The final hours of WW2 changed the course of history. As the Americans inch closer to Japan the Japanese fight with greater intensity. The question now is how to end the conflict. Starve them into capitulation? Many in US command believe the Japanese will never surrender. The alternative is to stage a massive invasion that would dwarf D-Day? The massacre of millions would be inevitable. But then a third and far darker option becomes available: the atom bomb.

This illuminating ten-part series tells the story of World War ll through the ten most pivotal turning points in the conflict. Gripping story-telling illustrated with exquisitely restored and colourised archived films and supported by a global cast of stellar historians bring this crucially important era in history to life.
In the first chapter, Britain and France declare war when Hitler invades Poland. In May 1940 the Germans attack Holland and Belgium as a decoy. As the Wehrmacht comes through the Ardennes and the Luftwaffe strikes in force, French leaders are caught like rabbits in headlights. The Germans are on a drug called Pervitin, which beats off fatigue, and reach the Atlantic coast. There is a danger that the Germans will encircle the Allies and cut them off from the sea. But Hitler issues his Halt Order and some 340,000 Allies are evacuated.

Mid-1942, as Hitler’s forces are pushing into southern Russia to take the oilfields, he spies a city prized by his enemy Stalin – Stalingrad. If Hitler can capture this city, he can expand his empire all the way to the Urals. But what Hitler hasn’t counted on is the enormous resilience of the Soviet people; men and women willing to defend their Motherland at all costs.
What ensues at Stalingrad is one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with an estimated 2 million total casualties, and an event that turns the tide for the Germans.

High on cocaine, Hitler hatches an audacious plan to turn the tide of the war. He has been prescribed the drug for injuries sustained when Stauffenberg tried to kill him.
Colourised archive depicts the Germans’ opening salvo artillery barrage and George Patton’s arrival in Bastogne to break the German siege. The film also looks at the role played by commando Otto Skorzeny, who put English-speaking German soldiers behind the lines to sow confusion, spreading the rumour that they try to kill or capture Eisenhower.

As World War II drags on into another bitter winter the Allies become desperate to end the conflict. Winston Churchill turns to his formidable bomber force to break the deadlock.
The population of an eastern German city is caught in a devastating firestorm and harnessed by the Nazis; the controversy turns the Allies on themselves.

When Japan’s military expansion in the Pacific reaches its fever pitch, Roosevelt is forced to act. By cutting off oil supplies, he hopes to force Japan to back down. But far from sedating their imperial expansions, he pushes them to take one of the greatest gambles in military history – taking their entire striking fleet 4000 miles across the Ocean to attack the American Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor. It’s a huge gamble, and if it goes wrong, it will spell suicide for Japan.