By the fall of 2004, Fallujah, Iraq had become a viper pit. Over the previous six months, the once holy city had become the center of gravity for the Iraqi insurgency. Terrorists and radicals from across the Muslim world congregated there to resist the US occupation. Many came to martyr themselves and to take as many coalition troops with them as possible.
The extra-ordinary stories of several Marines who defended Guadalcanal from seemingly overwhelming Japanese attacks are re-enacted.
Western shootouts were messy, drunken, and deadly affairs. The vision of two gunslingers meeting in the street at high noon is pure myth. Shootouts were typically up-close and personal. They involved lawmen against outlaws, outlaws against outlaws, and sometimes lawmen against lawmen.
In 1944, General Eisenhower's order was short and to the point: destroy the German army. WWII ASSAULT ON GERMANY recounts and reenacts the experiences of US soldiers who participated in one of history's greatest military campaigns. Their deeply personal stories offer a graphic view of what it was like to conquer Germany one pillbox, one troop shelter, one hilltop, and one town at a time.
For 21 days in the spring of 2003, two U.S. Army and Marine divisions raced north across the Iraqi desert from Kuwait. The planners of Operation Iraqi Freedom believe that taking Baghdad in a hurry will be like "cutting off the head of the snake" and will bring a speedy end to the war.
On February 28, 1997, a high stakes bank robbery devolved into an urban firefight that became one of the most violent shootouts in law enforcement history. With TV cameras capturing the action from above, two paramilitary-style gunmen took over a bank using terrorist technology. Donning full body armor and automatic weapons, they charged out of a Bank of America branch in North Hollywood, California. With brutal and brazen disregard, they fired armor-piercing ammo at police and citizens, turning a congested residential area into a combat zone. Police on the scene that day recount their ordeal in this gripping hour.
In the vast emptiness of the Pacific, World War Two was fought on tiny specks of land. SHOOTOUT heads right into the middle of a daring raid on the Makin Atoll and storms New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. Experience the plight of an outnumbered solo machine gunner and the single rifleman who held off hundreds of Japanese in the Philippines. Some of these battles took minutes, others took hours. Meet the men with guns in their hands, thousands of miles from home, where victory meant survival.
Hostage rescue; a store held captive by armed men; disgruntled employee.
In March of 2003, the Marine Corps sent two columns north across the Iraqi desert to help the Army seize Baghdad. Planners knew that if there was going to be trouble, it would happen on a stretch of road between two bridges in Nasiriyah. They were right. SHOOTOUT details what happened when a convoy of supply trucks took a wrong turn onto "Ambush Alley." With escape in sight, the Marines found themselves in a heated firefight with black-robed Fedayeen fighters. Over the next several hours, they tried to fight their way out, save their wounded comrades and complete their mission.
Four years after Bush sent troops to Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, Americans continue to fight and die as they pursue Osama bin Laden, battle with al-Qaeda, and destroy remnants of the old regime. Fighting a tenacious enemy across searing deserts and frigid mountain peaks requires strong weaponry and sound tactics. SHOOTOUT introduces veterans of a conflict that is now waged in the shadow of Iraq, men who have survived ambushes, firefights, and rescue missions in some of the least hospitable terrain on earth.
Veterans of the legendary D-Day battles recount their memories of the fierce fighting. Computer graphics and re-enactments show how they fought and won.
On April 6, 2004, Iraqi insurgents warned shopkeepers in Ramadi's marketplace that "Today we are going to kill Americans." BATTLECRY IRAQ: RAMADI reveals exactly how they made good on their promise, targeting members of the "Magnificent Bastards," as the Second Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment is known.
They're cold-blooded killers in pursuit of one thing--political power. For Iraq's "Most Wanted", the message is clear: surrender and you might live; resist and you will not.
The Battle of Iwo Jima is best known for the famous flag-raising photograph taken on Mt. Suribachi, but there's an untold story behind the picture. Just before the photo was snapped, there was a bloody shootout on the mountain crest. This is just one of the true stories of true grit told by the veterans of one of the Pacific's bloodiest battlefields, where 70,000 US Marines fought 21,000 entrenched Japanese over eight square miles of death. Follow along day-by-day and moment-by-moment as Corporal Tony Stein takes out an entire Japanese bunker complex with a modified aircraft machine gun, Lt. John Keith Wells leads his men against a mountain stronghold, gutsy Sergeant William Harrell loses both hands while defending his company command post, and the men of the 5th Pioneer Battalion fight off a savage, last-ditch suicide attack in the waning days of the battle.
