Episode Summaries

Episode 1 — A Necessary War (December 1941–December 1942)

After an overview of the Second World War, the inhabitants of four American towns — Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota — recall their communities on the eve of the conflict. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sid Phillips and Willie Rushton of Mobile, Ray Leopold of Waterbury, and Walter Thompson and Burnett Miller of Sacramento, along with millions of others, enter the armed forces and train for war.

In the Philippines, Americans Sascha Weinzheimer (8 years old in 1941) and corporal Glenn Frazier are caught up in the Japanese onslaught there as American and Filipino forces retreat onto Bataan and thousands of civilians are imprisoned in Manila. Back home, Japanese Americans all along the West Coast are forced into inland internment camps. On the East Coast, German U-boats decimate Allied shipping.

Katharine Phillips remembers wartime Mobile, and newspaper editor Al McIntosh chronicles the travails of every family in Luverne. In June 1942, the Navy manages a victory over the Japanese at the Battle of Midway and in August, American land forces, including Sid Phillips, face the Japanese army for the first time at Guadalcanal. After six grueling months the Americans finally prevail, stopping Japan’s expansion in the Pacific.

Episode 2 — When Things Get Tough (January 1943–December 1943)

By January 1943, American troops, including Charles Mann of Luverne, are in North Africa, ready to battle Axis armies before invading Southern Europe. At Kasserine Pass, Erwin Rommel’s veterans overwhelm the Americans. In the aftermath, George Patton assumes command, and American soldiers come to adopt a professional outlook on killing and begin to beat back the Germans.

Across the United States, workers flock to cities such as Mobile and Waterbury, where factories run around the clock and nearly all manufacturing is converted to the war effort. Along with millions of other women, Emma Belle Petcher of Mobile enters the industrial work force.

In Europe, thousands of American airmen, including Earl Burke of Sacramento, face preposterous odds on daylight bombing missions over enemy territory. Allied troops invade Sicily and then Southern Italy, where German resistance stiffens. Among the American forces is Babe Ciarlo of Waterbury, whose division suffers terrible losses in Italy. As 1943 comes to a close, Allied leaders draw up plans for the invasion of France as Hitler strengthens his coastal defenses.

Episode 3 — A Deadly Calling (November 1943–June 1944)

Seeing American combat casualties for the first time in the media — the American public grows determined to do what is necessary to hasten the end of the war. Despite American victories in the Solomons and New Guinea, Japan’s empire still stretches 4,000 miles. In November, the Marines mount a frontal assault on the tiny Pacific atoll of Tarawa.

Mobile, Sacramento and Waterbury have been transformed into booming, “wartowns,” and in Mobile — as elsewhere — that transformation leads to social tensions. In the segregated military, African Americans are admitted to the Marine Corps, and John Gray and Willie Rushton of Mobile sign on. They train for combat, but most are assigned to service jobs instead. Japanese-American men, originally designated as “enemy aliens,” are permitted to form a special combat unit. Thousands sign up, including Robert Kashiwagi, Susumu Satow and Tim Tokuno of Sacramento.

In Italy, Allied forces are stalled in desperate combat in the mountains south of Rome. A risky landing at Anzio ends in stalemate, leaving thousands of Allied troops, including Babe Ciarlo of Waterbury, pinned down for months. In May, Allied soldiers finally break through, and on June 4, they liberate Rome.

Episode 4 — Pride of Our Nation (June 1944–August 1944)

By June 1944, there are signs on both sides of the world that the tide of the war is turning. On D-Day in the European Theater, Allied troops embark on one of the greatest invasions in history. Among them are Quentin Aanenson of Luverne, who flies his first combat mission over Normandy, and Joseph Vaghi of Connecticut, who lands on Omaha Beach. Americans find themselves bogged down in hedgerows of Normandy, facing German troops determined to make them pay for every inch of territory they gain. For weeks, the Allies must measure their progress in yards, and they suffer far greater casualties than anyone expected.

