxJXqV9UZQ

Other stories . . .

Glenn Miller, shot down over the Channel

An American anti-aircraft gunner in Britain in WW2 recalls shooting down a plane as it headed over the Channel. He believes it was Miller’s plane. The gunner claims that by the next day everyone knew they had shot down Miller.

What's wrong with this story?

In the video, the date of this incident is more than three months before Miller's flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbSlMVwIuXg

The link to a documentary that mentioned a report that wreckage of Miller's plane and three bodies were found on the French coast several days later is nor referred to here.

Glenn Miller Conspiracy

An American journalist recalls wild and fantastic stories

about Miller's death, including reports that that he died in France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1kPrL9ykO0

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The Man I Love, I've Got Rhythm . . .

From the 1945 movie Rhapsody in Blue

Hazel in the Army

Don't Fence Me In (1944)

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Lena Horne

Image result for lena horne 1945 ▷ Lena Horne - Stormy Weather (1943) - YouTube (With images ...

Stormy Weather (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo

The Man I Love (1941)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ5bbeypX2A

The Man I Love (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiBH7fqNqZ4

I Can't Give You Anything but Love (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK_O2JGrFBg

Where or When (1941)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnRSM3dLSTk

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Cab Calloway

Minnie the Moocher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSnwf__guls

Blues in the Night (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90qMNhWsCHs

Greechy Joe (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlE-Zv4Pyhk

Jumpin' Jive

Excerpt from Storny Weather with the Nicholas Brothers (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8yGGtVKrD8

Longer excerpt of the same scene from Stormy Weather (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orhf_Xv6HCA

-------------------

Fats Waller

Favorites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBTp6-kfEh4

Jitterbug Waltz (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcmshqUW6Ww

That Ain't Right

Scene from Stormy Weather with Ada Brown (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZFsm9msv4

Ain't Misbehavin' (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-fVa838Jog

Scene from Stormy Weather (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSNPpssruFY

Jospehine Baker

Josephine Baker 1945. Wearing military uniform and coat ...

J'ai deux amours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tT-V5r7do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7a5ZQs5fk

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Xavier Cougat

Bésame Mucho (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGrwnGN7uU

She's a Bombshell from Brooklyn (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haaO8Xxa6n0

Brazil (1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DexzGZlnXuw

-----------

Harry James

Sleepy Lagoon (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5rABA7LgQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMcUIjUdAWY

I Remember You (1942)

With Helen Forrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqfX8uA4VOI

You Made Me Love You (1942)

With Helen Forrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMaCoxOGXPM

I Cried for You (1944)

With Helen Forrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOxq3p5e-7M

Long Ago and Far Away (1944/5?)

With Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5LEU5_99M

----------

Dorothy Lamour

Image result for dorothy lamour Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 — September 22, 1996), American ...

The Moon of Manakoora (1943)

With Dick McIntire and his Harmony Hawaiians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S6dLbuM4W0

----------

Vera Lynn

Related image

We'll Meet Again (1939)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvgM_xcx2GI

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB-uapl_Rs8

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rMD8DBUzKA

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUuuaUGff0

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1940)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTeiYN_Vq6E

The White Cliffs of Dover (1942)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAaxkAgVkHQ

----------

Jo Stafford

Image result for Jo Stafford -ww2

Long Ago And Far Away (1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7D13bF_uk

I Love You (1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIXknT-iQ8

-----------------------

----------------------

Most decorated American soldier in WW2

Audie Murphy

Audie Leon Murphy (1925 – 1971)

The History of Audie Murphy

A Short Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX2PbzV1go8

To Hell and Back (1955)

Hollywood movie of Audie Murphy's autobiography, starring Murphy

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_yAAQz-pQ

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yBSuSjQh-E

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY21PXTcgnw

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PCNrG2n52c

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SeEzxruJBY

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Bwyjr4zQk

Audie Murphy - Army Interview, 1960

(ref: The Broken Bridge)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1c-UnoeYSg

Audie Murphy discusses WW2

Interview on Armed Forces Radio Veteran's Day, 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PstvNQVP3Zk

