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00:00Previously on the last days of World War II, the Red Army launched a brutal and massive
00:05assault on Berlin as Nuremberg, the spiritual home of the Nazi Party, fell to US forces.
00:13In Berlin, Hitler paused to celebrate his 56th birthday as Soviet artillery bombardments
00:18reverberate in the distance.
00:21In the Pacific, US troops capture a vital peninsula on Okinawa.
00:25Offshore, Allied warships continue to be terrorized by deadly waves of kamikazes.
00:33This week, terrified and exhausted Berliners are bracing themselves for the arrival of
00:38the Red Army.
00:42Benito Mussolini and his mistress are captured in northern Italy and suffer a humiliating
00:47and brutal demise.
00:52In the Pacific, the battle for Okinawa intensifies.
00:56The Japanese fight on desperately as their positions are rocked by the overwhelming firepower
01:01of the Americans.
01:02The 23rd of April, Germany.
01:27In a small forest village near Floss, about 250 miles south of Berlin, troops from the
01:33US 2nd Cavalry liberate the Flossenberg concentration camp.
01:40Established in 1938, it was the fourth Nazi camp to be set up in Germany.
01:46Flossenberg was considered a hard regime camp.
01:49Most prisoners worked in stone quarries.
01:52Here, malnutrition, lack of proper medical care and abuse at the hands of savage SS guards
02:00caused the death of an estimated 73,000 prisoners.
02:04At one point, Flossenberg had held up to 18,000 prisoners.
02:07Now, only about 2,000 remain.
02:11Those who do manage to survive a week, and many are dying.
02:18Three days before, the SS had forced more than 14,000 prisoners on a death march.
02:28About 4,000 of those prisoners died of exhaustion or starvation, or were shot by the SS.
02:35Such notorious marches were first heard of two weeks before, when retreating German soldiers
02:40had moved more than 43,000 Jewish prisoners out of the notorious Buchenwald concentration
02:46camp, days before it was liberated by US troops.
02:50These death marches took place all over Germany, and certainly from the camps in Poland.
02:56And the idea was simple.
02:59They can't gas us, because they had to destroy the gas chambers.
03:04This was the next phase of extinction.
03:09We were walking endlessly, dressed in rags and no shoes.
03:15The assumption was, we would just drop dead.
03:19Even now, despite the imminent collapse of the Third Reich, thousands more will die as
03:24a result of forced marches.
03:25The 26th of April, as American forces approach from the west, there are more than 67,000 prisoners
03:38in the Dachau concentration camp and its sub-camps.
03:41SS soldiers force about 7,000 prisoners from Dachau on a death march.
03:50SS guards shoot anyone who cannot keep going during the six-day ordeal.
04:00Other prisoners die of exposure, hunger or exhaustion.
04:04Survivors of the death march would eventually be liberated at Tegernsey on the 2nd of May.
04:13Over the last months of the war in Europe, an estimated quarter of a million concentration
04:18camp prisoners died on these forced marches.
04:22The 27th of April, troops from the US 103rd Division liberate the Bavarian town of Landsberg,
04:28home to one of the Dachau sub-camps.
04:31The town's fortress once served as a political prison.
04:36It was here that Adolf Hitler had written Mein Kampf, whilst imprisoned for attempting
04:40a Nazi coup d'etat in 1924.
04:48In the neighbouring town of Kaufering, the Allies uncover evidence of a massacre, which shocks
04:52even the most battle-hardened GIs.
04:55US soldiers find a concentration camp and the charred remains of 268 prisoners, who had
05:02been locked in rooms and burned alive.
05:10Outraged GIs load the local townspeople into trucks and take them to see the crimes committed
05:16in their name.
05:18Many Allied soldiers, both British and American, were utterly bewildered by the stony faces with
05:28which most Germans who were forced to go and look at neighbouring death camps responded.
05:34That some burst into tears, but most of them appeared to show no emotion at all.
05:39They'd almost given up on emotion of any kind.
05:43None of the civilians admit any knowledge of the camp.
05:46They say the Nazis had told them it was a secret war factory, so they didn't ask questions.
05:52But Nazi atrocities will not go unpunished.
05:55The day of reckoning is fast approaching.
05:59On the outskirts of Berlin, the overwhelming assault of the Red Army is wreaking havoc.
