Inside Hitler's bunker - PHOTO

The death of Adolf Hitler, then 56, and Eva Braun, 33, in the heart of Berlin on April 30, 1945, is widely regarded as the fall of the Third Reich.The couple lived the last few months of their lives together in the Führerbunker - with Hitler controlling his failing military operation from the base.They are even thought to have wed in the hideaway the day before their suicide.Historians believe Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the temple, with Braun ingesting cyanide.Two weeks after their death and the subsequent fall of Berlin, William Vandivert became the first western man to photograph the so-called 'shelter for the leader' - with this collection of images published shortly afterwards in Life Magazine.Also published were a selection of photographs capturing a city destroyed by the Second World War.In one of Vandiver's eerie shots, ripped pictures can be seen hanging an odd angles on the walls, while piles of broken furniture lays scattered around the room.In another, a moldy SS officer's hat lies abandoned on the floor.Piles of documents stuffed into large boxes and enormous books are piled high atop a broken safe are seen in another.A burnt and blood-stained sofa surrounds a desk, littered with pieces of paper, empty bottles and dirty teaspoons. A 16th-century painting of a woman, which is thought to have been taken from a Milan museum, was also discovered.The photographer sent typed notes to magazine editors in New York, which, according to Life said: 'Pix of [correspondents] looking at sofa where Hitler and Eva shot themselves. 'Note bloodstains on arm of soaf [sic] where Eva bled. She was seated at far end . . . Hitler sat in middle and fell forward, did not bleed on sofa. This is in Hitler’s sitting room.'Soviet, American and Soviet Royal Air Force crafts dropped hundreds of bombs in about 350 air strikes on Berlin between 1940 and 1945 - leaving countless civilians dead.Thousands were also left without anywhere to live - with hundreds of residential homes as well as government buildings and military installations destroyed.The photographer added in his notes: 'Found almost every famous building [in Berlin] a shambles. In the center of town GIs could walk for blocks and see no living thing, hear nothing but the stillness of death, smell nothing but the stench of death.'Russian and German troops fought for control of Berlin in the spring of 1945 - six years after the start of the war in 1939.By that point, Hitler's grip on Europe had almost entirely slipped and it was evident the Allies would go on to win the conflict. As Allied men fought over Berlin, Hitler and his wife killed themselves.His men then carried the couple's remains upstairs and out through the emergency exit before covering them in petrol and setting the two bodies alright.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az