Battlefront: WWII Road To Victory

To keep France free, 400,000 English soldiers have manned the battlefields. Germany's strength is too great and pushes the British to the coast town of Dunkirk.

German tanks roll into Poland in September 1939.

Early in the war, the Germans decide they need to guarantee access to the Norwegian port of Narvik to ensure their supplies of Swedish iron ore. The British, however, send destroyers to up-end the German plan.

After invading France, Hitler is planning to cross the Channel. His only obstacle is the Royal Air Force. Throughout the summer of 1940, both sides lose an incredible number of daring flyers.

German field marshal Erwin Rommel scores a major victory at the Libyan seaport of Tobruk.

After British forces withdrew in defeat from Greece to the island of Crete in early 1941, they were soon fighting German invasion armies again. This time, 5,000 of Hitler's elite paratroopers landed to complete their conquest in the Mediterranean.

In 1941, Mussolini desperately wants to wrest the tiny island of Malta from the British for control of the Mediterranean. When his inadequate air force fails to bomb the Maltese into submission, Hitler's Luftwaffe joins the campaign.

Before the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese initiate the Pacific War by firing on the British in Malaya. Their route to the rubber-rich nation takes them into Singapore, the World's most armed fortress.

During a two-hour surprise attack on the American Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Japanese navy pilots score a near-complete victory.

Examining the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941.

Only one isolated atoll prevents an enemy invasion of Hawaii. Midway Island is where the Japanese fleet converges on a tiny American base with a massive strafing and bombing attack.

For the first time since Americans entered the war, Marines face Japanese infantrymen at Guadal Canal. In the jungles, two powerful armies clash in a six month battle that claims nearly 30,000 lives.

The Allies launch an ill-fated attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France.

German forces encounter Russian resistance.

Erwin Rommel battles Allied forces in North Africa in 1942.

In the North African desert in 1942, American fighting forces encounter the dreaded Rommel for the first time to stop the German war machine.

The Japanese meet resistance from British forces as they advance through Burma to take India in 1944.

Fresh from victory in North Africa, the Allies successfully invade the island of Sicily, staging an eventual Italian withdrawal from the war.

American bombers target a Romanian oil refinery in a daring 1943 mission.

As the allies make their way into Italy, they encounter tremendous resistance at German defensive positions along the Gustav line. One of these locations is an ancient monastery called Monte Cassino.

Both political and military expediency were factors in the return of the French capital to its people.