Original subtitles

Previously on the world wars-

incoming!

A new generation comes of age on the battlefield.

Move! Move! Move!

But when the fighting stops, conflict turns internal.

Germany is dead, and you have conspired to kill her!

The revolution has begun!

A global depression devastates the world...

Allowing new leaders fo rise to power.

Some work fo rebuild their nation.

Others create massive militaries, determined fo reignite the fighting.

We must reverse the treaty of versailles.

Let these chains be burst asunder.

Adolf Hitler embarks on a violent rampage through Europe.

Bomb every town, every village.

We will annihilate them.

But as the allies are determined fo end Hitler's crusade...

We shall fight on the beaches.

We shall fight in the hills.

We shall never surrender.

Another threat emerges.

Admiral, stay.

There's more to discuss.

[ Male announcer I he's up to the 25!

We interrupt this program fo bring you a special news bulletin.

The Japanese have attacked Pearl harbor, Hawaii, by air.

The attack also was made on all naval and military activity.

[ Continues, faint I

for the first time in modern history...

America has been attacked by a foreign power.

Over 2,400 Americans are dead...

And nearly the entire U.S. naval fleet in the pacific has been destroyed.

F.d.r. Is devastated.

But I think f.D.R., in the end, his greatest legacy...

Was his ability to communicate to the American people...

During the darkest hours...

To not give up on what it means to be an American.

On the day after the attack...

Franklin Roosevelt gives the most important speech of his life.

[ Roosevelt on radio I December 7, 1941...

A aate which will live in infamy...

The United States of America...

Was suddenly and deliberately attacked...

By naval and air forces of the empire of Japan.

With the unbounding determination of our people...

We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us god.

Roosevelt was a Navy man.

So the fact that this attack took place against the Navy at Pearl harbor...

Perhaps filled him with even greater indignation...

Against what had been done to the United States by the Japanese.

The brutalness of the attack, the surprise of the attack...

The price that was paid in that attack...

I think helped unify the nation in a major way.

And for a President of the United States, it gives him that call to action.

[ Narrator I within 24 hours of the atfack...

Roosevell signs a declaration of war against Japan.

Now it's clear.

This is going to be an all-out conflict.

The nation rallied around f.D.R.'S leadership...

And millions of Americans signed up to go to war.

I was a very young boy- I think six years old.

A guy drove up and said to my father, Jack-

he said, “the Japanese have bombed Pearl harbor.”

My father ran upstairs, put some things together.

And then next time I saw him was three years later.

After years of avoiding conflict...

The United States is heading for another war.

So it begins.

For Japanese prime minister hideki tojo and his military...

The attack on Pearl harbor is a huge success.

The Japanese launched...

One of the boldest and most successful tactical surprise attacks in history...

When they attacked Pearl harbor.

350 airplanes had been destroyed, eight battleships, four destroyers.

This was a devastating military defeat for the United States.

[ Narrator I with the destruction of the us. Pacific fleet ..

Japan continues its campaign for control of Asia...

Striking key targets throughout the pacific.

But fo take over all of Asia...

They need the Philippines as a base of operation.

The only issue-

its a U.S. territory.

Just 10 hours after bombing Pearl harbor...

Japan launches another attack on the U.S., against the Philippines.

The one man responsible for protecting the U.S. territory...

Is general Douglas MacArthur.

MacArthur felt a particular attachment to and responsibility for the Philippines.

And his first day of war was absolutely terrible.

MacArthur's air force was still on the runways, parked...

When Japan's planes came in and destroyed most of his air arm.

MacArthur commands an army of 22,000 American and Filipino soldiers...

Trained fo defend the Philippines at any cost.

But the Japanese altacks are relentless.

And MacArthur and his men are completely overwhelmed.

American leaders fear if tojo gains control of the Philippines...

The Japanese will invade oil-rich islands throughout the pacific...

Fueling a potential attack on the west coast of the United States.

With air strikes escalating and supplies dwindling...

MacArthur's only option is to retreat.

Let's go, men.

You have to constantly be analyzing the situation.

Is the battle changing? Do I have to make new decisions?

Do I have to execute contingency plans?

Set the wounded there.

There's room for supplies here along the wall.

We're trained professional officers...

And we're supposed to be able to handle stress, handle crisis...

And not crack and not lose our ability to think logically and rationally...

And make sure we win the battle.

Carter. Let's see the map.

[ Narrator I MacArthur sets up a makeshift headquarters...

In a massive underground tunnel on corregidor island.

They may now be huddled in a hole in the ground...

[ Explosion I

but MacArthur knows that he and his men are the last stronghold...

Against a complete Japanese takeover of the pacific.

On the other side of the world...

Adolf Hitler has watched the Japanese take on the United States...

And now sees the attack on pear! Harbor...

As an opportunity fo ramp up his own crusade.

Since 1936, German military has marched through Europe...