Movie Legends - Audie Murphy

Blog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxD5qE8gAIA

Audie Murphy as Jesse James in his last Hollywood film

A scene from A TIME FOR DYING (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2M6h3vwKUs

Audie Murphy, TV News Video, May 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvZPqVLdETc

-------------

The Year in Review

1944

United News (11:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Un1eQE2IU

United News (15:56)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LrIerGtJKA

Newsreels (47:32)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqJrICAWFM0

-----------------

The War at Sea

German submarine with snorkel

U-Boat Death Trap

Episode from the documentary series Deep Wreck Mysteries (51:52)

Divers explore three German U-Boats sunk off Britain's west coast in 1944 and 1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRC69sr1IBM

same (1:06:44):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuqzBLHfwtI

------------------------

Greece

In September 1944, as the Soviets advanced westward through eastern Europe and southward to the Balkans, the Germans withdrew from Greece and, in October, the British returned.

Return to Greece

British Pathe newsreel (1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z541dU1O78

Athens Liberated

1944 newsreels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdGVYhtwsNQ

The British and the Greek Resistance

The Scholar and the Fight for Greece

Episode 6 of 6 of the 2011 documentary series Secret War (49:08)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQagu-kehgk

The Greek Collaborator

Episode from the 2010 documentary series Nazi Collaborators

About the German occupation of Greece in WW2 and the head of the Greek government during the occupation, Ioannis Rallis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmVclsRESo

Greece - The Hidden War

Two-part 1986 documentary narrated by Michael Wood

The Battle for Athens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tXb5YkQeDM

The Civil War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3J4v4KNDQI

or in one clip (1:42:27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0xlMdvmeHA

--------------------

Soviets capture central Europe

Soviets capture most of Lithuania, East Prussia,

Poland, Hungary, eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, and eastern Austria

Red Army advance through Central Europe from 1 January to

11 May 1945.

- By the end of March 1945, the Soviets had most of Lithuania. They had most of East Prussia and were closing in on the port cities of Danzig and Konigsberg. They had all of Poland. They were on the Oder, 30 miles from Berlin.

- By 11 May the Soviets had eastern Germany to the River Elbe and all of northeastern Germany. They has all of Hungary and most of Czechoslovakia and eastern Austria.

That which the Soviets failed to achieve after the Great War in 1918, they accomplished in 1944 and 1945, driving the Germans out of eastern Europe and the Balkans; incorporating the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia into the USSR; and invading, capturing and installing Soviet-controlled puppet Communist regimes in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Albania, Poland and the eastern half of Germany.

From the Balkans to Vienna

Episode 15 of the 1978 documentary series The Unknown War with Burt Lancaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wByjxwF0lMs

-------------------

The Soviet Winter Offensive

The Vistula-Oder Offensive

The Soviet drive through Poland

From the Vistula River to the Oder River

From 12 January to 2 February 1945

Six Soviet armies attacked westward along a 1,000-mile front from the Baltic in the north to Poland's border in the south.

The map above shows the Soviet front lines from the start of the offensive in the east on 12 January 1945 to the end of the offensive in the west on 30 March.

By 24 February the 1st Belorussian Army, led by Zhukov, reached the River Oder, 50 miles from Berlin.

Marshal Georgi Zhukov

Commander of the First Belorussian Front

Map shows Soviet front lines from 12 January to 5 February 1945.

Map shows Soviet front tines from the Vistula River in the east on 11 January to 17 January to the Oder and Neisse Rivers (Oder-Neisse LIne) in the west on 2 February 1945.

Map shows the Soviet front lines from 12 January, on the Vistula, to 2 February 1945, on the Oder-Neisse Line. By 2 February, the Soviets occupied the area in light pink colour.

The Soviet armies, on the Oder-Neisse Line, were 50 miles east of Berlin and, on 16 April, launch attacks on Berlin it from three fronts - east, north and south.

Eastern European borders in 1937, 1940 and 1945.

