Last Days of the Reich

Summary

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Podcast Summary: World War II with Tom Hanks – Episode 18: Last Days of the Reich

Date: July 21, 2026
Series: The HISTORY Channel | Back Pocket Studios | Audacy
Host & Narrator: Tom Hanks

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Overview

This episode, "Last Days of the Reich," examines the dramatic and devastating final months of Nazi Germany during World War II. Guided by Tom Hanks, a team of expert historians, analysts, and military commentators recounts how Hitler’s increasingly desperate leadership led to the catastrophic collapse of the Third Reich. The episode covers Hitler’s failed assassination plot, the Battle of the Bulge, the Soviet advance from the east, the final days in Berlin, and ultimately, the surrender of Nazi Germany. The narrative focuses on military decisions, the suffering of soldiers and civilians, and the long-lasting scars of the conflict.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Failed Assassination of Hitler (July 1944)

• [01:10–02:07] The July 20 plot to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair fails. Hitler sees his survival as a sign of providence, which reinforces his sense of destiny and paranoia.
  • Quote (Hitler as voiced): “The bomb exploded two meters to my right. I myself am completely unhurt. I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed on me by Providence…” ([01:50])
• Hitler’s isolation and mistrust grow. He increases his control and becomes even more erratic and dependent on luck.
  • Comment: "He's on all sorts of medications. He's under more pressure than most human beings can imagine." ([02:19])

2. Planning the Last Offensive – The Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge)

• [03:35–05:39] Facing imminent defeat, Hitler seeks a bold move. He gambles on a surprise offensive in the Ardennes to split the Allies, hoping to force them to make a separate peace.
  • Quote (Military historian, on odds): “Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt says, Antwerp, my God, if we even get to the Meuse river, that's less than halfway…” ([05:02])
• Hitler ignores his generals’ doubts, believing he might get lucky once more.

3. The Battle of the Bulge

• [05:52–14:41] Details of the German surprise attack in December 1944:
  • The Allies are caught off guard; the US 106th Division is quickly overwhelmed—7,000 captured in hours.
    • Quote: “It’s the biggest mass American surrender since Bataan.” ([07:26])
• German morale briefly surges, resulting in a wake of atrocities, most notably the Malmedy massacre ([07:46–08:50]).
  • Quote: “84 Americans, they are murdered after having surrendered their weapons.” ([08:34])
• Eisenhower assesses the German offensive not only as a crisis but also as an opportunity:
  • Quote: "Yeah, the Germans are advancing...but that offers me this big German salient that I can attack from the shoulders." ([10:23])
• The defense of Bastogne by the 101st Airborne becomes pivotal.
  • Supplies are short, winter gear is lacking; they hold out heroically.
  • Quote: “Nuts.” – Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s famous reply to the German surrender demand ([14:54])
• Patton’s promise and rapid deployment to relieve Bastogne shift momentum ([13:41–16:20]).

4. The Collapse of German Military Power

• [16:34–17:46] The failure of the Ardennes offensive exhausts German reserves.
  • Quote: "The Germans really poured their entire armored reserve into it...threw them all away on a gamble, and a gamble that failed." ([17:26])

5. Soviet Advance and Atrocities in the East

• [17:53–20:40] The Red Army, after months of preparation, launches a powerful offensive, crossing into German territory.
  • Civilian panic and atrocities escalate; retribution for German war crimes in the East.
  • Quote: “They looted and they pillaged and they raped and they burned and they destroyed. And they took pleasure in doing these things...” ([19:43])
  • Catastrophic impact on German civilians, including tens of thousands of deaths and widespread sexual violence.

6. Final Battles and the Fall of Berlin

• [21:03–33:19] Allies push from west, Soviets from east.
  • Unexpected capture of the Remagen bridge allows US troops across the Rhine earlier than planned ([22:06–22:40]).
    • Quote: “The Allies couldn't believe their luck, so they raced forward and they took the bridge.” ([22:25])
  • Hitler issues “Nero Orders” demanding the scorched-earth destruction of Germany’s infrastructure; Speer covertly defies him ([23:25–24:17]).
  • Desperate use of Hitler Youth and elderly in Berlin’s defense reflects the utter collapse ([24:38–25:04]).
  • Stalin spurs a race between Zhukov and Konev to reach Berlin first ([26:41–27:02]).
  • The Battle of Berlin is described as a brutal, slow, and costly urban fight; civilians and child soldiers pay heavily ([27:27–29:46]).
  • Hitler, isolated in his bunker, refuses surrender, intent on bringing everything down with him.

