Both political and military expediency were factors in the return of the French capital to its people.
Fresh from victory in North Africa, the Allies successfully invade the island of Sicily, staging an eventual Italian withdrawal from the war.
American bombers target a Romanian oil refinery in a daring 1943 mission.
Examining the battle at the Kwajelein Atoll in the South Pacific during 1944. Included: operations by the Seabees.
German forces retreat across the Rhine on the Remagen bridge near the close of the war.
Erwin Rommel battles Allied forces in North Africa in 1942.
Allied armies encounter German resistance in the Italian fishing town of Anzio.
The Allies launch an ill-fated attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France.
The Allies launch an attack designed to push the Germans back to the Rhine River.
Examining the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941.
German forces encounter Russian resistance.
Kamikaze pilots guard the island of Okinawa from American forces.
German field marshal Erwin Rommel scores a major victory at the Libyan seaport of Tobruk.
German tanks roll into Poland in September 1939.
U-boats posed the deadliest threat to Allied convoys traveling the Atlantic.
The development of the B-17 bomber, which allowed American planes to reach inside Germany and bomb its cities.
In 1945, Soviet and American troops press Hitler's armies from the west and the east, culminating in the fall of Berlin.
The Battle of the Gothic Line in 1944.
Heavily armed vessels disguised as ordinary cargo ships patrolled allied waters, sinking supply boats and stealing their content.
After British forces withdrew in defeat from Greece to the island of Crete in early 1941, they were soon fighting German invasion armies again. This time, 5,000 of Hitler's elite paratroopers landed to complete their conquest in the Mediterranean.
American forces landing on the shores of Iwo Jima encounter Japanese combatants willing to fight to the death.
American B-29 high-altitude bomber attacks Japan near the end of World War II.
The December 1944 battle pitting American forces against German Panzer divisions in the Ardennes Forest.
The Allies break into France and push the Germans back to their own border.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur's return to the Philippines, and the final push to retake the islands after two years of Japanese occupation.