It was Hitler's boldest move. The Axis of Evil creates an 85-mile "bulge" along the Western front that extends from the North Sea down to Switzerland. Hitler's mission is to drive a wedge between the Allied armies in the north and south, retake the seaport city of Antwerp and claim victory. The Americans not only fight the Germans but the weather -- minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. In some places, the snow is knee deep. Foxholes become frozen tombs and frostbite takes 15,000 men off the line. After six weeks of hellish combat, the battle pulverizes Hitler's forces on the Western Front and aids the Allies in winning the war.
In the summer of 2005, Muslim jihadists are spilling over the Syrian border to swell the ranks of al Qaeda in Iraq. Before setting out for Baghdad, they're stopping over at a sort of terrorist training facility at the border to arm, equip, build car bombs and IED's and learn the fine art of hostage taking. They're also oppressing and brutalizing peaceful local citizens who just want the foreign thugs to go away. Now, a task force of 1,000 U.S. Marines has come to wipe out the jihadist nerve center. The Marines are packing heavy firepower and the latest in assault technology. It's history in the making as 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines moves in to exterminate the terrorists, smash their base of operations and eradicate a key refuge for Musab al-Zarqawi?the man heading the list of Iraq's most wanted.
It was the last battle before the bombs. The final stepping stone on the warpath to Japan. Equal parts bloodbath and chess match, these are the strategies and tragedies that made Okinawa the Pacific's bloodiest battlefield, seen through the eyes of the men who lived to tell the tale. Rifleman Leonard "Laz" Lazarick and mortarman Donald Dencker relive the massive Japanese assault on Nishibaru Ridge that nearly cost them their lives, Sgt. Jack Mullikin and machine-gunner Mel Heckt take us moment-by-moment through a death-defying shootout inside a ruined shack, and Private Jack Houston recalls the terrifying moments as his company of Marines is cut down on the slopes of infamous Sugar Loaf Hill.
December 8th, 1942. With the American fleet still smoldering in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese unleash their war machine on the Philippines. Thousands of American GIs and their Filipino allies beat a fighting retreat onto the jungle-infested Bataan Peninsula with the Imperial Army in hot pursuit. Surrounded, and cut off from reinforcements, the American-led force finally surrenders, only to be subjected to the horrors of the Bataan Death March. Many of the survivors of the march are imprisoned at the Cabanatuan death camp. Fast forward. January 30th, 1945. After three hellish years, the American military makes a triumphant return to the shores of the Philippines. The elite Army Rangers are sent on a secret mission to liberate 500 Allied prisoners still languishing behind the barbed wire of Cabanatuan. Captain Bob Prince and Lt. Robert Andersen were there, and they take us shot-by-shot through one of the most daring lightning raids in history.
It's the most desperate shootout of the Vietnam War. During the early morning hours of January 31, 1968, North Vietnamese communist troops launch a surprise attack on dozens of towns and villages across South Vietnam. They hope the bold offensive will spur a nation-wide uprising in the south and push U.S. forces from Vietnam. U.S. troops beat back the assault and hundreds of the communist fighters are killed. From remote jungle crossroads to the streets of Saigon, average Americans, under attack, display incredible courage and make sacrifices to save their buddies. The impact will be felt in the consciousness of the American public itself. We use unique visual graphics and interviews with survivors to complete the story.
The Big Red One is the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division. Its history mirrors the conduct of World War II in Europe; North Africa, Italy, D-Day then on to Germany. The soldiers describe several of the unit's tougher battles; El Guettar, Troina, Omaha Beach and Falkenau.
For five years, heroic U.S. Servicemen and their allies have hunted Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists who caused the deaths of 3,000 Americans in a single day. Special Forces Captain Jason Amerine orchestrates a bombing campaign that forces the Taliban to surrender Kandahar and escape into the hills. 10th Mountain Division and 101st Airborne Division soldiers kill or capture hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Dozens more are rooted out in the birthplace of the Taliban, the Oruzgan Province in south-central Afghanistan. The on-going search for enemy combatants in the mountains of Afghanistan has brought both battlefield successes, and heartbreaking tragedies. This is the story of the gun battles from that search--harrowing, deadly shootouts.
The Battle for Fallujah was the ultimate battle zone. We take you back to expose the anatomy of the warriors and high tech weapons.