7. Hitler’s Death and the Surrender of Nazi Germany

• [31:07–33:41]
  • Learning of Mussolini’s fate, Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945.
  • Quote: “Stalin says something like, that's the end of the bastard. Puts the phone down and goes back to sleep.” ([32:57])
  • Berlin falls; German surrender signed on May 7–8. Nazi Germany ceases to exist.

8. Reflections on Cost & Aftermath

• [33:41–36:26] Archival voice of Eisenhower, historians, and Tom Hanks weigh the massive losses and trauma experienced by both civilians and combatants.
  • Quote: “Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued by a supreme consciousness of the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band.” – General Eisenhower ([34:15])
  • Civilian deaths and atrocities eclipsed military losses; the true end and healing are far away.
  • As Europe begins to rebuild, the war in the Pacific rages on, culminating in the dawn of the atomic age.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Hitler’s Divinely Inspired Paranoia:
  “Surviving the July 20 bombing convinces Hitler beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has been chosen by heaven or by providence to lead the German people.” ([02:07])

• On the Malmedy Massacre:
  “They move them off the road into a field, and the result is that 84 Americans...are murdered after having surrendered their weapons.” ([08:34])

• Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe’s Iconic Reply:
  When asked to surrender at Bastogne: “Nuts.” ([14:54])

• Desperation in Berlin:
  “He comes up out of the bunker and he pins medals on these sort of beardless little boys. Any rational onlooker can see that Hitler has lost all attachment to reason.” ([25:04])

• On Hitler’s Suicide:
  “That's the end of the bastard.” – Stalin ([32:57])

• Eisenhower’s Reflection:
  “Let us not forget the sorrow and the heartache which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors.” ([34:36])

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Timeline of Major Segments (Timestamps)

| Segment | Topic | Timestamps | |---|---|---| | The July 20 Plot | Failed assassination and Hitler’s reaction | [01:10–02:07] | | Nazi Last-Gasp Offensive | Ardennes plan, doubts & execution | [03:35–05:39] | | The Bulge & Malmedy | Battle details and atrocities | [05:52–08:50] | | Allied Response | Identification of opportunity, Bastogne, Patton | [10:02–16:20] | | Ardennes Fails | German collapse after offensive | [16:34–17:46] | | Soviet Onslaught | Red Army advances into Germany | [17:53–20:40] | | Rhine Crossing | Remagen bridge and Allied drive | [22:06–22:40] | | Nero Orders & Collapse | Destruction orders and Hitler’s isolation | [23:25–24:17] | | Berlin Battle | Final Soviet attack, child soldiers | [27:27–29:46] | | Hitler’s Death | Suicide and Soviet victory | [31:07–33:41] | | Surrender & Reflection | End of Nazi Germany, Eisenhower’s words | [33:41–36:26] |

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Conclusion

“Last Days of the Reich” weaves together military strategy, front line suffering, and the collapse of Nazi Germany through vivid expert narrative and memorable primary accounts. The episode underscores Hitler’s reckless descent into delusion, the sacrifices made by Allied and Soviet forces, the horrific cost borne by civilians, and the final reckoning that both ended Europe’s nightmare and set the stage for the postwar world.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

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[Historian/Analyst]

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[Carvana Advertiser]

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[Military Expert/Commentator]

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[Carvana Advertiser]

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[Historian/Analyst]

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[Carvana Advertiser]

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[Historian/Analyst]

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[Carvana Advertiser]

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[Narrator/Storyteller]

May apply the History Channel Original Podcast

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party have dominated the hearts and minds of the German people for over a decade. But by the summer of 1944, the Soviet Red army and the forces of the Western Allies are tightening their vice grip on Hitler's Third Reich. The Nazis complete control is about to crack.