Occupying the majority of the continent.

In the course of the war...

The myth of Hitler's personal infallibility and military genius really takes hold...

And begins to develop a life of its own.

It is good for you to come.

Good to see you. How are you?

A friend and I'll be having dinner tonight, and I hope that you can join us.

After breaking his alliance with Joseph Stalin...

And launching a massive attack on Russia...

Hitler is certain there is no military force in the world...

That can take on his own.

Even the United States.

In Hitler's second book, written in 1928 but never published...

He made it fairly clear...

That once he had conquered Europe, he would turn to America.

For the Nazis, there's never any end to war...

Because they believe that a race like the Germans...

Could only be kept vigorous by continual war and continual conflict.

But if Hitlers going fo establish world supremacy...

He knows he'll have fo defeat his greatest threat...

And one aay capture the prize of the west for his own people.

On December 11, 1941...

Just four days after the Japanese strike on Pearl harbor...

Adolf Hitler declares war...

On the United States.

This is really a very puzzling decision.

Hitler always learned the lessons of world war I...

And one of the lessons of world war I is you keep America out of the battle.

That's something he had been doing all along.

But by this point, he was so convinced that he was invincible.

He was so convinced that he could not make mistakes...

That he was the master military strategist...

That he goes against his own lessons of the past.

Hitlers fight has gone global...

But his ultimate mission is one without borders.

Jl [ Classical I

Hitler's notion of his own mission really takes hold.

He realizes the future mission is to organize the German race...

So as to be able to face the challenge of its racial enemies.

[ Narrator I since the end of the first world war...

Hitler has carefully outlined his plan for the future of mankind...

And now it's becoming a reality.

Hitler sends his secret police...

Fo round up groups of people he deems undesirable-

gypsies, homosexuals...

People with disabilities...

And anyone of Jewish heritage.

Hitler believed he was chosen by destiny to destroy the Jews.

The Nazis unrolled this massive wave of terror on the streets...

Rounding up Jewish men and then very quickly women and children.

We are going to have a total solution to the Jewish question.

The program is clear.

It reads fofal separation, total segregation!

It does not only mean the exclusion of the Jews...

It means much more.

We will be faced with the harsh necessity...

Of eradicating the Jewish underworld...

Just as we would root out criminals in our own state...

With fire and sword.

The result will be the certain...

And absolute end of jewry in Germany.

Its complete annihilation!

Hitler orders the prisoners fo be packed onto trains...

And transported fo concentration camps...

Located miles from civilization.

There was a continual, continent-wide delivery...

Of trainloads of Jews.

And, in fact, Hitler denied his military troop trains and supply trains...

Because he wanted to use those trains to transport Jews to the death camps.

Hitler's death camps...

Are methodically organized factories of killing.

The preferred method of execution...

Is gas.

[ Gasping I - [ Coughing I

Hitler knows exactly what it feels like fo be gassed.

America is locked in battle with two ruthless axis powers.

With Japan on a fear through Asia...

And Germany's recent declaration of war...

The united slates has no option but to go fo battle against both threats.

So it begins.

Toward the end of 19417...

U.S. president Franklin delano Roosevelt [Ss under enormous pressure.

No American president has ever faced the challenge...

Of fighting two wars at the same time.

Roosevelt saw himself dealing with the rise of Hitler in Europe...

And the rise of the Japanese in Asia.

They're in position.

Very good.

He had no doubt that the United States would defeat Germany and Japan...

But it was gonna be a long haul...

And it would cost a great deal in money and lives.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance...

Roosevelt welcomes a visitor fo the white house-

British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Churchill once said, “the only thing worse than going to war with allies...

Is going to war without allies.”

Each nation has different perspectives, different priorities...

And yet we have to just face up to the reality...

That you can't do things alone today.

J o little town of Bethlehem j

as Christmas approaches...

J how still we see thee lie j!

The two leaders want to present a united front...

Letting the world know that the allies are stronger than ever.

But behind the scenes...

Roosevelt and Churchill are dealing with the enormous responsibility...

Of making decisions that will affect the future of all humanity.

Tojo has taken Hong Kong.

These two men are all that stand in the way...

Of a world controlled by Adolf Hitler...

And the axis powers.

On the other side of the world...

The war in the pacific is already out of control.

After three months of continuous fighting in the Philippines...

The Japanese are closing in on Douglas MacArthur's bunker.

Look at this situation. We need to get out of it.

The supply line is absolutely important.

- General. - Yes?

We're live.

The last thing MacArthur wants to do is surrender the American islands.

Yes, it is very important that we get the reinforcements.

Yes. Yes. Well, we're under siege.

I need confirmation from-...

Is everyone all right?

To defend the Philippines, he's prepared fo die.

Back in Washington, Roosevelt has fo act quickly.

He knows losing his top general...