Source: World History at KMLA

The Liberation of Poland

Episode 16 of the 1978 documentary sreies The Unknown War

Presented and narrated by Burt Lancaster

L'insurrection de Varsovie

Documentaire historique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEXp4LypBM

The Battle of Warsaw/Warsaw Uprising

Documentary (46:18)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tqkn7LCwuI

Partition of Poland

Behind Closed Doors

Episode 4 of the 2008 BBC documentary series (57:28)

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ee42e

Yalta Conference

The Crimea Conference

February 4 – 11, 1945

Yalta Conference, February 1945: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, left; American President FDR, center; Soviet leader Marshall Stalin, right

Maps in the issue of Time magazine of 28 March 1945.

The British, Americans and Soviets would divide Germany into three zones of occupation, one for each.

Churchill was concerned that the Soviets would stop their westward advance in Poland and leave the rest of the fighting to the Americans and British. Churchill wanted to offer Berlin to the Soviets as an enticement to press westward.

Roosevelt, however, wanted the different zones of occupation to meet in Berlin.

The Big Three, meeting in Yalta in February 1945, agreed to divide Germany into three zones of military occupation. The Soviets were to occupy eastern Germany, which became East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) (DDR), after the war. The Americans and British were to occupy western Germany, which became West Germany, or the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundes Republik Deutschland) (BRD), after the war.

The Americans and British were to create another zone out of their own zones for the French to occupy.

Berlin, capital of the German Reich, would be in the Soviet zone of occupation. The city would have four separate zones of occupation. The Americans, British, French and Soviets would each occupy a zone.

The Yalta Agreement

- To demand unconditional surrender from Germany.

- Germany and Berlin to be split into four zones of occupation by the USSR, USA, GB and France.

- Germany to be demilitarized.

- War criminals to be tried in courts.

- Reparations to include forced labour to repair damage. The reparation council to be in the Soviet Union.

- Poland to be run by the communist provisional government installed by the USSR. Poland's eastern border to be the Curzon Line and its western border to be in eastern Germany.

- Agreement to the United Nations.

- Soviets to declare the war against Japan within 90 days of Germany's defeat.

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference Begins

1967 documentary (43:33)

Capture Berlin

1967 documentary by same

Clip 1 of 5 (Yalta to Berlin)

Yalta Conference

Konferenz von Jalta

La conférence de Yalta

Le jour ou Staline a gagne la guerre

Excerpt from Russia Today documentary

65 Years Later (Feb. 4, 2010 broadcast)

The Origins of the Cold War

Yalta and Potsdam

Brief video about the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences and the Cold War

Yalta Conference

Talk # 2 of 3 in a series on the major WW2 conferences

The Start of the Cold War

2-part talk on East-West relations since the Yalta Conference

Réunions secrètes à Yalta

Mystères d'archives

The End of Prussia

West Prussia 1939 -1945

map of East Prussia 1939 - 1945 goes here

Soviets capture Prussia

The Battle for East Prussia (1945)

Soviet film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3CLVDSC8NU&feature=related

Germany's War - East Prussia

Documentary

(4 clips)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d56H9ZKLHJk

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CILVYcAfJ4o&feature=relmfu

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p5hl_vWYHk&feature=relmfu

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0WhPewsmcM&feature=relmfu

East Prussia in 1945

The Assault on East Prussia

German documentary narrated in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz7scck2bXI

The same in German:

Der Grosse Flucht

Das Schicksal der Vertriebenen

Deutsche Doku 1

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhWlUN0Sxlo&feature=related

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6rFJ1KPMc

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfe__szTD7U&feature=relmfu

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NURj5c_VRn0

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRoTK8vy6c

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tH50eetYzs

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnZ4ytP2mTU

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sifXWiYiN0k

The rest of the documentary by this uploader is not available. See the upload below for the ending:

Same film without subtitles

(7 of 8 clips available)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F14jzCGhOVQ&feature=related

2. N/A on You Tube

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNiIcUldJZc&feature=relmfu

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a59xLIFobvk&feature=relmfu

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkVLGj6eXow&feature=relmfu

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-8P_5BJDok&feature=relmfu

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYzVWWA1Bk&feature=relmfu

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y4CmdPzjsE&feature=relmfu

Image result for thousands of german refugees fleeing soviet invasion in the east - 1945

Germans expelled from the port town of Pillau in Prussia by the Soviets in April 1945.