[Jeremy Reagan (Additional Voicing)]

This is World War II with Tom Hanks, episode 18 Last Days of the Reich.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

The biggest story in Western Europe today is the attempted assassination of Hitler.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

For the second time since this war

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

began, an assassin has almost succeeded in killing the Fuhrer and perhaps changing the course of history. July 20, 1944. A bomb hidden in a briefcase explodes at the Wolf's Lair, Adolf Hitler's military headquarters. It was the opening move in an elaborate plan to kill the Nazi leader and overthrow his government. Hitler is wounded but survives, and the plot fails.

[Jeremy Reagan (Additional Voicing)]

The bomb exploded two meters to my right. I myself am completely unhurt. I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed on me by Providence to continue on the road of my life as I have done hitherto.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Surviving the July 20 bombing convinces Hitler beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has been chosen by heaven or by providence to lead the German people.

[Historian/Expert]

He's on all sorts of medications. He's under more pressure than most human beings can imagine.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

He becomes even more paranoid than he already has been. He is micromanaging even more. Nazis take over armaments production.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Hitler and the Nazis mobilize even more men and tighten their grip on Germany and its people.

[Historian/Analyst]

There is no difference anymore between the fate of the public and the German people and the fate of the Nazi state. The thing is, the German public is not too happy about how the war goes on. They are aware that Germany may lose the war, but they think the only person who can bring this to a close is Hitler himself.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

As summer turns to fall, Germany's strategic situation deteriorates and every German is aware that the Allies demand unconditional surrender.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Hitler knows that that's an impossibility.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

Surrender means humiliation, being betrayed, ultimately executed.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Hitler also knows something about warfare. A passive defense never works. You have to show your adversaries that you're still dangerous. Hitler quotes Frederick the Great, who was in a similar war in the 18th century. Frederick famously said, we're going to fight this war till one of our goddamn enemies gets tired.

[Historian/Analyst]

Hitler wants to come up with some Hail Mary. He wants to come up with some plan that will bring advantage back to a heavily disadvantaged situation.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

In September, Hitler summons his generals to the Wolf's Lair. He outlines a plan that will return his troops to the scene of his greatest triumph, the Ardennes.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The ardennes offensive of 1944 is going to involve multiple German armies across 100 miles of front. They're going to crash through what they have identified as a weakly held portion of the American line. They're going to drive through the Ardennes forest, scene of the great victory of 1940, and if all goes well, cross the Meuse river and from there make it to Antwerp. Antwerp is the major supply port for the entire Allied force in Europe. If the Germans take Antwerp, it will be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Hitler sees this as a way to divide the coalition, demoralize the coalition, and force the coalition to make separate peaces with him.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

But Hitler will have to strip whole divisions from his eastern front to execute his gambit in the west.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Not all of Hitler's generals are on board. They just don't believe that given their current force levels, that they can blast across the West European continent and take the major city of Antwerp. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt says, Antwerp, my God, if we even get to the Meuse river, that's less than halfway. We should get down on our knees and thank God.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

But Hitler, by this stage of the war, he doesn't really trust very many of his generals. And he does have this belief in luck. He's gotten lucky at various points throughout this war, and he might be lucky again this time. So he decides to roll the dice.

[Historian/Analyst]

Hitler will even eventually say that if this doesn't end well, I see no other path toward reaching a favorable conclusion. The fate of Germany really hangs in the balance.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

December 16th. It's a snowy morning in the Ardennes for the Allies. This overcast, this freezing cold.

[Military Analyst]

The weather was awful for everybody. But it gave the Germans advantage because the Allied aircraft are mostly grounded. And that's the perfect environment for the Germans to launch this bold offensive.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Suddenly, at 5:30, it seems that hell has opened up every artillery piece the Germans own heavy Artillery, light artillery, rocket artillery, the famous Screaming Mimi's mortars. The American position in the Ardennes simply gets shredded.

[Military Analyst]

Trees are thrown through there with this just shell after shell.

[Historian/Analyst]

Allied forces, they're caught off guard, they are overwhelmed. They certainly didn't expect the Germans capable of launching something as big as the Ardennes offensive.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Suddenly there's a couple of hundred thousand German infantry with 600 German panzers along 100 mile front.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

One of the four divisions holding the Allied line in the Ardennes is the newly arrived American 106th.

