Eisenhower describes how the Allies squeezed Rommel's forces in Tunisia. The Afrika Korps attacks to the Kasserine Pass but is pushed back thanks to Patton. Allied air power helps win the day, the U.S. and British 8th armies meet, and Tunis falls.

The decision is made at Casablanca to invade Sicily. Pantelleria is bombed and surrenders. The invasion convoys come after an airborne drop, and after a major storm. The landings are made and counterattacks weathered. Sicily is conquered by August 17th, 1943.

General Montgomery attacks Italy across the Strait of Messina. A landing is made at Salerno to coincide with Italy's surrender, after Italy's fleet surrenders at Malta. The Germans resist the Salerno landing strongly. After 7 days the Allies manage to push back the enemy and link up with British forces coming from the south. FDR, Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo.

Eisenhower tours the Italian Front in December, 1943. The terrain and weather make life difficult for Allied troops. Pontoon bridges collapse in the raging rivers. Eisenhower leaves for Tunisia to plan the Anzio campaign. The landing is made in January, 1944. The Germans attack and put the Anzio landing in peril, but the Allies hold on. After nearly six months of battle, the breakout is made and Rome is liberated. Eisenhower is sent to London to prepare for the Normandy invasion.

Eisenhower works with the Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan the invasion of France and beyond. The Ruhr is featured because of coal and industry. German defenses are shown, including naval mines. Reinforcements come from the U.S. and Canada, both ground and air units. Allied maneuvers are shown. The "Mulberry" harbors are assembled. The air campaign against French railroads cuts off the beaches. Eisenhower inspects the troops to boost morale and get the men to talk to him. The ships are loaded for the Channel crossing. A storm causes D-Day to move to June 6th.

Eisenhower inspects the landing beaches and we see the "Mulberry" harbors put in place along the Normandy beaches. Airfields are built and supplies offloaded. V-1 rockets attack London. We see Germans build the V-2 rockets. Storms wreck a Mulberry harbor and damage the other. Cherbourg is taken, but is wrecked by the Germans. The British and Canadians work to take Caen. Operation Cobra is launched to break out of Normandy.

The opening shows the American capture of Strasbourg from the Germans, followed by the leave facilities for American servicemen. Hitler is shown with General Jodl planning the Battle of the Bulge. The German attack is a surprise blow, which the Allies turn back by pushing the enemy back to his starting point.

The Allies cross the Rhine River into Germany in the early part of 1945. The Canadians cross in February, followed by the Americans and British, with the Americans taking Cologne and crossing the river at Remagen. Winston Churchill visits the front and crosses the river himself in a landing boat.

The Western Allies entrap a large part of the German Army in the Ruhr Pocket, and captures some 325,000 enemy soldiers. The Americans and Russians meet at Torgau on the Elbe River. The Russians take Berlin, and German forces surrender in Europe and Italy. Eisenhower also inspects a concentration camp.

This installment talks about the lesson learned, military and diplomatic, about coalition warfare. It includes a reenactment of the Alamogordo atomic bomb test, as well as its use against Japan.

The post-war government of Germany is shown. The U.S. in Cologne puts things in order. The Potsdam Conference and Nuremberg War Crimes Trials are shown.

Russian and American attitudes about fighting war are compared. The Germans surrender to Zhukov, and Eisenhower goes to Moscow. The Berlin Blockade is mentioned, and the UN founding conference is shown.

This final installment is a review of the whole series. Highlights deal with the rise of Nazism, finishing with the Battle of Britain, FDR's speech asking for a declaration of war from Congress, the invasion of French North Africa, Sicily and Italy, the planning for the invasion of France, the landings in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge, crossing of the Rhine and the meeting with the Russians at the Elbe.