In late July, Allied forces break out; by mid-August, the Germans are in full retreat; and on August 25, Paris is liberated. The end of the war in Europe seems only weeks away. In the Pacific, the campaign from island to island toward the Japanese homeland is under way, but the enemy seems determined to defend to the death every piece of territory. The Marines, including Ray Pittman of Mobile, fight the costliest Pacific battle to date — on the island of Saipan.

Back at home, Americans do their best to go about their normal lives, but all across the country, dreaded War Department telegrams begin arriving at a rate inconceivable a year earlier.

Episode 5 — FUBAR (September 1944–December 1944)

By September 1944, in Europe at least, the Allies seem to be moving steadily toward victory. But in the coming months, things don’t go according to plan. On the Western Front, a risky scheme to drop thousands of airborne troops, including Dwain Luce of Mobile and Harry Schmid of Sacramento, behind enemy lines in Holland ends in disaster. American soldiers are also ordered into Germany’s Hurtgen Forest, where a host of GIs, including Tom Galloway of Mobile, battle simply to survive. Fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson of Luverne loses so many friends and sees so much death that he comes close to collapse.

In the Vosges Mountains, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, including Robert Kashiwagi, Susumu Satow and Tim Tokuno of Sacramento, is assigned to an overly ambitious general and is decimated in brutal combat. In the Pacific, before General MacArthur invades the Philippines at Leyte, the 1st Marine Division, including Eugene Sledge and Willie Rushton of Mobile, is ordered to take the nearby island of Peleliu. The brutal two-month campaign is one of the most unnecessary of the Pacific War.
In October, Sascha Weinzheimer of Sacramento and the other internees at Santo Tomas camp in Manila thrill as American planes bomb Japanese ships nearby. But months of bloody fighting lie ahead before the Philippine Islands can be liberated.

Episode 6 — The Ghost Front (December 1944–March 1945)

By December 1944, Americans have become weary of the war — the stream of newspaper headlines and telegrams bearing bad news seems endless and unendurable. In the Pacific, American progress has been slow and costly. In Europe, no one is prepared for the massive counterattack Hitler launches on December 16 in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxemburg. Tom Galloway of Mobile, Burnett Miller of Sacramento and Ray Leopold of Waterbury are there, among the Americans caught up in the biggest battle on the Western Front — the Battle of the Bulge.

Meanwhile, in Manila, thousands of internees, including Sascha Weinzheimer of Sacramento, are now starving, desperately trying to survive long enough to be liberated. At Yalta, Allied leaders agree on a plan to end the war that includes massive bombing raids aimed at German infrastructure and cities. In the Pacific, Allied bombers are ready to batter Japan as well — but first, the air strip on Iwo Jima, an inhospitable volcanic island, must be taken. There the Marines, including Ray Pittman of Mobile, face almost a month of desperate fighting before the island is secured. In the coming months, Allied bombings will set the cities of Japan ablaze. By the middle of March 1945, the end of the war in Europe seems imminent: Americans are driving into the heart of Germany, while the Russians are within 50 miles of Berlin.

Episode 7 — A World Without War (March 1945–December 1945)

In March 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt warns Americans that although the Nazis are on the verge of collapse, the war with Japan could stretch on for years. Eugene Sledge of Mobile participates in the deadliest battle of the Pacific on the island of Okinawa. Glenn Frazier of Alabama, one of 168,000 Allied prisoners of war still in Japanese hands, celebrates the arrival of American planes overhead, but despairs of surviving the war.

In mid-April, President Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman — unknown to many Americans — becomes president. Meanwhile, in Europe, as Allied forces push across Germany, soldiers including Burnett Miller of Sacramento, Dwain Luce of Mobile and Ray Leopold of Waterbury discover in the concentration camps the true horrors of the Nazis’ industrialized barbarism. Finally, on May 8, Germany surrenders. But in the Pacific, the battle on Okinawa grinds on until June with terrible casualties on both sides. As American forces prepare to move on to Japan itself, more terrible losses seem inevitable. Then, on August 6 and 9, 1945, American planes drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, obliterating hundreds of thousands of people — and Russia declares war on Japan. The rulers of Japan decide at last to give up, and the cataclysm comes to an end.