[Military Analyst]

The 106th Division, who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, who have columns of German armor coming at them from all directions, are just overwhelmed by this. And within a matter of hours, 7,000 men are captured.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

It's the biggest mass American surrender since Bataan.

[Historian/Analyst]

At this point of time, the German troops are in a state of euphoria. For weeks or months or even years, they had only known retreat. And now, for the first time for a long time, they are on the offense again.

German troops are partly motivated because they're being told, take no prisoners. This is your chance. Now you get revenge against the Allies. The result is that there is literally a trail of massacres that will lead eventually to the most notorious of about a dozen massacres. And that's the one that takes place in the afternoon of December 17th, just outside the city of Malmedy.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The 1st SS Panzer Division, they've worked their way forward under their battle group commander, Jochen Peiper. Peiper's built for speed. He's been told to get ahead as fast as you possibly can towards the Meuse, cross the river, get to Antwerp. And he's just over on a couple of rear echelon US detachments, supply depots, administrative troops.

[Historian/Analyst]

There's a brief firefight. The Americans then surrender, about 120 of them. They move them off the road into a field, and the result is that 84Americans, they are murdered after having surrendered their weapons.

[Narrator/Host]

This is one of the largest war crimes against U.S. soldiers during World War II, and it shows the ruthlessness which this war has achieved at this point,

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

some German units advance as much as 20 miles on the first day. The initial success of the Ardennes offensive confirms Hitler's sense that of divine destiny.

[Historian/Analyst]

In Hitler's mind, he thinks again, I was right. I took the decision to launch this offensive against the advice of my generals, against the advice of my experts, but I was right. So in the first couple of days of the offensive, it seems for the Germans that they have regained the initiative.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

The Wehrmacht's attack stretches from Belgium to Luxembourg, but the initial reports from the front are sketchy. How to respond to the German assault is the responsibility of one man, General Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander.

[Carvana Advertiser]

So Eisenhower has to determine whether or not this is a feint, right? Are the Germans trying to essentially pull his resources in the wrong direction or is this a proper offensive? Does he actually have to respond?

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Eisenhower immediately divines the threat. He says this is more than a German feint, this is a major effort.

[Narrator/Host]

And he thinks, let's not see this disaster as anything but an opportunity. The Germans want to fight out in the open, let's take it to them.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Yeah, the Germans are advancing. Yeah, the Germans have driven a deep bulge into my lines, but that offers me this big German salient that I can attack from the shoulders.

[Narrator/Host]

That's why we refer to this as the Battle of the Bulge.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

The Germans advance across a 60 mile front, but are held up by the US 28th Infantry Division at the Belgian town of Bastogne.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Both sides know that Bastogne is the key. If the Germans seize it, they can control the road network and motor all the way to the west, perhaps even reach Antwerp. But if the Americans hold it, the Germans are stuck in their tracks.

[Narrator/Host]

So it's a race. It's a race for the Germans to take it. It's a race for the Americans to try and resupply it before it's lost. So all of a sudden Bastogne becomes this key road intersection, not unlike Gettysburg or Waterloo or Thermopylae. It is everything.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

As the Germans attempt to surround, basically, Eisenhower calls on the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles.

[Narrator/Host]

Their big contribution so far is when they get dropped behind enemy lines before D day. They've basically been in the game since June 5th of 44.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

To say that the 101st is unprepared for this fight is to understate the matter considerably.

[Narrator/Host]

They would usually jump into war zones carrying what they can carry with, which inherently means they don't have a lot of armor, they don't have any artillery,

[Narrator/Storyteller]

they don't have the winter gear, that equipment that would allow you to fight a tough battle in the middle of December. It's a come as you are war.

[Narrator/Host]

It tells you the degree to which this is a crisis, that in the midst of this crisis, Eisenhower turns around and looks and says, I'll take them. Because the one thing they are is, is they are a hardened group of elites and they will go in there and do the job despite all the limitations. They face.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

December 18th. The 101st is trucked into Bastogne to relieve the battered 28th Division. The defense of this Belgian town is the key to the Allied effort against Adolf Hitler on the Western Front. And the key to the defense of this town is in the hands of the men of the 101st Airborne.

