As Europe falls under Nazi control, America is unprepared for war and the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first bloody battles are fought on Guadalcanal and in North Africa.

The Allies take on the daunting forces of the Axis, with victory far from certain. Charles Scheffel battles Rommel's forces in Tunisia and Jack Werner faces bitter combat in the northern Pacific.

The Marines assault Tarawa in one of the bloodiest battles yet waged. MacArthur island-hops and Italy's front lines claim a casualty.

The Allies lay plans for the invasion of France; Bert Stiles and the 8th Air Force attempt to clear the skies over Normandy, while the Pacific remains a quagmire. D-Day arrives.

The Allies are bogged down in Normandy's hedgerows in the aftermath of D-Day, while on Saipan, victory turns to horror.

The Allies race toward Germany as American Marines battle for ground on Peleliu and across the bloody Pacific.

American forces storm the Philippines while Shelby Westbrook is shot down over Europe. Jack Yusen battles the dangers of the deep when his ship is sunk after a heroic duel.

The Marine assault on Iwo Jima brings horror and glory. Pilot Bert Stiles engages a German fighter with disastrous consequences. Reinforcements arrive in Europe to push the Allies toward victory.

The Battle of the Bulge pushes the Allies to the brink, and Rockie Blunt barely survives the fight. Okinawa erupts as the Japanese make their last stand. Hitler is handed a final ultimatum.

With the end in sight, Okinawa is a bloody obstacle to victory. The Third Reich ends with a single gunshot. America delivers the final blow to Japan, and the world celebrates the fall of the Axis.

The untold story of the American 8th Air Force's bloody battle to defeat the German Luftwaffe in the months leading up to D-Day. Told through the gripping, first person accounts of three American airmen and Stars & Stripes reporter Andy Rooney, this special showcases breathtaking aerial combat--original, color footage, never before seen by most Americans--of the B-17s Flying Fortresses, P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs on missions such as Regensburg, Schweinfurt and Berlin. Never-before-seen 8mm footage of the airmen on the bases, the devastation in Germany, and the Luftwaffe perspective is also highlighted. Flying 25,000 feet above the earth in oxygen-devoid air, and temperatures as low as 50 below zero, the 8th Air Force fought a war unlike anything ever before experienced. By the end, they would suffer more than 26,000 combat deaths--more than the US Marines lost in all of World War II. Narrated by Emmy nominated actor, Rob Lowe.

In 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder roars across the skies over North Vietnam and the first U.S. ground troops land in the South. American soldiers are outnumbered in the Ia Drang Valley, the first major battle of the war.

American troops launch widespread "search and destroy" operations; body count, not territory, becomes the measure of success in Vietnam. Charles Brown fights for survival on the bloody slopes.

The enemy gains ground when the massive Tet Offensive catches the Americans by surprise. At Khe Sanh and Pleiku, U.S. troops are under siege. Americans mount a counteroffensive but the shock of the assault ignites anti-war fervor at home.

The turmoil of 1968 helps Nixon win the presidency. Troop strength in Vietnam peaks and the draft accelerates. Karl Marlantes endures bitter jungle fighting on Hill 484, and draftee Arthur Wiknik gets a grim introduction to combat.

Troop withdrawals begin as the Americans train their ARVN allies to take over the war. Gery Benedetti patrols the hostile waters of the Mekong Delta. James Anderson leads a battalion into Cambodia after Nixon's controversial order.

Bob Clewell's helicopter crew comes under intense fire in one of the final operations of the war. Joe Galloway returns to Vietnam and in Washington, D.C., Barry Romo throws down his medals in protest.

On August 7, 1942, more than 19,000 Marines invaded Guadalcanal with orders to seize and hold the tropical island. In the first US offensive of the Pacific War, these young Americans took on the seemingly invincible Japanese and fought.

On November 20, 1943, one of the most ferocious battles in US history began. The target--a tiny island called Tarawa. With its vital airfield, Tarawa was the first step in the island-hopping campaign that would lead to Japan.

June 15, 1944. Just over a week after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, on the other side of the world, 70,000 US Marines storm ashore on the Pacific island of Saipan.

October 20, 1944--US troops storm ashore on the island of Leyte. After two long years under Japanese occupation, the liberation of the Philippines has begun.

On February 19, 1945, men of the US Marine Corps invaded Iwo Jima. Over the next 36 days, the island became the site of a titanic struggle of sheer bloody will and determination.

It was the greatest and most costly American campaign in the Pacific Theater in which over a quarter of a million people lost their lives.