The Perilous Fight: America's World War II in Color
Battlefronts (1942-1944) (#102)
The second episode covers the years 1942 to 1944, from the massive buildup of the country's military and industrial capabilities to preparations for D-Day. Among the many scenes captured in color are the mobilization of women and African Americans on the industrial home front and in the military; the internment of Japanese Americans; training of African-American aviators at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute; the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto; and the boarding of troops onto landing craft bound for Normandy, scene of what was to be the largest amphibious invasion in history. [56 minutes]
This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.
Series Description: Witness World War II through rare color film, and read letters from a nation redefining itself.
All Episodes
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Infamy (1919-1942) (#101)
Explores the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II through the Nazi invasion of Poland. [56 minutes]
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Battlefronts (1942-1944) (#102)
The second episode covers the years 1942 to 1944, from the massive buildup of the country's military and industrial capabilities to preparations for D-Day. Among the many scenes captured in color are the mobilization of women and African Americans on the industrial home front and in the military; the internment of Japanese Americans; training of African-American aviators at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute; the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto; and the boarding of troops onto landing craft bound for Normandy, scene of what was to be the largest amphibious invasion in history. [56 minutes]
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Wrath (D-Day - VE Day) (#103)
Focuses on the European theater during the months between D-Day in June 1944 & V-E Day in May 1945. [56 minutes]
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Triumph (The Pacific, 1943-1945) (#104)
The series concludes by covering America's efforts to win the war in the Pacific. Among the many scenes captured in color are U.S. troops staging a dawn landing on tiny but strategically important Tarawa; the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi; the desperate fight to save the USS Franklin after the aircraft carrier is hit and set afire by armor-piercing bombs 50 miles from Japan; U.S. aircraft carriers under attack by kamikaze pilots during the battle for Okinawa; the funeral procession for President Roosevelt following his sudden death in April 1945; the devastation wrought on Hiroshima by the atomic bomb; the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri; and celebrations in the streets of New York marking the end of the war. [56 minutes]