[Narrator/Host]

For the Germans, this whole thing has to happen fast. Every day they're standing in front of Bastogne is time. They don't have time where the weather could clear up, time where the rest of the Allied armies are starting to get reinforcements in there.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

And so the Germans are determined to throw everything at Bastogne that they possibly have. There's an artillery bombardment. They are attacking from all sides. They're trying to push the Americans out.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

For the 101st Airborne, the fighting around Bastogne is as tough as any in the war. It's out in the open, it's bitterly cold, there's snow on the ground, they're short on food.

[Narrator/Host]

And yet with almost just small arms, bazooka and machine guns, they're able to put up enough bluster and defense that they're able to hold the line.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

To reinforce the 101st in Bastogne, Eisenhower turns to his most aggressive commander, General George Patton, and the 3rd Army.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Patton promises him three divisions in two days for Bastogne, which is something only George S. Patton would promise.

[Military Analyst]

Promising three divisions, and yeah, that's 40,000 plus men waiting in 48 hours.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Patton had already planned for precisely this contingency and was ready to take the lead once he was given the operation.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

But until the third army arrives, the Screaming Eagles are virtually on their own.

[Historian/Analyst]

The Germans encircle the city, and that encirclement will be headline news back in the United States. There was this critical thought that we might lose the entire 101st Airborne Division to the enemy.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

It looks as if the Germans are really in control. And they send a message to the 101st Airborne. They say, you've got to surrender.

[Narrator/Host]

They're going to give it to the acting division commander, BRIGadier General Anthony McAuliffe. McAuliffe will read the thing and he'll send back a one word reply, and it says, nuts. Now, you got to imagine, you know, some savvy airborne officer gets to go give this to the German delegation. Of course, they read nuts. And they're like, we don't understand the colloquially ism. And so he gets to stand there and he says, it's the same as go to hell. And in a sense, the whole unit kind of reaches out and they hit the collective I believe button, which is not so much that they can hold out forever. But Patton's coming. They're all coming. All we have to do is hold out a little longer. Sometimes historic events suck, but what shouldn't suck is learning about history. I do that through storytelling. History that Doesn't Suck is a chart topping history telling podcast chronicling the epic story of America decade by decade, from the 18th century to the 20th. Original music and immersive sound design accompany us on our storytelling journey. Listen to and follow History that Doesn't Suck an Odyssey podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

In Bastogne, the men of the 101st Division have been under siege for almost a week. But on December 26, Patton's 3rd army reaches the outskirts.

[Historian/Analyst]

Famously, it was the 4th Armored Division that is given the task of fighting up a narrow road corridor toward Bastogne. And on the day after Christmas, on December 26, elements of C Company of the 37th Tank Battalion pull up to the Bastogne perimeter.

[Narrator/Host]

The Allies break the German lines, and now supplies will be able to fly. And so for the Germans, the Ardennes offensive breaks over Bastogne.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Even though Bastogne is relieved, fighting continues across the front for weeks. The United States army suffers more casualties in the Battle of the Bulge than in any other battle in its history. But ultimately, Hitler's Ardennes offensive is a failure.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

For Hitler, the catastrophe of the Ardennes is that it was the last round in the chamber. The Germans really poured their entire armored reserve into it. They could have used those troops perhaps to defend more robustly in the east and west simultaneously. But they threw them all away on a gamble, and a gamble that failed.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

As the Allies stop Hitler in the west, the Soviets launch a massive offensive in the east.

[Historian/Analyst]

The Red army is a force of millions which has begun its advance everywhere. From Finland and the Baltics in the north, all the way down to the

[Military Historian/Commentator]

Black Sea in the south, the Soviet forces had advanced. Incredible speed, incredible hard fighting. And Stalin had stopped them between October and December for a very clear strategic purpose, to prepare a massive, massive buildup of armor.

[Historian/Analyst]

So by January 45, they are ready to go on the offensive.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Within weeks, Soviet forces cross into Germany. The Red army has reached the border of the Fatherland.

[Historian/Analyst]

Having Soviet boots on German ground is a major blow for the German side because they consider the Soviets as their mortal enemies, and this is a disaster for them.

The war is finally being brought home to the Germans.