Would be a demoralizing blow fo the U.S. military...

And an incredible moral victory that would only empower the Japanese.

[ Roosevelt I when can we get reinforcements to MacArthur?

We can't get reinforcements to MacArthur.

- How much longer can he hold out? - We don't have the supplies.

And where's our naval forces right now at this moment?

Mr. president, they're on the bataan peninsula.

How long till we can get support there?

He can't hold out long enough for us to get support.

- How long? - It'll be a week.

- Well, get MacArthur out of there. - He refuses to leave, sir.

Tell him it's not a request. It's a damned order.

Yes, sir.

But the last thing MacArthur wants fo do is abandon his men.

MacArthur's a military guy.

He's loves the military, and one of the things you never do...

Is you never retreat and you never abandon your soldiers.

But he's been given an order by his commander in chief.

Against his own wishes...

MacArthur retreats fo the safety of Australia.

And as soon as he's gone, his worst fears are realized...

As the Japanese military overtakes the Americans...

And finally captures the Philippines.

As Japan conquers the pacific...

6,000 miles away...

Adolf Hitler is locked in a deadly war with Joseph Stalin.

Hitler knows if he can conquer the Soviet union...

The axis powers would then control all of Europe and Asia...

Ruling over 30% of the globe.

Stalin and Hitler are engaged in this battle...

Which is as much about ego as it is about military strategy.

Like a tarantula and scorpion in a bottle...

They're fighting, and they're fighting over the corpse of their own troops.

[ Narrator I Hitler's military is about fo capture the Soviet capital...

But with victory in sight, Hitler lets his ego take over...

Suddenly changing his battle plan...

And sending millions of troops...

Lo converge on an industrial city so important fo Joseph Stalin...

It bears his name:

Stalingrad.

Hitler thought this is a personal battle with Stalin...

And so he began pouring resources into stalingrad...

Because stalingrad, a town of no particular strategic importance, had the name of Stalin.

[ Narrator I as Hitlers men converge on stalingrad...

They come face-to-face with Stalin's red army.

Hitler's convinced if he can take stalingrad...

He'll be one step away from global domination.

In less than six months...

President Franklin delano Roosevelt has watched...

The Japanese military devastate his naval fleet...

And conquer the pacific island by island.

With Hitler on the verge of taking control of Europe...

The threat of war is now closing in on the United States from both directions...

And Roosevelt is increasingly desperate for anything...

That can turn the tide of the war.

U.S. naval intelligence has been working around the clock...

Infercepting encrypted Japanese military dispatches...

Hoping to get wind of the next attack.

And in may of 1942...

The U.S. Navy gives Roosevelt the opportunity he's been waiting for.

- What is it? - We've broken the code.

It's midway.

How sure are you?

Very.

Alert the fleet.

The deciphered messages contain details of Japan's next planned attack-

the midway islanas.

Situated halfway between Asia and the united stales...

Midway is home fo a crucial American airfield.

If the Japanese fake midway, theyll control all of the pacific.

What's worse, they'll have a launching point...

For a potential attack on the west coast of the United States.

After the attack on Pearl harbor...

The U.S. has just three aircraft carriers left in the pacific.

But Roosevelt knows this is his chance fo make a last stand against Japan.

So he sends the three remaining carriers to midway...

Fo lie in wait for an ambush...

On the Japanese fleet.

God be with us.

On June 4, 1942...

The U.S. fleet quietly positions itself around midway.

And as the Japanese Navy crests the horizon...

The Americans launch their surprise attack.

Yes?

There are four carriers destroyed.

I thought we only had three.

Four Japanese carriers, sir.

You update me with anything you receive right away.

In just six minutes...

Four of the same Japanese aircraft carriers used in the Pearl harbor attack...

Are destroyed...

And over 3,000 Japanese soldiers are killed.

Roosevelt absolutely bets the farm...

And they destroyed four of the biggest carriers in the Japanese Navy.

And it took a commander who was prepared to make the bold decision to act...

When the easy thing would have been to, you know, to play it safe.

He didn't play it safe, and he won a tremendous victory.

The United States has dealt Japan its first major defeat in the war.

One moment, gentlemen.

For Japanese prime minister hideki tojo...

The loss at midway is a humiliating failure.

Do not speak a word of this to anyone.

Meanwhile, in Russia...

Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler...

Order hundreds of thousands of their own troops into battle...

Waging a war of ego for the city of stalingrad.

For Stalin...

The cily that bears his name is invaluable...

And he'll sacrifice anything fo defend it.

There are no desertions.

Every soldier must fight- fight to the death.

The deadly battle seems unending.

But the Soviets have a secret advaniage...

That promises fo put them one step ahead of the Germans.

The Russian winter.

Hitler thought that he would get to Moscow before the winter.

But the winter had set in, and the German army was unprepared.

The entire siberian winterized troops...

Came westward...

