In late 1944, Japan’s military turned to a deadly and radical tactic: suicide attacks by pilots known as kamikaze, or “divine wind.” These young men, often in their late teens, flew explosive-laden aircraft into Allied ships, sacrificing themselves to delay defeat. The kamikaze program, rooted in...

This first installment is largely a warning against fascism. Capra described it as a contrast between a free world and a slave world, and traces events through the Japanese invasion of Manchuria starting in 1931 and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936.

The most famous B-17 in history - The Memphis Belle. But now - for the first time, her story is told from a purely historical perspective, breaking down the Hollywood myths, and covering the real story of an iconic Flying Fortress in World War II.

relive some of the most intense air combat missions of World War II - told from the perspective of 9th Air Force fighter pilot Lt. Ed Cottrell, and his P-47 Thunderbolt "Our Mary".

In this episode, Ed trains to fight the advancing German army in Europe, and experiences his brutal baptism by fire...

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...

The British and Polish airborne and airlanding men engaged at the tip of the Market Garden spear - Arnhem. Let's explore the range of small arms they carried, and use those weapons to meet several of the men who served in this great struggle from World War II.

Capra produced this film as a follow-up to the Why We Fight series. At the time it came out it was regarded very highly. Capra was most fastidious about avoiding cliches about black people that had dogged most Hollywood product from the beginning. Like the Why We Fight pictures, this one was inte...

Digitally remastered in HD; Photographic Intelligence for Bombardment Aviation (1943) was produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit, and was designed to demystify a then rapidly evolving technique.
The present 24 minute film relies a little heavily on jargon and abbreviation...