World War II: Race to Victory

An examination of the race, not only to win WWII, but also to gain power and an ideological stronghold marks the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

7:48am on 7th December 1941; the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii is attacked by 350 Japanese planes; they sink four American battleships half the US fleet; in just two hours, they also destroy 188 aircraft and kill more than 2,000 Americans...

On 13th April 1943, mass graves filled with the corpses of more than 4,000 Polish military officers are discovered by German forces; we now know that these were not the victims of Hitler's Holocaust but evidence of the Soviet-Union's brutal take-over of Poland in 1939; however, Stalin denies any involvement, claiming the Nazi's have killed the victims themselves.

Tehran, Iran; November 29, 1943; the Big Three are meeting for the first time; the three leaders seem to be in full support of one another, but they also have their own interests at heart; so, how will they work together at this conference?

More than 156,000 British, American and Canadian soldiers are transported across the English Channel in the largest seaborne invasion ever attempted; "The Big Three" come face to face for the second -- and last -- time in the seaside town of Yalta.

Newly elected President Harry Truman decides to use the atomic bomb on Japan to bring the war to an end, killing 80,000 people in the process.