Episode descriptions and air dates

Episode One
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7.
“A Necessary War”
December 1941-December 1942
After an overview of World War II, inhabitants of Mobile, Ala., Sacramento, Calif., Waterbury, Conn. and Luverne, Minn. recall how their tranquil lives are shattered by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America is thrust into the great cataclysm. Along with millions of other young men, Sid Phillips and Willie Rushton of Mobile, Ray Leopold of Waterbury, and Walter Thompson and Burnett Miller of Sacramento enter the armed forces.

Episode Two
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14.
“When Things Get Tough”
January 1943-December 1943
By January 1943, Americans have been at war for more than a year. The Germans still occupy most of Western Europe and the Allies can't agree on a plan or timetable to dislodge them. American troops, including Charles Mann of Luverne, are now ashore in North Africa. At Kasserine Pass, Erwin Rommel's seasoned veterans quickly overwhelm the poorly led and ill-equipped Americans, but after George Patton assumes command, the Americans begin to beat back the Germans. In the process, thousands of soldiers learn to adopt the outlook that "killing is a craft," as reporter Ernie Pyle explains to readers back home.

Episode Three
10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21. (Note starting time is 10 p.m.)
“A Deadly Calling”
November 1943-June 1944
Despite American victories in the Solomons and New Guinea, the Japanese empire still stretches 4,000 miles. In November 1943, on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the Marines set out to prove that any island can be taken by all-out frontal assault. Back home, the public is devastated by color newsreel footage of the furious battle and grows more determined to do what's necessary to hasten the end of the war.

Episode Four
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28.
“Pride of Our Nation”
June 1944-August 1944
By June 1944, there are signs on both sides of the world that the tide of the war is turning. On D-Day June 6, a million and a half Allied troops embark on the invasion of France. Dwain Luce of Mobile drops behind enemy lines in a glider. Quentin Aanenson of Luverne flies his first combat mission over the Normandy Coast and Joseph Vaghi of Waterbury survives the disastrous landing on Omaha Beach.

Episode Five
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4.
“FUBAR”
September 1944-December 1944
By September 1944, the Allies seem to be moving steadily toward victory in Europe. "Militarily," Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's chief of staff tells the press, "this war is over." But in the coming months, on both sides of the world, a generation of young men will learn a lesson as old as war itself - generals make plans, plans go wrong and soldiers die.

Episode Six
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11.
“The Ghost Front”
December 1944-March 1945
By December 1944, Americans have become weary of the war their young men have been fighting for three long years; the stream of newspaper headlines telling of new losses and telegrams bearing bad news from the War Department seem endless and unendurable.

Episode Seven
9:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18.
“A World Without War”
March 1945-December 1945
In spring 1945, although the numbers of dead and wounded have more than doubled since D-Day, the people of Mobile, Ala., Sacramento, Calif., Waterbury, Conn. and Luverne, Minn. understand there will be more bad news from the battlefield before the war can end. That March, when Americans go to the movies, President Franklin Roosevelt warns them in a newsreel that although the Nazis are on the verge of collapse, the final battle with Japan could stretch on for years.