Episode 1: Blitzkreig
This Episode: German forces push Allied forces to the coast at Dunkirk and take France. One of the most interesting parts of this section is about difference in strategy, the older generals in Hitler's circle are from the WWI era and their tactics consist of similar strategies used in WWI. Hitler detests this and feels if it did not work then why now. A persistent general, Eric Von Manstein suggests a plan that they can drive into the french lines and completely disorganize their command arrangements. This works to incredible effect and they take France in 3 days, the speed was astonishing "Blitzkreig" was insanely effective.
No one on the Allied side expected the use of technology (panzer tanks) plus the unstoppable army. The German army did not rest for 3 days and nights. The other most interesting part if how they used Pervitin (Methamphetamine) as a drug to make this all happen - to stop fatigue in combat. Pervitin made the German forces feel super-human and no longer empathetic - perfect soldiers. This was a massive boost to their moral (though a false boost). In the beginning German forces were very anxiety ridden about another war and many were afraid this would be like WWI all over again, not after taking Pervitin.
The miraculous evacuation of the troops at Dunkirk, where 1 million soldiers were stuck, was made possible for many reasons but there is four major ones:
1) Distraction and Tragedy: Calais where Churchill sends his 3 elite British regiments to Calais where they can get out large ships and they are destroyed. This buys time for the evacuation at Dunkirk.
2) Hitler's Blind Total Rule: Hitler's selfish and arrogant need for total-control often made him make devastatingly weak power moves against his own generals and in many ways cost him the war. The generals were admittedly much more experienced in the art of war but Hitler always wanted control over everything and there were times where his own greedy and insane domination actually fundamentally hurt his own cause. They had the allied soldiers cornered at Dunkirk and could have launched an absolutely devastating land attack (if he listened to his generals). Hitler, in a child-like display of his own absolute authority, decided he would "call the shots" and Goring convinced Hitler to stop right there at the line and send his Luftwaffe in to bomb and devastate the Allied forces at Dunkirk.
3) Actual Visibility In The Sky: was actually very difficult in the air attack the Germans were trying to launch because their visibility was low from dark storm clouds and fumes from targets that were hit in earlier bombing.
4) Civilian aide in rescue: Civilian boats bravely helped evacuate the young men from the beaches.
Episode 2: Battle of Britain
This Episode: Many brave young men, The Royal Air Force, incredible courage, Winston Churchill, the strength of the British people and the Spitfire plane fight to preserve freedom for Britain as the arrogant yet blindly hyper-aggressive Hitler uses his Luftwaffe to try to batter the British people into negotiation.
The life of a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot was erratic and terrifying. They sit around and then a bell rings and it is suddenly time for them to go and engage in multiple fire fights and return and sit and wait for another fight.
It is interesting how the German forces were able to develop technology to triangulate a position at night which was learned through intelligence and shot down German pilots.
Morale and opinion matter here. For the soldiers in the RAF, they were constantly celebrated as heroes in their local pubs and home. In the case of the German soldiers, they were silently hated and sneered at in pubs in France and were made to focus on combat missions relentlessly in their free time. Public opinion to fight Germany with everything they had and bomb Berlin was because of the fear that the Luftwaffe had caused in bombing.
Episode 3: Pearl Harbor
This Episode: America finally enters the war with a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japanese reasons for resenting the west was an immigration ban for Japanese people for the west. The Americans were blessed by geography, at first and Europe was always at war but 3,000 miles away across the ocean. Americans felt safe and that we should not get involved. Franklin Roosevelt to aide the British with arms and more they even began to risk ships with maneuvers to make German ships fire on Americans.
December 8th, 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt asks congress to declare war on Japan. In response, Hitler responds aggressively to the American declaration of war against Japan by declaring war against America.
Episode 4: Battle of Midway
This Episode: The Americans follow a codebreaker's hunch that AF is Midway and an attack is imminent.
The most incredible part of the Battle of Midway is how powerfully intelligence plays a part in the battle this time. Pearl Harbor was an example of a complete failure of the American readiness and even detection systems in place. There was two soldiers who spotted the planes ahead of time and it was ignored. A nice Sunday afternoon found soldiers leisurely going to events and not operating in any sort of combat capacity. This leads to a destruction of American lives and ships but does not mean the destruction of the powerful aircraft carriers that the Japanese feared.
The attack on Pearl Harbor failed to destroy air craft carriers, Midway seemed like the NEXT likely target. Americans intercepted a Japanese transmission of an attack date and location...code name "AF." "AF" was found to be "Midway" by a codebreaker and they were able to have offensive and defensive elements completely ready.
The brave American dive bombers are a critical part of the successful battle in the Pacific because they were able to dive in close and aim for the red circular paint on the Japanese decks (like actual targets) and drop bombs and pull out, all while being shot at directly. The Midway dive bombers were able to do massive damage and detonated deep inside of the ships killing nearly all sailors onboard by trapping them and burning them alive. The Japanese soldiers were force to stay at their posts and due to a crazy turn of events and mistakes on the part of the Japanese, they had ammunition out and around the ship during a change over to other weapons that further created an explosive result.
Episode 5: Seige of Stalingrad
This Episode: The Nazi's underestimated the Soviet Union.
One of the bloodiest mistakes made by the Nazi's was to attack the Soviet Union in the East and fight the war simultaneously in the West. This was partly due to the fact that they had not considered the strength and resilience of the Russian people. This is almost entirely represented in one facet of the battlefield at the Seige of Stalingrad...WOMEN. The inclusion of women soldiers in the front lines of this battlefield was a total shock to the German army and it meant that they would need to kill all of the people of the Soviet Union to destroy it and not just the men in the army. The Nazi side of this story is made up of many mistakes, the major mistake was that when the Russian army was able to completely surround the Germans, they should have punched their way out through a hole in one of the sides. Hitler ordered his soldiers to virtually fight to their dying breath and the price was enormous. They were forced to surrender.
The remaining episodes were just as interesting including the deception the allies created on D-Day (landing location actually Normandy/fake parachute mini-men and inflatable tanks), horrible war crimes at Buchenwald and concentration camps, the Dresden Firestorm bombings and the war coming to a close.