06:10General Zhukov and General Konev's armies have the city nearly surrounded.
06:13It's only a matter of time before they strike the fatal blow to the shattered German capital.
06:20The 22nd of April.
06:22Berlin.
06:23Life inside the city has been reduced to utter chaos.
06:28Berlin comes under a relentless artillery bombardment.
06:34For nearly two years, the Royal Air Force has mounted devastating raids on the German capital.
06:39High explosives and incendiaries have burned out large tracts of the city.
06:49Even the Tiergarten, which houses the city's famous zoo, has been hit.
06:54Some animals have been evacuated, but those left behind are now dead.
07:00Streets are littered with corpses and rubble.
07:03The city is wreathed in smoke, ash and death.
07:07Despite the rapidly deteriorating conditions, roughly 3 million people remain in the city.
07:14Many have taken to living in the air raid shelters, most of which are desperately overcrowded.
07:19German is terrified of the prospect of being overrun by an unforgiving Red Army.
07:28The anxiety among German women is especially high.
07:32They fear the abuse they will suffer at the hands of the invading enemy.
07:35They were intent on rape, pillage and revenge, and that's exactly what they did.
07:43Everywhere they went, they took what they wanted, literally.
07:47So the great concern, the great panic throughout Germany in this period was how the hell do you
07:53get away from the Russians.
07:57Knowing that Berlin is a prize that has been awarded to the Soviets, residents of Berlin
08:02still hope that the Western Allies will take the German capital first.
08:09Many of the city's inhabitants morbidly joke that the optimists are learning to speak English,
08:14the pessimists Russian.
08:20It is absolutely clear that Germany will be defeated, it's absolutely clear that there
08:25is no way out, and the people who died there basically die in vain.
08:32But Hitler, isolated in his underground bunker, grows only more delusional.
08:38He frantically clings to the hope that his weary, outnumbered and outgunned army can withstand
08:43the invaders long enough for some miracle to rescue the situation.
08:50Many in the Fuhrer's inner circle do not share his delusions.
08:54Acutely aware that the end is near, eleventh-hour negotiations are taking place, evidence is
09:00being destroyed, and bags are being packed.
09:07Within the Fuhrer bunker itself, a kind of surreal air dominated, and many people seem to be
09:15living the dream that Hitler was living at that time.
09:18Others of his henchmen, and especially Göring and Himmler, begin to pursue their own paths.
09:25Some of them were not in as great a denial as Hitler, and were making plans to basically
09:29slip out of the country, or find their defense when the ensuing war crimes trials came up.
09:37Many of them were looking after number one, rather than the Fuhrer.
09:41Hitler's authority over the thinning ranks of loyal Nazis is eroding, as the massive Soviet
09:46army storms through the heart of the Reich.
09:49Berlin is now the Red Army's priority.
09:56The 23rd of April, Berlin.
09:58Hitler receives a telegram from Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo, commander-in-chief
10:03of the Luftwaffe, and president of the Reichstag.
10:06The telegram's message drives him into an incandescent rage.
10:10It reads,
10:11My Fuhrer, in view of your decision to remain at your post in the fortress of Berlin, do
10:16you agree that I take over, at once, the total leadership of the Reich, with full freedom
10:22of action at home and abroad, as your deputy?
10:26If no reply is received by 10 o'clock tonight, I shall take it for granted that you have lost
10:31your freedom of action, and shall act for the best interests of our country and our people.
10:37Hitler is blind with fury, and orders Göring's arrest.
10:44In a matter of days, Hitler would order the arrest of another high-ranking Nazi, one of
10:48his most loyal henchmen, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler.
10:56The 24th of April, the Baltic coast.
10:59Count Bernadotte, vice president of the Swedish Red Cross, and a nephew of the King of Sweden,
11:05this is a top-secret message from Heinrich Himmler to the Western Allies.
11:11Himmler had secretly met with Bernadotte the night before at the Swedish consulate, in hopes
11:16that he could help negotiate Germany's surrender to the Western Allies.
11:21It was not their first meeting.
11:24Unbeknownst to Hitler, the two had convened once before in Berlin, back in February.
11:30Himmler had attempted to win asylum for himself, and 200 leading Nazis, by offering cash and
11:35the freedom of 3,500 Jews.