And made mincemeat out of Hitler's panzer divisions.

[ Shouting I

the German weapons and uniforms...

Aren't designed for Russia's brutal winter...

And it isn't long before Hitler's men...

Are completely overwhelmed.

J [ Classical I

one time, I'm walking with the dog...

And the dog kicks my legs out from under me.

I wind up falling into the-

and rolling down the hill in this way.

Ladies.

Come.

Sit.

Please.

The Russians have halted our advance.

We have lost the 14th and 22nd panzer division.

- Allow me to explain. - Enough!

Hitler was famous for telling organizations not to retreat.

He would put organizations in a place like stalingrad...

And he said, “you cannot give up an inch of ground”...

When it was militarily illogical to do that.

It just doesn't make sense to do that.

Armies move up and back, and you have to be responsive to conditions.

You can't understand Adolf Hitler's actions in world war il...

Without understanding the lessons he learned from world war I.

And one of the most critical lessons he learned was...

You never give up, that you never surrender.

He was so traumatized by the German surrender in world war I...

That he was determined under no circumstances...

Would he surrender in world war il.

Blind to all logic...

Hitler sends more troops info almost certain death.

One German soldier dies every seven seconds.

On this, our 10th anniversary...

We celebrate in the sunlight...

On February 2, 1943...

Hitler prepares for the 10th anniversary of the founding of the third reich.

Mein fiihrer.

What is it?

News from the sixth army.

They've been destroyed.

Destroyed?

How is this possible?

They surrendered.

Surrendered?

A quarter million men-

an entire army of the reich- surrendered?

The sons of the fatherland now traitors to their race.

Their very names are a curse on this nation...

On their mothers, on their children, on their brothers and sisters!

The stain of their perfidy is darker than blood!

I will hear no more of this.

Surrendered?

Just to die...

In a prison camp.

The gods of war have abandoned us.

Whats left of the German army is in shambles...

And the man who seemed fo be on the road to world domination...

Must now watch his greatest enemy claim victory...

And for the first time face the possibility of ultimate defeat.

War is raging around the globe...

And for the first time...

Adolf Hitler has suffered a devastating defeat...

At the hands of Joseph Stalin, who now looks to be unstoppable.

President Roosevelt is beginning fo fear...

That if Joseph Stalin adefeats Adolf Hitler alone...

He'll conquer Europe for himself...

Replacing one tyrant with another.

Roosevelt knows he needs fo get the Americans into Europe...

As quickly as possible.

He sends an allied force into sicily...

Hoping fo capture the island...

So he can establish a base of operations...

Fo launch an attack against the axis powers in Europe.

The moment the allies have been waiting for has finally arrived.

Over 160,000 troops storm into sicily...

In the first major American operation in the European theater.

Leading the charge for the Americans is Roosevelt's secret weapon...

Lieutenant general George s. Patton.

[ Mcchrystal I leaders like George patton...

Around whom an aura begins to grow...

Have extraordinary power.

For one, they inspire their own side.

There's a sense that when you are working for patton...

We are gonna do things faster and better, and we're gonna win.

I work for a winner.

In the years...

Since he commanded America's first ever tank brigade...

In the first world war...

Patton has personally adedicated himselr..

Fo building up the U.S. tank division...

From just a few dozen fanks fo over 88,000.

Patton arrives in sicily with a plan to lake control.

I need you two to find me the most probable path through here.

Okay?

He's going fo seize the sicilian capital of palermo...

And he's going to do it by any means necessary.

Patton was an interesting character, because he was the flamboyant leader...

That people respected for what he did.

But there was always a second half to the sentence.

George patton is brilliant, but... he's egotistical.

He can't control running his mouth.

On July 18, 1943...

Patton and his forces launch an assault on palermo...

Sweeping around the enemy...

And capturing the city in just 72 hours.

And now with sicily unaer their control...

The allies are ready fo launch a massive attack on the axis powers.

On September 3, 1943, allied armies move into mainland Italy...

Fighting back thousands of axis troops.

[ Bell tolling I

as the allies take Italy city by cily...

Benito Mussolini is forced fo watch his beloved empire begin fo crumble.

Before long...

Mussolini is summoned for an emergency meeting...

With his closest ally.

Mussolini may have come fo power first...

But now the tables have turned.

What you are doing to us now...

Is you are causing us to have such problems.

And be the type of ally who can be of some use to us.

Well, why- why do we have this relationship?

Germany has given you everything.

We have given you all that you have needed.

We have given you artillery when you needed artillery.

We gave you men. We gave our treasure, our blood.

And now you come to me and you say no?

We have spent enough time talking over these inane suggestions of yours...

About how to carry on this war.

You will stop!

There are several turning points in the Hitler-Mussolini relationship.

First of all, Hitler regards Mussolini as the man who sets the example.

The next step is in the war...

