First-person accounts describe the perilous situation in which hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers found themselves struggling to escape Dunkirk under a barrage of enemy fire.

As ground forces including the Home Guard were being assembled to counter a German invasion on British soil the Royal Air Force bore the responsibility win the immediate battle in the skies over the English Channel and the United Kingdom.

Unlike in the First World War the Allies, with the British in particular, had to account for a much larger area of the sea to cover and protect from Axis threats.

Members of the US Pacific fleet recount their surprise when first seeing Japanese aircraft at Pearl Harbor as they initiated their attack.

With it's superior long range and superior performance the P-51 Mustang aided in the Allies' efforts to strike Nazi targets throughout Germany.