In September 1939, Germany invades Poland, setting the stage for the most destructive war in history.

After toppling the Netherlands and Belgium, Nazi Germany pushes further west. The Allies scramble to support France as Churchill is forced to defend Britain from the skies and FDR rushes to mobilize wartime production.

The story of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the largest and costliest land offensive in human history.

Japan escalates their war in China, drawing increasing US sanctions and widespread outrage. Driven by resource shortages and military ideology, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in a move that will reshape the course of World War II.

The story of how America's battle to control the seas against the terrifying German U-boats in the Atlantic and Japan's fearsome Navy in the Pacific ultimately turns the tide of the war.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces sweep across Southeast Asia. On Guadalcanal, United States Marines are given the bloody task of stopping their relentless advance.

As Hitler's reach extends beyond Germany and darkness descends on Europe, his hateful rhetoric leads to anti-Jewish persecution and ultimately, genocide.

In Operation Torch, thousands of inexperienced U.S. troops face off against the hardened German Afrika Korps and the infamous Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

Behind the fierce frontline clashes of WWII, a hidden battle rages - one of espionage, deception, and codebreaking. In rural England, a group of brilliant academics work to crack Germany's "unbreakable" Enigma Code and change the course of the war.

Operation Blue: the German Army fights to take Soviet oil fields and the city of Stalingrad, becoming one of the deadliest battles ever fought and a major turning point on the Eastern Front.

The Allies hope to quickly penetrate the Nazi Reich via Italy but instead endure a months-long slog with devastating results.

Allied air forces engage in a ferocious and costly battle with the German Luftwaffe over the skies of Europe.

The Allies undertake Operation Overlord, one of the most complicated and massive military invasions in history, to liberate Occupied France and open up a true second front in Western Europe.

The Allies and Japan clash in the jungles and plains of Asia, the "forgotten theater" of World War II, as America struggles to bring the fight to Tokyo's door.

As the tide begins to turn against the Axis powers, the leaders of Germany and Japan deploy opposite strategies on their home fronts.

Resistance to Nazi occupation and oppression is a constant throughout the war, with results both triumphant and devastating.

The Pacific campaign reaches a brutal and bloody fever pitch from 1944 to 1945.

The war in Europe reaches a climax as Allied armies advance towards Berlin, and Hitler orders his people to fight to the last man.

The most terrible weapon ever created will change the course of the war in the Pacific.

The end of the second world war and the dawn of the nuclear age see its two great victors go from allies to adversaries.