The Last Days Of WWII

One of the bloodiest battles of the war begins at Iwo Jima; in the Philippines, U.S. forces completely surround the center of Manila as the tempo of the Japanese atrocities increases.

On the Eastern Front, Allied leaders - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin - meet at Yalta to begin dividing up post-war Europe.

U.S. General Bradley's Operation Lumberjack is in full swing; Patton's lead armored division takes 5,000 German prisoners; in the Pacific, U.S. firestorms torch Japan's capital city.

American bombers continue their assault on mainland Japan; in Europe, the Allies are closing in; Hitler leaves the Reich Chancellery for the last time.

German-occupied territories are collapsing under the Red Army in the race toward Berlin; in occupied Denmark, Mosquito fighter-bombers from the RAF's Number 140 Wing head for the Danish Gestapo headquarters.

Allied troops continue Operation Plunder, their thrust across the Rhine into Germany's heartland; as U.S. Marines close in around them, 200 Japanese soldiers make a last desperate charge.

The Russians take Berlin; the initial stage of one of the most devastating assaults in history begins with Operation Iceberg, the Battle for Okinawa.

FDR's sudden death stuns the world; a Nazi treasure trove is uncovered; the penetration of the Gothic Line begins; the Army's 96th Division launches an attack on Mount Shuri on Okinawa.

The Red Army's assault on Berlin begins; Hitler, sealed away in his bunker, marks his 56th birthday; the Soviet Government and Poland's pro-communist provisional government conclude a treaty of mutual assistance.

Hitler is forced to face the demise of the Third Reich; SS soldiers force 7,000 concentration camp prisoners on a death march; in the Pacific, American forces inch closer to penetrating the Shuri region.

Berlin falls; Hitler commits suicide; the Dachau concentration camp is liberated; on Okinawa, the Japanese launch a massive counterattack against U.S. forces.

After nearly six years of conflict and the deaths of millions, Germany surrenders unconditionally; heavy fighting continues on Okinawa and in the Philippines - a matter of honor for the Japanese.

In Europe, the Nazi threat is all but gone and talk of restructuring begins; in the Pacific, the situation in Okinawa has turned into a bloody stalemate between the Americans and Japanese.

Americans suffer terrible losses on Okinawa as they continue their advance; in the Philippines, Japanese troops desperately try to hold the Wawa Dam; in Europe, several high-ranking Nazi officials are arrested.

The Japanese begin their retreat at Okinawa; enemy forces in Borneo send Australian and British soldiers on a death march; British troops oversee the transfer of thousands of Nazi sympathizers from Russia to Yugoslavia.

King Haakon of Norway makes a triumphant return to his country after five years of exile; the U.S., the U.K., the Soviet Union, and France meet to discuss the division of Germany into four main occupation zones.

The Japanese hole up in the Sierra Madre Mountains; Eisenhower is awarded the Order of Merit, Britain's most prestigious honor; Soviet authorities start the forcible expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Sudetanland.

Japanese commander Lt. General Mitsuru Ushijima commits ritual suicide in front of his staff officers; victory at Okinawa places U.S. forces just 400 miles from mainland Japan.

British bombers destroy the bridge over the River Kwai; a Chinese envoy is the first of 50 delegates to sign the charter of the newly-formed United Nations; President Truman approves a plan to invade mainland Japan.

33,000 Australian troops land at Balikpapan; the first U.S. occupation troops arrive in Berlin; in Manila, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur declares the Philippines free from Japanese occupation.

In Indochina, Chinese forces cut the last link between the Japanese army and its garrison; General Eisenhower issues a farewell message to all Allied troops in Europe.

In Berlin, the Municipal Council begins confiscating the property of former Nazi party members; in London, the West End turns on the lights again; the U.S. tests the first atomic bomb in New Mexico.

In Burma, Japanese troops attempt to break east towards the Sittang River; an Allied naval re-supply operation begins in the Pacific; President Truman announces that the atom bomb will be used against the Japanese.

A Japanese submarine sinks the U.S. heavy cruiser Indianapolis in the Philippines; Stalin agrees that the Soviet Union will join in the war against Japan.

The world's first atom bombs are dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the Soviet government declares war on Japan for its refusal to respond to demands to surrender.