And when Mussolini does come in, it's a fiasco.

The Italians now become very much the second class.

Hitler began to regard the Italians as weak-

as the weak link in the axis.

[ Narrator I Mussolini is sent back fo Rome with instructions fo hold the line.

But less than two months later, [Italy surrenders fo the allies.

The first major axis power has fallen.

Adolf Hitler has watched the man he once idolized overthrown in disgrace.

And he knows the allies are coming for him next.

The tide of the world war is turning...

As the allies, led by patton...

Lake down Italy.

Why do we have this- you will stop!

[ Bell tolling I

during the campaign...

Patfon conquered Italy in just six weeks...

But his army suffered 6,000 killed and 16,000 wounded.

But patton knows the job's not done...

And he needs every man he can get back on the battlefield.

Soldier.

Why are you here, son?

'Cause you look healthy enough to me right now.

You seem capable enough for fighting to me.

In our own day, we know of the difficulty of battle and post-traumatic stress.

But in the 1940s, these were not terms that were commonly used.

And for patton, if someone had battle fatigue...

It was simply you were being a coward.

Look at me, son.

You might get shot and killed...

But you're going to fight.

- Please don't send me back. - You coward.

News of the incident quickly goes public.

Once the story got out, the public was outraged...

And Roosevelt was put into a box.

Even though he realized that patton was one of his best generals...

He had to punish him in some way.

[ Narrator I Roosevelt has no choice but to pull patton from active duly.

With war still raging on two fronts...

Roosevelt believes the allies may need a new strategy.

He reaches out to Winston Churchill...

[ Ringin - oko

convincing him they need to team up with an unlikely partner-

Joseph Stalin.

Roosevelt and Churchill know that Stalin is a brutal tyrant...

Who shares more in common with Hitler than with them...

But they come fo the realization...

That the enemy of their enemy needs to be their friend.

If the allies are going to win this war, they need Stalin on their side.

Roosevelt and Churchill persuade Stalin to meet them...

For an unprecedented conference at the Soviet embassy in Tehran, Iran.

This is the first meeting of the three allied leaders...

And they each come with their own agenda.

Stalin is clearly in the strongest position.

We've broken the back of the Germans...

And you merely SWAT at them like you would at a fly.

We pushed them out of north Africa.

[ Stalin I while millions of Russians have died.

I do not think the people want any more of my men to die.

Do your people want any more of your men to die?

I'm sure that Churchill and Roosevelt had real questions...

About what Stalin really stood for...

What kind of leader would he be in a postwar period.

But they also knew...

That Stalin's primary mission was to defeat Nazi Germany...

And then they had to work together.

We need to win this war.

We need to win the peace.

That certainly didn't work out very well last time at versailles.

A piece of paper has little power to keep people apart...

Much less hold them together.

We need to ensure that Germany can't threaten Europe again.

Then you need to help me.

And you need to help me.

Now let's talk about Japan.

I will help you with Japan if you help me with Hitler.

If there is no invasion...

Then I cannot help you with Japan.

After four days of infense negotiations...

In exchange for Stalin's help in the pacific...

Roosevelt and Churchill agree fo execute an unprecedented invasion of Europe.

The allies knew that to defeat Nazi Germany...

You were gonna have to invade western Europe...

And you're gonna have to go from France, essentially, into Germany.

And it was an amazing undertaking both in scope and complexity.

[ Narrator I Winston Churchill knows...

That the strategy could be the turning point in the war.

But still... he has grave concems.

Churchill's ordered an ambitious operation like this before.

[ Phone ringing I

four ships sunk, another burning.

The invasion of gallipoli in the first world vwar-

a disastrous amphibious assault...

That left tens of thousands of British troops dead.

Churchill fears that the allies are heading for another gallipoli.

If the mission is going fo be successful...

This time theyll need to be smarter.

Gallipoli cast a long shadow.

It haunted Churchill.

But that capacity to take risk, to think big, to think on a global scale...

Became one of his great strengths.

My biggest worry is that Hitler now knows we're coming.

While preparations for the invasion of France continues...

Churchill oversees the creation of a secret plan...

That will put the allies one step ahead of Adolf Hitler.

So what we need is the right lies to deceive him.

It's called operation fortitude.

The success of the mission will rely on one man...

Whose military career seemed fo be over-

general George s. Patton.

After being pulled from active duly...

Patton has been forced fo watch the planning...

Of one of the largest invasions in history from the sidelines.

If you put yourself in patton's position...

They're about to invade the center of Europe.

They're about to go at the guts of Nazi Germany.

To think he's not gonna be involved in that...

Had to have been just excruciatingly painful for patton...

Because he knows he's a war soldier.

This is his moment, and if he's notin it...

It's going to just be torture.

But operation fortitude...

Has a special place for patton.

In the spring of 1944...

Allied leaders covertly send patton fo england...

Along with 250,000 men...