11:41In three days, the message will be passed to Himmler, once and for all, that the Allies
11:45will not consider a conditional surrender.
11:51Hitler learns of Himmler's plot after the first trainload of Jews bound for Switzerland sets
11:56off.
11:57Hitler halts the plans immediately, but Himmler, far from Berlin, slips away and escapes the
12:02Führer's vengeance.
12:06Hitler's thousand-year Reich is collapsing like a house of cards.
12:10The 28th of April, Berlin.
12:15Suspecting that Waffen SS General Hermann Fagerlein may have been involved with Himmler's attempt
12:20to surrender to the Western Allies, Hitler has Fagerlein arrested.
12:26Fagerlein, a former Olympic show jumper, rose through the ranks as an SS cavalry officer,
12:31and had married Gretel Braun, the sister of Ava, Hitler's mistress.
12:38When he is arrested, he is found with money, jewels, and a false passport.
12:43Fagerlein is interrogated by Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller himself.
12:47But there is no question what his fate will be.
12:50The following morning, he is dragged out into the Reich Chancellery Garden and shot.
13:00As senior officers and officials plot their escape, the remnants of Hitler's armed forces
13:05in Berlin desperately try to hold out against the Red Army.
13:09Hitler now places the fate of Germany in the hands of two of his remaining generals.
13:17SS General Felix Steiner, commander of the 11th SS Panzer Army, stationed just north of Berlin,
13:22has been ordered to link up with General von Manteufel's Third Army and launch a counterattack.
13:30But Steiner declares it to be an impossible order. Hitler is not deterred.
13:36His hopes turn to Field Marshal Schörner of Army Group Center and General Walter Wenck, commander
13:42of the 12th Army. Hitler believes their troops will be able to fend off US forces advancing from
13:47the southwest.
13:52He anticipates news of reinforcements from Wenck, but that relief would never come.
14:01The Red Army now has Berlin effectively surrounded, preventing 200,000 Germans to the southeast from
14:07reinforcing the city's ragtag defense.
14:10The only troops left to defend the German capital are the remnants of Wehrmacht units, Hitler
14:15youth, First World War veterans, and men of the fearsome Waffen SS.
14:26The first SS units had been formed in 1923 to serve as Hitler's personal guard.
14:32Five years later, the SS had a strength of 280, under the command of Heinrich Himmler.
14:41The SS would become a complex political and military organization, with many branches,
14:46one of which was the Waffen SS.
14:51Under Himmler's direction, it would grow exponentially into an elite military formation of nearly 600,000
14:57men.
14:58The Waffen SS would earn a reputation as one of the most ruthless fighting formations of
15:02the war.
15:04In one notorious incident, on the 10th of June 1944, more than 600 people in the French village
15:10of Orador-sur-Glan were massacred by soldiers of an SS Panzer Division.
15:20But by the spring of 1945, their glory and ranks had been depleted.
15:26The defense of Berlin will be made by just 95,000 men, under the command of General Weidling.
15:31Only 60 tanks are available to support them.
15:38Outnumbered and outgunned, with nowhere left to run, Hitler must have dreamed of being able
15:43to recover his divisions trapped in Italy.
15:49Now they too stare defeat in the face.
15:55The 22nd of April, Italy.
15:57The German forces, under the command of General Heinrich von Wietinghoff, are in full retreat.
16:03Von Wietinghoff knows the situation is hopeless.
16:07He calls a meeting of his senior officers at Recaro Terme and the foothills of the Alps.
16:12Among those in attendance is General Karl Wolf, head of the SS in Italy.
16:18Seven weeks ago, Wolf had opened secret negotiations with Alan Dulles, head of the OSS, predecessor
16:24to the CIA.
16:25Against Hitler's orders, Wolf had offered to surrender German forces in Western Italy.
16:31He hoped that the Western Allies would sign a separate peace, leaving German forces free
16:35to try to save their country from the Soviets.
16:40In order to establish his credibility, Wolf had even arranged the release of a captured
16:44OSS agent.
16:47But after two months of negotiations, it becomes clear to Wolf that nothing short of a complete
16:52and unconditional surrender is acceptable.
17:00As Wietinghoff holds his meeting, the US 5th and the British 8th Armies are advancing.