Flucht und Vertreibung

Doku

Teil 1. Inferno im Osten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_BTGCsM7eI (57:02)

Prussia - its rise and fall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrv1rCLC7E&feature=related

Konigsberg is Dead

Yesterday it was Konigsberg in Prussia, today it is Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave

Documentary film (5 clips)

Start here:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkA2VD7_X3s&feature=related

Kaliningrad, une île Russe au sein de l'Union

Documentaire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t-yG-nFME8

-------------

MV Wilhelm Gustloff Sunk by Soviet Submarine

6,000 to 9,400 Germans fleeing the Soviet advance in Prussia perished when a Soviet submarine torpedoed the MV Wilhelm Gustloff.

30 January 1945

Last Voyage of the Gustloff

National Geographic documentary

3 clips

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIaLZdXJiNY

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJLXPVCHMOU

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_qdQHKa-Pw

The World's Deadliest Sea Disaster

Episode from the 2003 Discovery Channel documentary series Unsolved History (44:41)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ0BO0b9Km4

See more, about the expulsion of Prussians after the war, indicated below

-----------

The Soviets reached the Oder in late February. The way to Berlin was clear. They could have invaded the city quickly and with a minimum of casualties. But they held up instead. And in early March, Stalin ordered that Vienna be taken first.

Soviets capture Vienna

Soviets, approaching from the southeast, capture Vienna.

Allies divide Austria into zones of occupation, April 1945

From the Balkans to Vienna

Episode 15 of the 1978 documentary series The Unknown War with Burt Lancaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wByjxwF0lMs

Campaign in the Balkans

Episode 5 of Season 6 of the documentary series Battlefield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgeJo7l9NUk

The Liberation of Vienna

Soviet film

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfHQgIM-NkE

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGaV7kLoEc

Austria was occupied by the Allies till 1955.

--------------------------

The Western Front

The Allies at the Rhine

Closing the Ring

Episode 10 of 13 from the documentary series WW II in Colour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXulSEhVvjE

The River Rhine

The Swiss Alps are the source of the Rhine; the river flows north to Holland where it empties into the North Sea.

Timeline

September 1944 - British take Arnhem Bridge on the Rhine in Holland but cannot hold it without reinforcements.

The situation in March 1945 Public Domain

March 7, 1945 - U. S. Gen. Omar Bradley's First Army finds the Ludendorf Bridge at Remagen still standing and crosses the Rhine.

March 22, 1945 - U. S. Gen. Patton's Third Army crosses the Rhine at Oppenheim (marking the first crossing of the river by boat by an invading army since Napoleon) and makes another crossing near Worms on March 23.

March 23/24, 1945 - British Feld Mashall Montgomery's army crosses the Rhine in an operation including the biggest airborne invasion of the war and captures the town of Wesel on the east bank on March 25.

March 26, 1945 - U. S. army crosses the Rhine at Mannheim/Worms.

March 31, 1945 - French First Army under Gen. De Lattre de Tassigny crosses the Rhine at Speyer, which was captured by Gen. Patton's Third Army on March 24 (marking the first invading French troops to cross the Rhine since Napoleon).

Battle for the Rhine

Episode 2 of the second season of British documentary series Battlefield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A34iQr1DyV8

Crossing the Rhine

Episode from the documentary series Lost Evidence

2 clips:

1. First minute of video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5zSwxKV4tQ

2. Full video less first 13 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O--KTz8yDQ0

The Bridge at Remagen

US Army documentary from the Big Picture series (1960s) decribes the capture of the Ludendorf Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen on March 7, 1945

With Gen. Eisenhower, Gen. Bradley, baseball legend Warren Spahn, others

Parts 1 and 2 on one reel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqNnkbYumY

The American Rhine Offensive

Excerpt from documentary about the American Rhine Offensive of 1945 - Trier, Cologne, Bonn, Bad Godesberg, Remagen, Dusseldorf . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfE6cxH5Z0c

