With major European powers locked in a war of survival, America's Pacific Fleet is a major obstacle to Japan's domination of Asia and the Pacific. A fateful plan is hatched to eliminate the obstacle.
While Marines claw their way up the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, American carrier groups smash at enemy defenses in the Central Pacific. Sailors prepare the way for soldiers and Marines.
By October 1944, the Allies are poised to regain the Philippines. The landing must be destroyed if Japan is to survive. The entire remaining strength of Japan is marshaled for one final supreme effort, the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
The Achilles Heel of an island empire is its reliance on shipping to supply its industry. By 1945, Allied submarines had virtually destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet.
An enormous assault force is bearing down on the Island of Okinawa, just 300 miles south of Japan. In a final, futile effort to save Imperial Japan, Japanese pilots crash their aircraft into enemy ships. The Kamikaze accounted for one of every seven naval casualties in World War II.
While German Panzer Divisions race toward Warsaw, the powerful German Navy prepares for an even greater struggle, the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler hurls his U-boats into the Atlantic to sever the arteries that feed Britain.
In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, US industry and armed forces mobilize in an all out effort to go to war. As convoys head into the perilous open spaces of the North Atlantic, Wolfpacks lurk.
The Italian Navy is a horrible menace to the lifeline binding the British Commonwealth of nations. Out-numbered and out-gunned, the Royal Navy sweeps forth to clear the sea-lane to Malta.
German warships and raiders prowl the South Atlantic, preying on defenseless supply ships and merchantmen, but these ships do not rove the South Pacific unchallenged.
To crush Germany and therby help Russia, a second front is established in North Africa. From newly won seaports in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers, the Allies begin to buildup supplies in preparation for the conquest of all North Africa.
Hitler's U=boats have cost the Allies millions of dollars and thousands of lives. To counteract enemy submarines, a ring of strategic air bases is forged, but their remains a gap left uncovered by land based planes.