17:06In 24 hours, they will cross the Po River and seize the town of Ferrara.
17:13The town of La Spezia on the west coast will be liberated on the same day.
17:21The retreating German troops can do little to stop them.
17:24Mussolini, living under German protection, will soon have to make new arrangements.
17:32The 25th of April, the towns of Mantua, Parma and Verona are liberated.
17:37It is clear that Milan, Il Duce's safe haven, is next, forcing Italy's former dictator to go
17:43on the run.
17:49He and his mistress, Claretta Pitacci, flee the city and head for Lake Como.
17:57Alessandro Pavolini, one of Mussolini's most trusted supporters, promises to join him with
18:023,000 loyal fascists.
18:06Mussolini reaches Menaggio.
18:08There, Pavolini finally catches up with him.
18:11But instead of being backed by thousands of supporters, Pavolini has only a dozen men.
18:18Angry and frustrated, Mussolini has no choice but to join a German convoy heading for the
18:23Swiss border.
18:26The 26th of April, 6.30am, Italian partisans spot the convoy and order it to stop.
18:32The Germans are allowed to continue, but Mussolini and Claretta are arrested.
18:40The 28th of April, Italy.
18:43The Wehrmacht is collapsing.
18:45Allied troops heading north encounter dejected German soldiers waving white flags on the roadsides.
18:54Walter Odisseo, an Italian communist partisan, arrives at the farmhouse where Benito Mussolini
18:59and his mistress Claretta await their fate.
19:02The events that follow have long been disputed.
19:08In one version of events, Odisseo drives the couple a few hundred yards down the road.
19:13Then, at the roadside, Mussolini and Claretta are cut down by a burst of machine gun fire.
19:21He had made Italy world famous, he had conquered Ethiopia, he had made peace with the church.
19:28And I genuinely think that if he hadn't gone to war with Hitler in 1940, which he didn't really have to do,
19:35Franco didn't, he'd have died in bed.
19:37And that very, very famous scene where the crowd is throwing things at the upside-down body of Mussolini was, of course, symbolic of the end of the regime.
19:48The 24th of April.
19:52The Red Army is now roughly five miles from the Reich Chancellery.
19:56Under the command of Marshal Konev, the first Ukrainian front smashes its way into the southern suburbs of the German capital.
20:03From the east, Marshal Zhukov's first Belarusian front has entered the city's eastern suburbs.
20:11Units from both armies are also moving north of the city to complete the encirclement.
20:16Leading the way into Berlin is one of the most powerful armoured vehicles of the Second World War, the JS2.
20:26Named after the Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, the JS2 is also referred to as the Victory Tank.
20:35The 46-ton tank went into production at the end of October 1943 and entered service with heavy tank regiments the following year.
20:47It scared everybody on the battlefield. It scared the Germans, but it certainly scared us too.
20:52It was their heavy tank. The idea being was this thing, you know, could absorb a lot of punishment, but also this shit out.
21:01It was designed to replace the KV line of heavy tanks, which by 1943 were thought to be seriously undergunned.
21:07The first JS tank, the JS1, was fitted with an 85mm artillery weapon.
21:16This was quickly upgraded to the JS2, equipped with a 122mm gun.
21:22It had a huge gun, a 122mm gun, that had a massive muzzle break on the end of the gun.
21:28The shells from this gun could knock out a German Panther tank at a range of nearly one mile.
21:39Combined with its speed and manoeuvrability, as well as a 7.62mm machine gun,
21:44the four-man JS2 would become a formidable battlefield weapon, able to take on the latest German armour on equal terms.
21:52The 28th of April, Berlin. The Red Army is now just one mile from the Reich Chancellery and Hitler's underground bunker.
22:10In what has become a painstaking and devastating advance through the streets of Berlin,
22:14the Soviets now control 75% of the city.
22:18The Russians find themselves having to fight block by block and street by street,
22:26to try and get their tanks past all the obstacles created by these huge mounds of rubble,
22:31and of course, fires in all directions, smoke in every direction,
22:34that every Russian who was there described it as looking like an inferno.
22:41General Weidling, commander of the Berlin garrison,
22:43tells Hitler that his men will run out of ammunition in 48 hours.
22:48Hitler is also informed that Berlin's Tempelhof airport has been taken by the Soviets.