In theory, the Nazi Authorities would have had the time for months to evacuate the civilians. But that's something they didn't do because if you stay there, you'll show that you've got more confidence, confidence and that you are defending your home territory.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

But basically, the Russians come with such overwhelming force that the Germans can't stop them at the border. And so this causes mass panic as the German civilians take to the roads to try to escape this Russian onslaught, knowing full well what a waste if they stay.

[Historian/Analyst]

The Germans have fought a horrific war of annihilation in the Soviet Union. Now the Soviets are finally able to take revenge against the Germans.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

They looted and they pillaged and they raped and they burned and they destroyed. And they took pleasure in doing these things as they advanced.

[Historian/Analyst]

There's 100,000 or more deaths on the German side and something like maybe a fifth of the female population is raped.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

This is the beginning of what, what the Germans can expect to receive when the Red army break into Berlin.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Joseph Stalin engineers the Soviet Union's final moves as the Red army continues its march west towards Berlin.

[Historian/Analyst]

Berlin is really the be all, end all of the war. This is where we have the right chancellery, where we have the old Reichstag building, where Hitler has his bunker. Once the Red army reaches Berlin, the war will be over. And it will be a great victory and a great triumph

[Narrator/Host]

for someone who lives in Berlin. It's not lost on them what happens in East Prussia. The Soviets are getting retribution, and it's coming in the form of German bodies, German blood, rapes, killings. And that's coming your way. Almost the image of an incoming tide that you cannot stop.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

In the spring of 1945, Germany is under assault from multiple directions. In the east, the Red army rapidly advances towards Berlin. In the west, the Allies continue on a broad front. As they approach the Rhine river.

[Military Analyst]

The Rhine is the German's last key strategic position to try and delay the inevitable of the Allies getting into Germany and defeating the Third Reich.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

It's a big, broad river, fast flowing deep, and the Germans know this, so they're planning to kind of defend every inch of it.

[Historian/Analyst]

Their defense strategy in the west is to blow up all the bridges across the river Rhine to, to use this huge natural barrier.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery designs an operation that will take Allied forces across the Rhine and further into Germany. But unexpectedly, the American 9th Armored Division discovers another way into the German Reich.

[Military Analyst]

Really out of nowhere, an advanced unit of Americans ends up at the Remagen Proverbs, the key bridge across the Rhine. And the Germans, they failed to destroy the bridge properly.

[Historian/Analyst]

It's not because the Germans were dumb, the Germans tried to blow the bridge. It's just that they didn't have enough explosives to do the job.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

It was very stoutly built. The bridge just kind of jumps on these really heavy stone piers and then settles back into place. The Allies couldn't believe their luck, so they raced forward and they took the bridge. And they get across the Rhine three weeks earlier than anticipated.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Once you're over the Rhine, you're into Germany proper. It's a crucial moment for the war in the West.

[Historian/Analyst]

For the Germans, this is a huge blow because now the Allies can bring in reinforcements much quicker and Hitler is absolutely furious about this.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Hitler is prone to rage at this time and he demands that everyone responsible be immediately court martialed. Not brought to Berlin to explain, but a drumhead court martial in the field and shot.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Hitler retreats to Berlin. He orders the destruction of bridges, roads, railways, factories, anything that can aid the Allied advance.

[Historian/Analyst]

This Nero order, named in honor of the Roman emperor who, who famously allowed the city of Rome to burn, would authorize German forces to destroy absolutely everything as they retreated.

[Historian/Expert]

Blow up the bridges, blow up the sanitation, blow up the power plants. Even if it doesn't do any good in the war effort, there's no reason to worry about a post war Germany. He stopped caring about the individual people because they're no longer worthy of surviving the war.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Hitler commands his loyal and capable Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, to carry out his order.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Speer refuses because he sees that Hitler's, you know, gone mad, essentially. And Speer actually comes to Berlin and said, you know, right before the end, and he says, I haven't done it.

