Operation Certain Death gets under way to rescue British soldiers from the West Side Boys in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone, Africa is engulfed in civil war, and British soldiers have been captured by the West Side Boys, who are led by a schizophrenic leader.

A surveillance team has been sent in by the British army to scout out the location of their captured soldiers and to either wait for back-up or withdraw.

Veterans and footage from the invasion of Normandy provide the details as to just how treacherous the initial landings and fierce the German defenses were their with underwater mines, 88-milimeter artillery rounds and machine gun emplacements.

Private Hal Baumgarten and his fellow GIs are victims of a deadly German ambush as they advance inland from the beach at Normandy. As he is about to be evacuated a sniper hits him, then gets "exterminated" by an unexpected friend.

A formidable German defense in Caen forces the Allies to unleash a massive aerial bombardment on the key city, with both the enemy and allies forced to seek cover.

As Lance Cpl. Stan Matulis is moving house to house clearing out the Germans in the Falaise pocket during the Battle of Normandy he and his comrades take a break in a home. After passing a window a couple of times he is shot in the neck by a sniper.

As the Germans were withdrawing from Normandy and Belgium many regrouped in Holland and attacked the Allies, inflicting many casualties. As the body count grew so did the letters that had to be written to family members of the deceased.

Besides the cold and lack of supplies and onrushing German forces soldiers of the 101st Airborne had to contend with the fear of the unknown, and fear of letting your fellow soldier down during the harsh Siege of Bastogne.

Airman Leonard recounts the chaos and cruelty of nighttime bombing raids over Berlin in a Lancaster and how he and his crew had to crash-land their disabled aircraft on one particular sortie.

By October 1939 after the Soviets and Nazis had partitioned Poland the Gestapo and Soviet secret police were looking for ways to increase and render more effective their collaboration

During a trip to Moscow in December 1941 British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden learns of Stalin's desire to hold onto eastern Poland after the end of the war.

Despite the massive loss of life of his own people Stalin is viewed in the US as a hero by the end of 1942.

As German forces gradually retreat from the Eastern front and Soviet forces wait just outside Warsaw the Polish resistance rises assuming that Stalin will come to their aid.

As part of the Soviet control that Stalin imposed over Poland Russians were made to pose as Polish officers.

A former interpreter of Stalin's confirms that he felt betrayed by the Allies because they only opened up a second front in Western Europe when the Red Army began to approach Germany and the West.