The Allies make slow progress through Europe during the summer of 1944, losing pace in the Normandy countryside. Meanwhile, American forces fight their costliest battle
The plan to end the war in Europe by winter 1944 founders as Allied forces massed on the German border find themselves short of fuel, leading commanders to take a risky gamble
General MacArthur's campaign to liberate the Philippines and his resultant popularity back home in America - which belied the scale of the bloodshed necessary for victory

Hitler takes an enormous gamble as Nazi forces fight the war on two fronts, braving the worst winter in memory to tackle the Allies to the west as the Russians get closer to Berlin

The violence in the Pacific in 1945, when Japanese soldiers were ordered to kill as many Americans as possible before their own deaths, while in Europe two armies headed for Berlin

The Allies discover the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen-Gusen as they close in on Berlin, while Hitler realises the scale of his defeat

The final stages of the Second World War as Japan's rulers refused to concede defeat despite the agony of their people, culminating in atomic bombs being dropped