22:57The last avenue of escape is now closed.
23:06On the 28th of April, it was impossible to be in the bunker without feeling a concussion from the shells,
23:11as the Russians were moving now street by street, closer and closer.
23:15There was still a briefing in the afternoon in which the word came that probably it would be 24 hours and the Russians would be there.
23:23The roar of Soviet artillery and the rumble of tanks intensify with every hour that passes.
23:29As the battle for Berlin rages on, Hitler finally realises the end is upon him.
23:35It was only right at the end that he finally accepted that it was all over.
23:41Stalin's forces are also pushing past the city, deeper into Germany.
23:45About 50 miles to the west, a clear signal arrives that final victory is at hand.
23:51The 24th of April, east finally meets west.
23:55Near the Mulder River, Albert Kotzebue, a 21-year-old lieutenant with the US 69th Division,
24:01leads a patrol that would make contact with the Soviet troops near the village of Kuren.
24:06Preparing for their patrol, the men are warned not to go beyond the limits of the village.
24:16The patrol arrives in Kuren and immediately rounds up 355 German soldiers eager to surrender to American forces.
24:24Lieutenant Kotzebue decides to set up camp for the night.
24:28Colonel Charles Adams radios an order for the men to return to base, but Kotzebue ignores the call.
24:36The 25th of April.
24:38The next day, moving east into the town of Lekvitz,
24:41Lieutenant Kotzebue and his men meet a lone horseman from the Russian army,
24:46who tells the Allies where they can find his fellow troops.
24:49The men speed off in their Willis jeeps in the hope of meeting Russian troops.
24:57The Willis Overland Company started manufacturing their jeep for the US military in 1941.
25:02One of the most ubiquitous vehicles of World War II, the jeep answered the army's need for a lightweight,
25:10general-purpose vehicle that could be used in all theatres of operation.
25:14It served a distinct purpose, but how the jeep got its name is not as clear.
25:19One story is that the vehicle got its name from the letters GP, short for general purpose, which over time became jeep.
25:29Another story is that jeep is an old US army term used by mechanics to refer to any new vehicle received for testing.
25:39And finally, in March 1936, the character Eugene the Jeep was introduced in the already beloved Popeye comic by E.C. Sagar.
25:49The military relied heavily on the jeep because it was durable and almost unstoppable.
25:56I mean, this thing could do anything. It was a four-wheel drive vehicle. It could go anywhere. It could do anything.
26:00Troops loved the thing. In fact, General Eisenhower said this was one of the weapons that won World War II for us.
26:08The lightweight jeep could do 60 miles an hour and cross the most difficult terrain with a 600 pound load.
26:14It could tow a 37mm anti-tank gun. It could tow a 57mm anti-tank gun. It could carry four troops.
26:28This thing is everywhere. Because of its compact size, airborne troops could load it onto a glider
26:34and drop it where it was needed. Not only was it fast on rugged terrain, it had a small turning radius,
26:40it could climb a 40 degree slope and lean 50 degrees without rolling.
26:47Once fitted with a special air intake and exhaust attachments, the jeep could even run in deep water.
26:52At the height of production, one jeep rolled off the assembly line every 90 seconds.
27:02The 25th of April, 12.30pm. Driving east, Lieutenant Kotzebue and his men crossed the Elba River in a commandeered boat.
27:10When they reach the far bank, they are greeted by men from the Soviet 58th Guards Infantry Division.
27:18Kotzebue immediately sends word to Colonel Adams that contact has been made with the Soviets.
27:23However, this historic moment will be eclipsed.
27:27Having not received word from Kotzebue, Colonel Adams had dispatched two patrols to find him.
27:32One is under the command of Lieutenant William Robertson.
27:35At 4pm, Robertson's patrol enters the town of Torgau, west of the Elba.
27:43In Torgau, Robertson and his men encounter Soviet troops from the 173rd Rifle Regiment.
27:49A meeting of high-ranking officers is arranged for the next day.
27:55The 26th of April.
27:57In a momentous occasion, US General Reinhardt and Soviet General Vladimir Rusikov meet and pose for photographs.
28:04It was basically a highly symbolic moment, of course, because that meant that it was only a matter of days or weeks that the German Reich would be finished.