Crossing the Rhine

Episode 21 of 23 of the 1949 documentary series Crusade in Europe based on the book by Gen. Eisenhower

British and Americans cross the Rhine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emMV-2sgszI

Rhine Barrier Smashed

United Nawsreel

British and Americans conduct air and ground assault across the Rhine on March 23 and 24, 1945

The British attack on the northern front and the Americans attack on the central front

Churchill, Eisenhower and Montgomery cross the Rhine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL8kUtQ4mEA

Rhine Airborne Operations

British Pathe Newsreel

British assault Wesel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkuWu9PycNE

and similar:

We Cross the Rhine

British Pathe Newsreel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2UgSQ6u1oU

Churchill crosses the Rhine

25 March 1945

Near Wesel

With Montgomery

File:Prime Minister Winston Churchill Crosses the River Rhine ... ALLIED COMMANDERS CROSSING RHINE 26 March 1945. From left Field ...

Operation Varsity

RAF documentary about the British assault on Wesel on the east bank of the Rhine

(2 clips)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdNBnHEZmM0

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9xzfWN7W5o

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE CROSSING the Rhine at Strasburg, Etching 1894 ...

Napoleon crossing the Rhine at Strasbourg

1894

Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVqKrRGYRZQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_hIkriYzoM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSYJjXgdxc

------------------

Allies roll through western Germany

Image result for the allied drive to the elbe 1945

The thrust of Allies across western Germany to the Elbe River in the winter and spring of 1945.

Roosevelt v Stalin

July 1941 – April 1945

Episode 4 of 4 of the 2007 documentary series Warlords (49:24)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XZ48Jnmf2w

Image result for roosevelt and churchill - their last meeting

Allies in War

Britain and America Against the Axis Powers

1940 - 1945

Lecture by Mark Stoler at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on 7 June 2007

Lecture begins at the 07:04 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYjWvEc86wA

Churchill and Roosevelt

The Personal Element in the Partnership

Lecture by Mark A. Stoler at the Central Library, Rutland, Vermont

4 November 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KPjnmPFJlI

-----------------

FDR dies

April 12, 1945

New York Times, April 13, 1945

Greensboro Daily News, April 13, 1945

FDR died on April 12, 1945, as the Allies closed in on Berlin. He was two months into his fourth term as American president.

Roosevelt

Manipulator-in-Chief

From the documentary series Portraits of Power - Those Who Shaped the 20th Century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1i52-hOm4s

The New Dealers' War

Interview with Thomas Fleming, author of The New Dealers' War (2001)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmJyvpcKaI

World War Two

1945 and the Wheelchair President

2015 BBC documentary with David Reynolds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJfwMhx1dW8

The Allies

Episode # 17 of the 1978 documentary series The Unknown War with Burt Lancaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8zoUSCabRM

Vice-President Harry Truman is sworn in as president, taking the oath of office, by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the White House on 12 April 1945.

The Providence Journal, April 13, 1945

-------------------------

Halt at the Elbe

Present-day map with the Elbe River highlighted. The Elbe was well inside the zone to be occupied by the Soviets.

Following the Battle of the Bulge, British field commanders wanted to race the Soviets to Berlin, making a long spear-drive through Germany.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Big Three agreed to divide Germany into three zones of occupation - American, British and Soviet. Berlin would be in the Soviet zone of occupation and the city would be divided into similar zones of occupation.

The Allied Supreme Commander, American General Dwight Eisenhower, informed the Soviets that Berlin was theirs.

Nonetheless, the British commander, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, wanted to try to take Berlin before the Soviets.

The first American troops, from the US First Army, reached the Elbe River on 11 April 1945.

General George Patton, commander of the US Third Army, did not want US troops to halt but try to capture Berlin before the Soviets.

At the time, the Soviets were closer to Berlin than the Americans.

General Omar Bradley, commander-in-chief of American ground forces, advised Eisenhower that an American attempt to take Berlin would cost the lives of 100,000 soldiers.

The day after FDR's death, Eisenhower ordered Allied forces, who were in the zone that was to be occupied by the Soviets, to halt at the Elbe River.

Eisenhower maintained that there were other important objectives and ordered Montgomery to head north and Patton to head south.

