British and Allied forces are pushed back by an overwhelming German Army. 400,000 Allied troops are trapped in the French town of Dunkirk. After several failed attempts at rescue, the British Navy was able to rescue 330,000 troops.
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.
Hitler has taken France and has his sights set on England. At a heavy toll, the Royal Air Force swings into action to stop Hitler from crossing the Channel.
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.
In 1941, Mussolini desperately wants to wrest the tiny island of Malta from the British for control of the Mediterranean. When his inadequate air force fails to bomb the Maltese into submission, Hitler's Luftwaffe joins the campaign.
Before the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese initiate the Pacific War by firing on the British in Malaya. Their route to the rubber-rich nation takes them into Singapore, the World's most armed fortress.
Only one isolated atoll prevents an enemy invasion of Hawaii. Midway Island is where the Japanese fleet converges on a tiny American base with a massive strafing and bombing attack.
For the first time since Americans entered the war, Marines face Japanese infantrymen at Guadal Canal. In the jungles, two powerful armies clash in a six month battle that claims nearly 30,000 lives.
D-Day, the 6th of June--one of the most pivotal moments in world history. In a massive armada of thousands of ships, 3,000,000 allied troops land at Three Beaches in Normandy, France.
Six weeks after the D-Day invasion of the Beaches of Normandy, the allied forces are pushing the Germans back through the French countryside. Town by town is won back as Panzer divisions retreat back to the Meuse River.