28:14Everyone realises that victory can be only days away.
28:19But the scenes are ironic, given the suspicion that we'll dominate Soviet-American relations for years to come.
28:26They drank each other's booze, they smoked each other's cigarettes, they exchanged caps, and, well, then they realised that there were a lot of great differences between them.
28:36You could say that the Second World War ends and the Cold War begins around the same time.
28:41The 22nd of April, Okinawa.
28:47Fighting on the island reaches its most intense phase.
28:50US troops have been on the island for three weeks and are inching south into the barrier that lies between them and the island's capital, Naha.
28:59The previous week, Japanese forces on the Motobu Peninsula were eliminated, ending major ground operations in the north.
29:07It has been a painstaking and brutal trudge for the soldiers, engaged in some of the most ferocious combat of the war.
29:17More than any tank, plane or piece of artillery, it is the American GI that the Allied commanders are now relying upon.
29:25In 1941, the population of the United States stood at just over 133 million.
29:34During World War II, over 16 million would serve in the military.
29:38They came from all walks of life, all ethnic and economic backgrounds.
29:4745% had at least a high school education.
29:51Although the average age of a GI was 26, many were barely 18.
29:57Some who had lied about their age to enlist were even younger.
30:03Infantry men were shipped out after just eight weeks of basic training.
30:06They faced some of the most brutal combat conditions the world has ever known.
30:11If you're not in good shape, forget it.
30:14You don't have a chance.
30:16But you have to be trained mentally as well.
30:22American GIs were highly motivated, many inspired by a patriotic sense of duty.
30:27In the field, troops often lived off K-rations, packs containing 2,700 calories, designed to last two or three days.
30:39Sometimes they had to be made to last much longer.
30:41The servicemen also make do with a one-quart canteen of water.
30:45Well, you have a canteen full of water and you've got to wash your socks, brush your teeth, make coffee and see whatever else you can do without water to make it last.
30:56These are discomforts and sacrifices that you understood and you live with.
31:01No piece of equipment made the American GIs so recognisable as his helmet that not only protected a soldier's head against enemy fire and shrapnel,
31:12but served as a wash basin, a shovel and even as a weapon in extreme circumstances.
31:19As life in foxholes and trenches took its toll, the infantry relied on each other for survival.
31:25You stay as tight as you can, as close as you can to the small unit, who are your buddies, your brothers.
31:35The clichés are true, band of brothers.
31:37These are the guys you're fighting for that are going to watch your back and keep you alive, and you're going to fight for them.
31:42I was really worried that my turn was next.
31:46We had a priest, the battalion chaplain, and I ran into him and I said,
31:54Father Lacey, I'm really scared, I'm going to get killed.
31:59He said, son, we're all scared.
32:01The next day, we're in a defensive position, and I turn around and there's Father Lacey crawling up to my foxhole.
32:09He said, oh, I was just in the neighborhood, I thought I'd drop by.
32:13The truth is, what he was doing was supporting me, and I never, never, never forgot that.
32:18In 2000, Time magazine readers voted the American GI amongst their top 20 most influential people of the century.
32:26But many veterans have never spoken of the horrors they faced.
32:30I didn't want to talk about it because it would have been disrespecting the dead.
32:34I'm not going to talk about anything I did, because there were several guys I was best buddies with
32:38that were two inches from me and got it between the eyes, and I didn't.
32:43And that's got nothing to do with courage, it's got nothing to do with how good a soldier you are.
32:48Those that do speak, do so with humility.
32:54Heroes.
32:57Heroes.
32:59Are the guys that didn't make it.
33:02And heroes are guys that are wounded.
33:06Not me.
33:06Heck, no.
33:12Did two things.
33:16Tried to stay alive and tried to do my job, that was all.
33:21No, I'm not a hero.
33:24No.
33:26But I serve with men.
33:29Who got the job done, who were heroes.
33:31This week, American infantry on Okinawa must now turn their attention to the series of natural defences
33:41protecting the Japanese army.
33:47The Machinato line, the first line of defence in the formidable Shuri line,
33:52is a craggy outcropping which US forces have already begun to infiltrate.
33:56The main Shuri line itself is home to the bulk of Japanese forces on Okinawa.
34:06Although the danger is not always evident,
34:08US troops are aware that the enemy is well hidden in the mountains that surround them.
