Nazi plunder, last-chance secret weapons, the race for the A-bomb and Hitler's mysterious death are part of the frenetic activity leading up to V-E Day. This special three-hour documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the allied victory.

One of the most heroic ships of World War II, CV-8 served as the flight deck for the Doolittle Tokyo raid, and its predecessor ship, the CV-12, endured 16 months of non-stop combat action, coming within 40 miles of Japan, and setting incredible wartime records. Some of those feats included: 10 of its pilots reached "Ace in One Day" status, over 1,400 enemy planes destroyed, and a considerable amount of its Hellcat pilots became aces.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a move of unprecedented aggression that shook the U.S. out of its peaceful slumber and into WWII. But for 60 years, veterans of the destroyer USS Ward claimed they sank an enemy submarine outside the harbor.

During WWII's final stages, the U.S. established what it believed was safe anchorage in a Western Pacific lagoon called Ulithi Atoll. But on the morning of November 20, 1944, an explosive attack was launched by one of Japan's new secret weapons.

Only a few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Navy experienced a failure of critical technology--the torpedoes that armed its fleet of submarines were defective. The ensuing debacle ranks as one of the great near disasters of WWII.

Green Beret Terry Schappert reveals the origin of his own American warrior culture, the U.S. Special Forces: The Alamo Scouts, an elite reconnaissance unit that operated behind enemy lines during World War II. Terry not only tests weapons like the Thompson submachine gun and M1 Garand, he demonstrates their guerilla tactics. These unconventional fighting skills led to a daring POW rescue that made the Alamo Scouts legendary.