[Historian/Analyst]

This shows that the bond between Hitler and his leadership is being broken to a certain degree. It's almost to the very last days, the crumbling Third Reich, that this link finally starts to collapse. Hitler has now lost control of the entire situation. He's now focused only on the Battle of Berlin.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

In the garden outside the Reich Chancellery, the Fuhrer reviews a formation of Hitler Youth who have been awarded the Knight's Cross for bravery in battle. Now many will be ordered to defend Berlin.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Hitler Youth, 14 and 15 and 16 year old boys. By any analysis, this is insane.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

He comes up out of the bunker and he pins medals on these sort of beardless little boys. Any rational onlooker can see that Hitler has lost all attachment to reason.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

It may be he's thinking of the last lost war, But I think 1918 is enough of an obsession with Hitler that he is determined that Germany will not give in. This time, there will be no surrender. There will be total war to the end. If Germany is going to go down, it's going to go down in a blaze of glory.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Allied forces rapidly advance through the Ruhr Valley and into the heart of Germany. The British and Americans had agreed that Soviet forces should capture Berlin. But Stalin grows suspicious of Allied success.

[Carvana Advertiser]

You have to remember that Stalin is naturally, and not unreasonably, deeply mistrustful. So when the Western Allies start pouring into Western Germany far faster than anyone expects, Stalin fears that there may be something that he doesn't see.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

Stalin is always paranoid that the Western powers are going to make a deal with the Germans at the last minute against the Soviet Union, against the Communists.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

In Moscow, Stalin summons Marshal Georgy Zhukov, the hero of Stalingrad and Kursk, and Marshal Ivan Konev, who has led the First Ukrainian Front, a famed Red army group, throughout the war.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

He sits there with the mat and he says, who's going to take Berlin?

[Historian/Analyst]

So Stalin effectively sets up a kind of race between them to see who will take Berlin first. So this is a way of motivating his generals, because Stalin, of course, wanted to ensure that, that the Red army would be the first to reach Berlin.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

And in an amazing scene, both marshals salute and leave the room and run to their cars to start the race to Berlin.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

By mid April, the Red army is closing in on Berlin. Zhukov's forces approach from the east. Konev's troops will attack from the south.

[Historian/Analyst]

The final assault on Berlin begins with a ferocious artillery barrage. Something like 9,000 guns rained down 1.2 million shells.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

To put that in context, The British fired 1 million rounds of artillery onto the German trenches on the somme over, like two weeks in World War I. And now, one day, more shells into the streets of Berlin.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

Zhukov's forces meet particularly fierce resistance in the Seelo Heights, an area the Germans consider the gates of Berlin.

[Historian/Analyst]

The Germans are dug in. They have no desire to surrender because they know they would be viewed as traitors. Berlin is meant to be be a fortress city. Festung Berlin. This means it has to be defended at all cost.

[Military Analyst]

Hitler's order was to keep fighting until there's nothing left. They're not going to admit the war has been lost.

[Historian/Analyst]

Hitler is now facing total defeat and he wants to drag the entire German people into this total defeat.

[Historian/Expert]

The population has been pressed into service. They've been building to tank traps and digging ditches. But I Don't think you can fool a bunch of people who are living in cities that are rubble. You hear the artillery in the distance that the Soviets are shooting at your city. I mean, we're past the time of illusions. Your people at the end of the

[Military Expert/Commentator]

rope, the German troops that are left, it's this bizarre assembly of overage people that normally wouldn't be drafted or underage.

[Historian/Analyst]

You have a large number of very young members of the Volkssturm. They were divided into these tank hunting units where they were 12 and 13 year old boys that were equipped with this very effective German anti tank weapon called the Panzerfaust.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

These basically one shot German bazookas. And they're going to be in these sort of fighting holes waiting for the Soviet tanks to come and take their one shot and then be, you know, crushed into pulp under the treads that

[Military Analyst]

the ideology of the Reich has gone out the window. You don't know what you're fighting for anymore. You're now protecting your street and your friends and your family from the marauders that are coming.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

If you're still in Berlin by April 1945, you're not going to get out. So you're fighting for your life.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

On April 19, Zhukov's troops break through the German lines at Silo Heights. Konev enters the Nazi capital from the south.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

Battle of Berlin is brutal. It's an urban battlefield which is the hardest sort of fighting and the most costly. It's impossible not to take every building. You can't leave buildings behind you. You're under fire all the time from buildings on both sides. Large amounts of civilians are killed and it's incredibly slow and dangerous.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

This moonscape of Berlin, it's already been just shattered to rubble, is now just being pounded by companies of Soviet infantry filtering into the city from all points. I mean literally all points.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

But in the end, this extraordinary battle, the Soviet troops begin to converge on

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

the Chancellery beneath the Reich Chancellery. Hitler is sequestered in a bunker with his companion Eva Gran, and surrounded by aides, secretaries and Nazi party officials. He believes that the military and the German people have let him down.

