A chapter of geopolitics. Hitler is able to take over the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia with impunity, and the appeasers oblige him. Only when he invades Poland does the real war begin.

The Nazis occupy Denmark and Norway, outflank the Maginot line and seize France, and drive the British into a corner at Dunkirk. A major theme here is how unprepared the democracies were for this onslaught.

During Lt. Cottrell's most intense mission of the war, his Thunderbolt is critically damaged by German fighters that ambush the 48th Fighter Group. But, miraculously, an expected savior arrives and spares his life.

As the Battle of the Bulge reaches it's climax, Ed Cottrell and the 48th Fighter Group are called in to attack Tiger Tanks and support the 101st Airborne as they are surrounded in the small city of Bastogne - leading to a moving moment many years later.

The RAF vs. the Luftwaffe. Capra’s own synopsis: “Showing the gallant and victorious defense of Britain by the Royal Air Force, at a time when shattered, but unbeaten, British were the only people fighting Nazis."

On New Years Day of 1945, the German Luftwaffe launches their final all-out attack of the war. This would be one of the most difficult days for Lt. Ed Cottrell - as he and his fighter group sat helpless on the ground watching the chaos unfold.

This is quite an epic, running nearly an hour and a half for both parts. Considerable time is given to a description of Russia and its many peoples, and its implacable resistance to previous invaders through history. Wartime politics being what they were, such things as Stalin’s nonaggression pac...

Like the Russian installment, we are given a good deal of information about the vastness and complexity of China and the character of its people. Much of the emphasis is on the brutality of the Japanese invasion. One of the few major inaccuracies in this series is the emphasis in the so-called “T...

Released in 1943, this newsreel shows West Point during the stewardship of Major General Francis Bowditch Wilby (April 24, 1883 – November 20, 1965). Wilby served as the 39th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. Many of the Cadet Corps athl...