Eisenhower again signeled the Soviets that Berlin was theirs.

The Soviets would lose 300,000 dead, wounded and missing in taking the city.

The first Soviet troops reached the Elbe on 25 April.

General Omar Bradley

Episode from the documentary series The Big Picture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxFmBgEoS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKZ5Z2GMISU

From Remagen to the Elbe

Surrender of the Third Reich

Documentary film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgbTaj0pM28

Americans and Soviets link up on the Elbe

April 25, 1945

American soldiers and Soviet cavalrymen met several kilometres west of the Elbe River on April 25, 1945.

American and Soviet soldiers meet on the damaged bridge spanning the Elbe at Torgau on April 25, 1945. Shaking hands are US Army 2nd Lieutenant William D. Robertson, left, and Red Army Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko, right.
The meeting of the two armies is remembered as "Elbe Day" and "Encounter at the Elbe".

Daily Express (London), April 28, 1945

The above map shows the advance of the western Allies. by the end of the war, in May 1945, to the River Elbe, which separates the red and purple areas. The red area was occupied by the Soviets. In accordance with the Yalta Agreement, the Americans withdrew from the purple area, west of the Elbe, which was to be occupied by the Soviets, to the thick black line, in July 1945.
The Americans occupied much of the city of Torgau and the surrounding area first, in April 1945, well before the Soviets arrived, but, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement, handed over to the Soviets three months later, in July 1945, and withdrew to the opposite bank of the Elbe and retired far to westward.

Hands Across the Reich

British Pathe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_emFZsnrRP8

The Link-Up

Movietone News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6-JOpaAoXg

Elbe Day

A short history or review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-jxR53AMUA

The Story of a Handshake

Documentary about Elbe Day

Interview with a Red Army veteran and 1945 film footage

2 clips

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchpzmAnHlw

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEZ1R7i5AQ

American and Soviet soldiers in Torgau on 25 April 1945

Тоска по Родине

(Yearning for the Homeland)

Song composed by Dmitry Shostakovich and Evgeny Dolmatovsky and sung by Nadezhda Obukhova (1949)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCBCyKivOc

Song of My Country

Sung by Georgy Pavlovich Vinogradov (Георгий Павлович Виноградов) in 1951

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQH-elUbyXY

Encounter at the Elbe

1949 Mosfilm

10 clips

start here (all clips play automatically):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyVOREY0Lk&list=PL3F91699BD86D22FB

Die Elbe

Eine Flussreise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9toZv0i2Vc

Link-up in Wittenberg

The U. S. First Army and the Soviet 5th Guards Army link up along a 50-miles from Riesa to Wittenberg on the Elbe.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/photos-from-the-vault/article39527007.html#storylink=cpy

By 27 April, the Americans were in Wittenberg, the home town of Martin Luther. The town is 47 kilometres north of Torgau on the Elbe. Above is a modern map of a bicycle route.

American and Soviet soldiers in Wittenberg

Newsreel footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasmLeoW_pU

----------------------

Patton

General George S. Patton (1885 - December 1945), commanded troops landing in Casablanca in Operation Torch in November 1942 and commanded US ground forces in the invasion of Sicily in 1943.

After D-Day, Patton, commanding the Third Army, drove through France and Germany into Austria and Czechoslovakia.

The General George S. Patton Story

Narrated by Ronald Reagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvL0tj9ZaoY

The same as:

George S. Patton

From the documentary series Famous Generals on the US army TV program The Big Picture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weVwTUyCIM4

Patton and the Third Army

Episode from the documentary series The 20th Century with Walter Cronkite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz9lOuw_DhU

Crushing the Third Reich

Episode form the documentary series Patton 360

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mE09mblb0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cP5CHElfI

Interview with Carlo Desty, author of Patton, A Genius for War (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpI3v_JAanY

Le général George S. Patton

Au cœur de l’histoire

Europe 1 (2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8INBr-nQhnM

General George Patton

Address in Boston (1945)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9DpKDwCJcM

------------------

The Death of Mussolini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSQAUfOYL8

In French:

Les Trois Morts de Mussolini

(52 min.)

https://rutube.ru/video/38576a6304ef82c50dc7aa9e03d5cf44/

L'étrange mort de Mussolini

Alain Decaux raconte

le 10 decembre 1972 (43:57)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfFvA6m4HCs

Newsreel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuvlXq17Io

Newsreel footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw4noLIFgGQ

Mussolini: The Secrets of his Death

Lecture by Robert Miller on the book by Luciano Garibaldi

A James Bond connection?