[Historian/Analyst]

Hitler wants to keep the resistance going for as long as possible to inflict as much damage on the invading armies. However, he does not want to outlast, to outlive the war. He does not want to become a prisoner of war. He does not want to become some type of curiosity exhibited by his enemies.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

And so he has to stay alive as long as possible as close to the bitter end as possible so that there will never really be an idea of Nazi Germany in people's minds that does not include Adolf Hitler. He's going to go down in Wagnerian fashion and take a world with him.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

On April 29, Hitler is informed that his longtime ally, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, has been executed, his body put on display by Italian partisans.

[Military Expert/Commentator]

Mussolini has just been hung upside down at a gas station in northern Italy, along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, where he's like, mopped and spat upon and vilified. Hitler fears the same fate for himself.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Soviets are right outside the Fuhrer bunker. He's listening to the shelling happening above him.

[Historian/Analyst]

And so Adolf Hitler, on April 30, 1945, commits suicide in the Fuhrer bunker along with Eva Braun in a city that has been reduced to rubble.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

When Hitler commits suicide, Stalin is woken in the night by Marshall Zhukov. And Marshall Zhukov says to him, marshall Stalin, I've got news. Hitler is dead and he's committed suicide in the ruins. And there's a long silence. And then Stalin says something like, that's the end of the bastard. Puts the phone down and goes back to sleep.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

On May 2, the Soviets raised their flag above the ruins of the Reichstag. On May 7, German General Alfred Jodl surrenders to the Western Allies at Reims, France. A day later, the Germans officially surrender to the Soviets.

[Historian/Analyst]

With the stroke of the pen, Nazi Germany ceases to exist on May 8, 1945.

[General Dwight Eisenhower (Archival Voice)]

This is a solemn but a glorious hour. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Here we are at the end of a brutal war against a brutal adversary in Europe. And there was such great cost. With so much exhaustion, it's almost impossible to imagine what that must have been like.

[General Dwight Eisenhower (Archival Voice)]

Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued by a supreme consciousness of the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band.

[Military Historian/Commentator]

Hitler was the ultimate reckless gambler, risking everything, even Germany, even Europe.

[General Dwight Eisenhower (Archival Voice)]

Let us not forget the sorrow and the heartache which today abide in the homes of so many of our neighbors.

[Historian/Analyst]

The Second World War, unlike the first, is one in which the majority of the casualties actually happened among the civilian population. A lot of it was simply because of the vast atrocities committed. The war left terrible scars on the landscape of Europe and the memories of the populations.

[General Dwight Eisenhower (Archival Voice)]

We must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world. The west is free, but the east is still in bondage.

[Historian/Analyst]

In the popular mind, World War II

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

tends to wrap up with the glory of Be Day.

[Historian/Analyst]

It did not happen that way.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

For the people who were fighting it

[Narrator/Host]

in the Pacific, there's no end in

[General Dwight Eisenhower (Archival Voice)]

sight from the last Japanese division. Unconditionally, then only will our fighting job be done. Until that day, let no man abandon his post or slacken his efforts.

[Tom Hanks (Narrator)]

After VE Day, Europeans, facing chaos and uncertainty, begin the long work of putting their shattered world back together. In the Pacific, the war is reaching a crescendo as the United States fights its way to the Japanese Home islands. A new weapon is tested in the deserts of New Mexico. A noiseless flash with the potential to change the World.

[Jeremy Reagan (Additional Voicing)]

War 2. With Tom Hanks is produced by A and E Factual Studios, Newtopia limited, Playtone Productions and Back Pocket Studios in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd. Additional voicing provided by me, Jeremy Reagan from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler for Playtone. Executive producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producer is Ben Dickstein.

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