34:13It is here that the main battle for Okinawa will be fought,
34:17and where American forces will meet their toughest resistance yet.
34:20The 22nd of April, Okinawa.
34:25As US troops plan their next attack, the front line appears quiet.
34:31It's a much-needed reprieve for US troops to reorganise and resupply.
34:38Reinforcements arrive.
34:40The 27th Division is landed to bolster the two divisions of the 10th Army already in position.
34:45The 23rd of April.
34:50During the night, the Japanese lay down a heavy artillery barrage in the mountains.
35:01The next morning, American forces discover that the Japanese have abandoned their forward positions.
35:06Having accepted the inevitable capture of the forward line,
35:15Ushijima orders his men to pull back to stronger positions.
35:19It is the kind of astute tactical manoeuvre that is characteristic of General Ushijima.
35:24The movement further south by the Japanese troops, I think, was sparked by a realisation
35:32that the Americans had finally figured out a combination of techniques
35:35that would work to dislodge troops from the Shuri line.
35:40Ushijima redeploys Japanese soldiers from other areas in the south to help fortify the line.
35:46The 26th of April, US forces immediately attack the second ring of defences.
35:54The big guns of the battleships Mississippi and Colorado lend their weight
36:05to the bombardment on Japanese positions.
36:12But along the line, the Japanese are dug in deep and out of sight.
36:17The 28th of April, 2pm.
36:24More than 200 aircraft attack the Allied fleet in 44 separate assaults,
36:28which last into the night.
36:33118 Japanese aircraft are lost to anti-aircraft fire and US Navy Corsairs.
36:40Once again, the fleet escapes serious damage.
36:43The biggest casualties are aboard a hospital ship about 50 miles south-east of Okinawa.
36:4923 on board are killed, including six army nurses.
36:56The 27th Division is suffering heavy casualties,
37:00trying to shift the Japanese defenders from their second line of defence.
37:03In the centre of the island, the 96th Division is faring slightly better,
37:12having taken the Nishibaru Ridge.
37:14But the Japanese continue to defend each position tenaciously.
37:18A lot of credit has to be given to Ushijima and to the planning that went into this,
37:25so that they were able to use pre-planned routes of escape,
37:29use pre-planned routes of withdrawal,
37:31some of it under cover of darkness,
37:32so that it's not that easy for the Americans to understand exactly what's happening
37:36and who's moving.
37:38The only time we saw the enemy was the remains of their bodies
37:41as we passed over them, moving across an area,
37:45because the area had been wiped out.
37:49U.S. forces are using everything in their arsenal
37:52to dislodge Japanese positions in the mountains,
37:55artillery, tanks and flamethrowers.
37:58The Japanese are awed by the scale of American firepower
38:01and their abundant supplies of ammunition.
38:06For the Japanese, trapped on the southern isthmus of Okinawa,
38:10the situation can only get worse.
38:12Supplies are already running low.
38:15The Japanese people are feeling the pinch.
38:18They have less food to eat,
38:21and they're getting more and more desperate.
38:24They're essentially stuck with whatever is on the island at that point
38:26and have to make that last for as long as possible.
38:28But the Imperial Army fights on with what is available.
38:38As casualties mount in the Pacific,
38:41top military and government officials calculate the likely butcher's bill
38:45from a ground invasion of mainland Japan.
38:51The 25th of April, Washington, D.C.
38:55President Truman receives his first full briefing
38:57on the Manhattan Project from Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
39:02Truman had only found out about the atomic bomb program two weeks ago
39:05after being sworn in as president.
39:11Now he is given a fuller understanding of what is involved.
39:15The Secretary of War tells Truman,
39:17Within four months, we shall, in all probability,
39:20have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history,
39:24one bomb of which could destroy a whole city.
39:31When Stimson and others began to realize that the atomic bomb
39:35might be ready to be deployed reasonably soon,
39:40they began trying to figure out how to use it.
39:45And there were lots of proposals,
39:48but I don't think they ever really considered anything
39:50but dropping it on a major city.
39:53The 27th of April, the Pentagon.
39:56A committee meets to draw up a list of targets
39:59for what will prove to be the most destructive weapon of the war.
40:03The 27th of April, the Pentagon.
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