And what appears to be thousands of tanks and fighter planes.

But patton's not going fo lead an invasion...

And his army isn't what it seems.

Instead of heavy machinery and modern weapons...

Patton's armed with balloons.

Roosevelt and Churchill used patton as a deception.

They actually have Hollywood people help them create...

What is essentially a phony army.

There's phony tanks that are actually nothing but balloons.

There's barracks.

It appears that there are hundreds of thousands of allied troops...

Assembled across the channel from France.

Through the allied tank fields-

it isn't long before Hitler sees German intelligence photographs...

Of patton's supposed army...

And he completely takes the bait.

Hitler thinks he's outsmarted the allies.

He refuses fo believe that patfon has been sidelined just for slapping a soldier.

Patton.

Here are the three major ports suitable for an operation of this size.

The only other viable landing is further south.

The real invasion will be here...

At pas de calais... with patton.

Hitler knows that patton is one of Roosevelt's best generals.

The general who is bold and audacious.

So in all likelihood, patton is going to be leading the attack.

Hitler's convinced the legendary general...

Was preparing fo invade the French mainland at pas de calais...

A major port city in northern France...

Mere miles across the english channel...

From where patton's forces are gathering.

So he sends a million troops fo calais to fortify the city.

On June 6, 1944...

The day that will come fo be known as d-day finally arrives.

Roosevelt and Churchill order 150,000 allied troops...

Lo pile into over 4,000 boats and head fo France...

In the largest amphibious invasion ever attempted.

[ Shouting I

On a day that will come to be known as d-day...

150,000 allied troops pile into thousands of boats...

And head foward France...

In the largest amphibious invasion ever attempted.

Across the channel, more than a million German soldiers prepare for an attack...

Fortifying the French port city of calais...

Where Adolf Hitler is convinced an allied army led by George patton will land.

What Hitler doesn't know...

Is that the allied force isn't being led by patton...

And isn't heading fo calais.

Its larget is just over 200 miles to the south-

the beaches of normandy.

[ Gunfire I

After a brutal fight...

The allied forces capture the beaches.

The question of d-day was...

Can the Americans primarily, but the British as well...

Establish a foothold on the European continent?

If they can...

There was some hope that maybe Hitler could be overthrown.

As allied troops push into normandy...

Adolf Hitler is notified of the invasion...

But he refuses to reroute his troops stationed in calais.

With patton still in england...

Hitler is convinced that the attack at normanaly is just a diversion...

And that a much larger allied assault is still on the way.

Hitler is so out of touch.

He's so consumed with his own brilliance...

That even after it becomes obvious that the allies are attacking in normandy...

He spends some 72 hours refusing to accept the reports.

While Hitler waits for an invasion that will never come...

Allied armies begin moving into France...

Town by town...

Pushing back against the German forces...

And liberating thousanas of citizens throughout the country.

What if Hitler had not been so arrogant?

What if he had recognized that the allies were going to invade in normandy?

What if, after he had credible intelligence reports...

That they were attacking at normandy, had moved his troops there?

It's very likely that he could have blunted the allied assault.

And if you blunt the allied assault at d-day...

The best the allies could hope for is a stalemate in Europe.

With the help of patton's decoy army...

The normandy landings are an incredible success...

That change the course of the war.

While Adolf Hitler suffers an unthinkable defeat ..

On the other side of the world...

His last remaining ally looks to protect his empire.

Following his defeat at midway...

Japanese prime minister hideki tojo has been trying to regroup.

He's desperate fo maintain his control over the pacific.

But little does tojo know...

He's about fo face his biggest challenge yet.

For years, general Douglas MacArthur has waited for the moment...

Lo even the score with tojo.

His number one goal:

To lake back the island territory he was forced to abandon-

the Philippines.

For MacArthur...

Going to the Philippines was both a national necessity...

And a personal obligation...

For not sufficiently defending the Philippines.

[ Narrator I in June of 1944...

MacArthur leads an armada of warships into the pacific.

[ Gunfire I

for five bloody months...

He and his troops lake on the Japanese military...

Fighting island by island...

By land and by sea...

Until MacArthur is finally able to fulfill his promise...

And liberate the Philippines.

That outlines the movement, as I understood it, from here to here.

[ Narrator I but MacArthur's not finished.

As soon as he refakes the Philippines...

He sels his sights on an even bigger target-

the invasion of the Japanese mainland.

In Tokyo...

Prime minister hideki tojo has faced a series of humiliating defeats.

For the first ime since his rise to power...

The Japanese empire is dwindling.

And as criticism of his leadership escalates...

Tojo is forced to resign in disgrace.

While tojo may be gone, the war in Japan is far from over.

The world war fakes a tum in the allies' favor.

After the successful d-day invasion...

The allies continue fo gain ground in Europe...

But Adolf Hitler refuses fo surrender.

