As the U.S. makes its way through the pacific towards Japan, the final invasion is on the island of Okinawa. Although the landing is simple, the Japanese commander has decided to meet the Americans in the steeper inland terrain of the island. It is a brutal and violent final pacific battle of the war. Kamikaze fighters strike back in a last-ditch effort to keep the Americans away.
The development of the B-17 bomber, which allowed American planes to reach inside Germany and bomb its cities. By the end of the war, American B-17's are pounding Germany in the thousand bomber raids. The remains of the Luftwaffe does its best but cannot match against the numbers. Germans suffer through the deprivation that war has brought them and the bombing brings them closer to a final defeat.
The December 1944 battle pitting American forces against German Panzer divisions in the Ardennes Forest. By the end of 1944, the allied armies are within striking distance of Germany. In a last-ditch effort, Hitler orders 65,000 of his finest soldiers to cut off the American units in the Ardennes forest and force them back to the Meuse River. In forming their bulge, they surround the town of Bastogne but an allied bombing and Patton's third Army save the Americans and push the Germans back.
Allied armies encounter German resistance in the Italian fishing town of Anzio. A succession of attacks resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, though no budge in the stalemate. After a four-month stalemate during which British and American losses totaled seven thousand killed, thirty-six thousand wounded or missing, and forty-four thousand hospitalized from various nonbattle injuries and sickness, the siege of Anzio finally ended on May 23, 1944, when the Allies launched a breakout offensive.
Examining the battle at the Kwajelein Atoll in the South Pacific during 1944. Included: operations by the Seabees. To avoid the catastrophic losses experienced in taking Guadalcanal and Tarawa, American forces assemble 42,000-man army to invade the tiny atoll of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. Part of the island's value is in setting up an advance base to bomb Japanese targets. While the fighting continues, the navy construction battalion builds an entire base camp on the tiny atoll in just a matter of days.
Bloody fighting erupts on a group of tiny Pacific islands in November 1943. In November 1943, a group of island in the Pacific would become the scene of some of the most brutal combat of World War II. The Japanese would fight furiously, almost to the last man. On the tiny atoll of Tarawa, the Japanese cut down landing marines with vicious precision. Military blunders by American commanders add to the losses in taking the Island of Tarawa. Through sheer numbers, Americans finally take hold and firebomb the final Japanese resistance.
In the North African desert in 1942, American fighting forces encounter the dreaded Rommel for the first time to stop the German war machine. It's a desert battle in which Rommel's tanks are able to cut off the British and American armies. But Germany's inability to supply Rommel allows the allies to force him back.
The Allies launch an ill-fated attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France. By the middle of 1942, the allies are anxious to attack the Germans in Normandy but they are not prepared for a full-scaled invasion. Instead, a raiding party of 6,000 troops, including 5,000 Canadians, makes an ill-fated attempt to land at Dieppe, France. The heavily fortified German emplacements make it impossible for the forces to accomplish their mission. More than half of the force become casualties or are taken prisoner.
For the first time since Americans entered the war, Marines face Japanese infantrymen at Guadalcanal. In the jungles, two powerful armies clash in a six month battle that claims nearly 30,000 lives. In their attempt to retake the Island's landing field, the Japanese are outnumbered four to one. Nearly 1,000 of them are cut down in a matter of hours.
After British forces withdrew in defeat from Greece to the island of Crete in early 1941, they were soon fighting German invasion armies again. This time, 5,000 of Hitler's elite paratroopers landed to complete their conquest in the Mediterranean. This was the largest and most ambitious airborne operation to date. It was a dangerous campaign for both the British and the Germans.
Europe is under Hitler's Blitzkireg. To keep France free, 400,000 English soldiers have manned the battlefields. Germany's strength is too great and pushes the British to the coast town of Dunkirk where they are trapped. With the Germany army massing to surround them, an armada of every kind of boat forms to transport them back to England against all odds. The dramatic rescue of 338,000 will be known as the miracle of Dunkirk.
Early in the war, the Germans decide they need to guarantee access to the Norwegian port of Narvik to ensure their supplies of Swedish iron ore. The British, however, send destroyers to up-end the German plan. Fierce sea battles result in the loss of many ships and soldiers. One German who was there tells his story.