New York, 28 January 2005

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhTb6Fc6HPo

C-SPAN 2:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?184297-1/mussolini-secrets-death

La Chute de Benito Mussolini

Histoire de Comprendre

Rome 1943, Milan 1945

Alexandre Adler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuco274pexk

----------------

The End of the Third Reich

Map: Collapse on the Eastern Front from The Second World War by John Keegan (1989).

Map shows the advances and front lines of eastern and western Allied troops from 19 August 1944 to 20 February 1945.

Vistula - Oder Offensive

1st Belorussian Front (Zhukov), 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) and Fourth Ukrainian Front (Petrov)

12 January - 2 February

East Prussian Offensive

2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) and 3rd Belorussian Front (Chernyakhovsky)

13 January - 25 April

Vienna Offensive

2nd Ukrainian Front (Malinovsky) and 3rd Ukrainian Front (Tolbukhin)

2 - 23 April

Hitler's headquarters in Berlin, Rastenburg (East Prussia), Berchtesgaden (Bavaria) and other points.


				26. Defeating the Axis in Africa and Europe *26h. End of the Third Reich*



	26a. Stopping the Axis in Africa \| 26b. The Americans Arrive - The Allies Push the Axis out of North Africa \| 26c. Stalingrad - Stopping the Axis on the East Front \| 26d. Allied Invasion of Sicily and Italy; Kursk - Reversing the Tide on the East Front \| 26e. Air Power \| 26f. The British and the Resistance \| 26g. D-Day, 6 June 1944 \| 26h. End of the Third Reich \| 26i. Germany Post-War

Liberation of Antwerp (1944)

Entire documentary film (22:11)

Theirs is the Glory

1946 British movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCgxoaSi1f0

or

La (dernière) Bataille de Strasbourg

Hiver 1944-1945

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duga9RaxgX4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcmshqUW6Ww

That Ain't Right

Scene from Stormy Weather with Ada Brown (1943) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZFsm9msv4

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1940)

The Assault on East Prussia

German documentary narrated in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz7scck2bXI

The same in German:

Germans expelled from the port town of Pillau in Prussia by the Soviets in April 1945.

Flucht und Vertreibung

Doku

Teil 1. Inferno im Osten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_BTGCsM7eI (57:02)

Americans and Soviets link up on the Elbe

April 25, 1945

Освобождение: Битва за Берлин

The Battle of Berlin Part 4 of the 1971/1972 movie Liberation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1qjl3X0M4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0luZI8JRULU

BBC translation of the full text of the broadcast:

Announcer:

From the Fuhrer's headquarters it is announced that our Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, this afternoon at his command post in the Reich Chancellery, fighting till his last breath against Bolshevism, fell for Germany.

On April 30 the Fuhrer appointed Admiral of the Fleet Doenitz his successor.

The Admiral and successor of the Fuhrer will now speak to the German people.

Admiral Doenitz:

German men and women, soldiers of the German Wehrmacht, our Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, has fallen.

The BBC monitoring service picked up the German broadcast about Adolf Hitler's death and informed the BBC broadcasting service.

Adolf Hitler's death

Der Todeskampf der Reichshauptstadt

Ein General, der Führer und 2 Millionen Berliner

Winston Churchill announcing Germany's unconditional surrender

10 Downing Street

8 May 1945, 3:00 p. m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvOsD2C6rUk

British Pathe newsreel with recent commentary added

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1AKeJ16spg

Scene from Stormy Weather with Ada Brown (1943)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZFsm9msv4

The Battle of Berlin

Part 4 of the 1971/1972 movie Liberation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1qjl3X0M4