In December of 1944...

Hitler orders over 200,000 German troops into Southern Belgium...

In what will come to be known as the battle of the bulge.

Hitler's sneak attack lakes the allies completely off guard.

Roosevelt realizes if he's going fo beat Hitler...

He needs general George paftfon fo help lead the charge.

So he makes the bold decision...

Fo return him to action.

Do it.

Sometimes you have to keep somebody like a George patton around...

Even when every instinct tells you, “get rid of this guy.”

But the bottom line was that he was a great tactician on the battlefield.

After a year on the sidelines...

Patton is back where he belongs-

right on the front lines, leading the charge info baffle.

On December 16, 1944...

Patton and the allies come face-to-face with Hitler's army.

There was just a limit on what the German army at that point had the capacity to do.

They just didn't have the forces or the logistics.

Within days of joining the battle...

Patton and his fleet are able fo take down six divisions of Hitler's army...

Finally breaking through the German defenses.

But fo retreat back info Germany.

[ Air raid sirens blaring I

[ Blaring continues I

with allied armies closing in on Berlin...

Hitler is forced fo walch the same terror and destruction...

He once forced upon the world...

Now inflicted on his own city.

[ Evans I in the last phase of the war...

The air raids on Berlin were becoming extremely destructive.

The Soviet army was moving through the center of Berlin.

Mein fuhrer, it's time.

Hitler retreated underground...

To a prepared, heavily fortified concrete bunker...

Underneath the reich chancellery in Berlin...

And he was relatively safe there.

He hoped for a turnaround.

He thought that there might be some wonder weapon...

That would be developed by German scientists.

It was all complete fantasy.

Adolf Hitler's empire has been reduced...

From three million square miles to 500 square feet.

As patton and his troops advance into Germany...

They arrive at a series of large factory-like buildings...

Surrounded by emply fields in the middle of nowhere.

First squad, move up.

The rumors he's heard are true.

This is one of Adolf Hitler's death camps-

buchenwald.

Paltton finds 20,000 emaciated survivors...

Suffering from starvation, aisease and torture.

Thousands of corpses line the grounds...

Killed during one of the worst genocides the world has ever seen-

a systematfic mass extermination program...

Hitler calls 'the final solution.”

The camp patton liberates...

Is just one of 20,000 detention and killing facilities built by Hitler.

In all, the holocaust kills 11 million people.

Six million are Jewish.

My wife's mother was in Auschwitz and dacha...

She was liberated from dachau by the U.S. army.

I had a press secretary...

And his father had been part of the group that had liberated my mother-in-law.

These soldiers and everyone else who did that...

Saved the world from nazism and fascism.

[ Narrator I for patton...

The holocaust is a reminder of everything the allies had been fighting for.

For my generation that had parents who survived the holocaust...

Who had relatives who were lost in the holocaust...

There is a real responsibility to learn the lessons of history...

And to make sure that they're not forgotten.

Shaken by what he sees...

Patton and his troops round up as many Germans as they can-

thousands of soldiers, along with ordinary citizens...

Forcing them to bear witness...

Fo Hitler's atrocities.

Patton's decision to confront the perpetrators of injustice and slaughter...

With the actuality of what they did-

if you can't see the consequences of your actions...

You're less likely to understand the significance of them.

When people perpetrate war crimes...

The most important thing is that they're held accountable for them...

'Cause if they're not held accountable...

Then I'm afraid it's an encouragement to others...

To violate the most basic norms as well.

[ Narrator I patton knows there's only one way to stop the genocide-

win the war.

After five years of fighting...

The allies are finally closing in on Adolf Hitler.

But right when victory seems within reach, America is dealt a devastating blow.

On April 12, 1945...

President Franklin delano Roosevelt dies of a sudden stroke.

Americans were shocked.

Roosevelt had guided Americans...

Through the two great emotional, economic and military crises of the 20th century-

the great depression and world war il.

These were formative experiences for an entire generation...

And when Roosevelt died...

Many thousands of Americans felt as though they had lost a member of their family.

With an allied victory within reach...

America has just lost jts commander in chief.

Vice president Harry Truman...

Is immediately summoned fo the white house.

The former shopkeeper from small-town Missouri...

Has been vice president for less than three months...

Before suddenly being thrust into the role of President of the United States.

And now its up to Truman...

Fo put an end to 30 years of the deadliest fighting the world has ever seen.

Harry Truman would say it was like the moon and the stars just fell down on top of him.

He's suddenly president.

The challenge when he became president was he had to win these wars.

It's still raging, so first things first. You had to get that victory in Europe.

[ Narrator I as a new leader comes to power in America...

In Italy, the old guard has crumbled.

Benifo Mussolini has been hiding out in northern Italy...

But he plans an escape to Spain...

- [ Bells tolling I - [ Cheering I

Only fo be captured on his way out of the country...

