The Perilous Fight: America's World War II in Color

Episode 2

Battlefronts: 1942-1944

The second episode focuses on the years 1942 to 1944, from the massive buildup of America's military and industrial capabilities to preparations for D-Day. Among the many images captured in color are the mobilization of women and African Americans on the industrial home front and in the military; the internment of Japanese Americans; American troops landing in North Africa, and tank battles in the North African desert; training of African-American aviators at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute; the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto; activity behind Nazi lines in Yugoslavia, and Yugoslavian resistance fighters helping downed U.S. airmen; and the boarding of troops onto landing craft bound for Normandy, scene of what was to be the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Episode 3

Wrath: D-Day-V-E-Day

The third episode focuses on the European theater during the months between D-Day, in June 1944, and V-E Day, in May 1945. Among the many scenes captured by color footage are the seizure, two days before D-Day, of a German U-boat carrying Enigma code machines; the massive Allied assault on the beaches at Normandy; the jubilant welcome received by G.I.s after the liberation of Paris; freed American POWs burning their prison; Red Cross "doughnut girls"; the first Jewish Sabbath service conducted at the just-liberated Dachau concentration camp; and V-E Day celebrations following Germany's surrender.

Episode 4

Triumph: The Pacific, 1943-1945

The series concludes by covering America's efforts to win the war in the Pacific. Among the many scenes captured by color footage are U.S. troops staging a dawn landing on tiny but strategically important Tarawa; the U.S. attack on Iwo Jima and the raising of the American flag on Mount Surabachi; the desperate fight to save the U.S.S. Franklin after the aircraft carrier is hit and set on fire by armor-piercing bombs 50 miles from Japan; U.S. aircraft carriers under attack by kamikaze pilots during the battle for Okinawa; the funeral procession for President Roosevelt following his sudden death in April 1945; the devastation wrought on Hiroshima by the atomic bomb; the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri; and celebrations in the streets of New York marking the end of the war.