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 German attack at Mortain is defeated with the help of Allied airpower. The Allies cut off large German forces at the Falaise pocket. One hundred thousand Germans are captured. The Brittany Peninsula is cleared of the enemy. Paris' capture in 1940 is recalled as well as its occupation. The Resistance rises against the Germans as the Americans and Free French close in. LeClerc's 2nd French Armored Division enters on August 24th, 1944. The U.S. 4th Division joins them to help clear out the Germans on the 25th. A victory parade is held with De Gaulle in the lead.

The supply services strain to the utmost to supply the Allied advance. Equipment was offloaded at the "Mulberry" harbor as well as at Cherbourg. Black troops are featured as drivers for the "Red Ball Highways," which brought supplies to the Allied front. These lines ran 700 miles. The British take the port of Antwerp largely intact on September 4th. The Germans still held the approaches to Antwerp, and the British and Canadians fight to clear the mouth of the Scheldt River so the port can be used. By the end of November, 1944, Antwerp received supply ships. Antwerp is hit with V-1 and V-2 rockets.

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.

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.