And publicly executed by members of the Italian resistance.

Mussolini's corpse is put into the center of a square...

Where some locals come out and abuse it-

what people had always done when a tyrant fell...

And they had a chance to abuse him.

He was the person who had been responsible...

For the bombing and all the troubles of the war.

“Okay, let's kick his head in.”

[ Narrator I one of the most ruthless dictators the world has ever known...

Has finally fallen.

[ Air raid sirens blaring I

just two days later, while hiding in his bunker in Berlin...

Adolf Hitler learns of Mussolini's brutal execution.

The Soviet army was moving through the center of Berlin towards the bunker.

Hitler did not want to suffer the same fate as Mussolini.

Hitler was not going to have that happen to him.

But Adolf Hitler long ago vowed...

Fo never see Germany surrender again.

[ Gunshot I

Adolf Hitler's suicide forces Germany to surrender to the allies...

For the second time this century.

Within less than one month...

Franklin Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler have died...

And the war in Europe has come fo a close.

The war ends in Europe...

And, of course, for Europeans, that's the end of the war.

For the United States, it's not.

The United States still has another war to win.

By spring of 1945...

Adolf Hitler is dead, and the war in Europe is finally over.

But one axis power remains...

And president Harry Truman and the United States military...

Can now focus their attention on Japan.

For three years, the United States has engaged...

In a devastating fight with the Japanese military.

But even after the fall of their last remaining allies...

Japan still refuses to surrender.

And as they grow increasingly desperate...

They begin bombarding the allies with devastating kamikaze attacks.

The Japanese have a code of behavior.

One of those parts is no surrender.

The Japanese were so determined to fight on at all costs.

General Douglas MacArthur...

Knows the Japanese military will be a fearsome enemy to beat.

He's convinced that the only way fo defeat the last axis power...

Is with what could be the largest military operation in history-

an assault that would awarf even the size of d-day.

A daring amphibious invasion of the Japanese mainland.

The United States could lose as many as 100,000 men.

Casualties could be over a million.

But MacArthur believes this is the proper thing to do...

Even though it'd be costly.

[ Narrator I but MacArthur is not the only one with plans for a conquest of Japan.

As the war nears an end, Joseph Stalin looks to take control.

In July of 1945...

Stalin begins mobilizing his troops into China.

And he believes if he can beat America fo the punch...

His power on the world stage will be unmaitched.

It is no question that Stalin helped us defeat nazism.

But it's also true that Stalin had his eye on the postwar world...

And was much more focused on gaining advantage at the end of world war ii...

Which would position the Soviet union for a greater future.

With Stalin on his own quest for global domination...

Great Britain and the United States will need to act fast

From the beginning, Winston Churchill has seen Stalin as a threat ..

Almost as great as Hitler.

But before he can neutralize Stalin and end the war on his own terms...

He receives some shocking news.

On July 26, 1945...

Winston Churchill is unexpectedly voted out of office.

Churchill was proved right about the Nazis...

And that's what transformed him to a great wartime leader...

And it was in war that he proved his leadership credentials.

Interestingly enough, the British people then didn't trust him to win the peace.

[ Narrator I without Churchill, Harry Truman is on his own.

He knows he needs to finish the war before Stalin is able fo...

But he also knows that MacArthur's planned invasion...

Would lead fo a catastrophic loss of life.

But what few realize is that Truman has another option.

It's a go.

On August 6, 1945...

The first atomic bomb strikes Hiroshima.

In an instant, over 80,000 Japanese civilians are dead.

The level of devastation...

Is unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.

Just three days later...

A second atomic strike hits Nagasaki...

Instantly killing another 75,000 people.

Less than a week later...

Japan finally surrenders.

The last remaining axis power has fallen.

It's easy to criticize Truman's decision to drop the bomb...

But tell that to the million mothers who might have lost their sons.

War is no fun thing. It's a terrible thing.

But the fact that those two bombs were dropped...

I think guaranteed that we'll never see an atomic bomb again dropped on anyone.

It's existentially not possible, and I know.

I was in charge of 28,000 of them.

It's over.

Though difficult and controversial...

The decision fo drop the bomb brings an end...

Lo the single bloodiest conflict in human history.

In the 31 years...

Between 1974 and 1945...

Over 100 million people were killed...

In the deadliest fighting the world has ever seen.

The world wars...

Were a time of ruthless tyrants...

But also legendary heroes-

an era when a single generation of men...

Determined the fate of all mankind.

History tells us that people are capable of evil...

And unless good people are willing to fight people capable of evil...

Evil will triumph.

Someone who is willing to take the risks...

That are involved with military action...

Is a hero as far as I'm concerned.

My toughest job was to write notes of condolence...

To the families who had lost loved ones.

But the words I always used is that you can always take some comfort...

In the fact that they gave their life for their country...

And that they will be forever remembered as heroes.