May 1945. After days of violent fighting, Soviet troops enter into a devastated Berlin. But how did it come to this? 1939. The German and Soviet invasion of Poland crushes the last hopes for a peaceful resolution of political tensions. Great Britain and France have no choice but to declare war on Hitler. Meanwhile, Hitler makes a bold, fearsome plan for the invasion of France.

The German offensive rages across Europe while Mussolini’s facist Italy joins the war along side their German allies. Holland falls, then Belgium; the French troops resist as best they can, but they’re caught off guard by the Wehrmacht’s new Blitzkrieg techniques. Abandoned by its leaders, Paris surrenders without a fight. Panic ensues across France – and as the Japanese launch a sneak attack on the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, war spans the globe.

As America joins the war and begins to re-arm, Hitler attacks the USSR to complete his domination of Europe before the U.S. can intervene. Passing through the Baltic States and the Ukraine, where the Germans are initially received as liberators, the Wehrmacht carries out a real war of extermination against the “Judaeo-Bolsheviks.”

Despite their determined resistance, the Allied forces are unable to slow the furious progress of the Japanese army through South-East Asia. Even India and Australia are at risk. The Japanese defeat at Midway in 1942, followed by the American landing at Guadacanal, are the first signs of hope, but also the beginning of long and bloody battles in the “green hell” of the jungle.

The Russians continue to resist at Stalingrad, and the Eastern Front is stalled. In the North Atlantic, the Allies make progress in reducing the threat from German U-boats. Meanwhile, at El-Alamein, in the Egyptian desert, the forces of the British Empire halts the menacing advance of Rommel’s troops toward the Suez Canal. The noose tightens around Axis forces in Europe, but more than ever, Hitler remains determined to fight to the bitter end.

In 1944, the Allies land in Italy, but their advance is blocked by the Wehrmacht. Meanwhile, the Red Army, continuing its inexorable advance to the west, finally reaches Berlin. In the Pacific, as kamikaze pilots pour down on the U.S. fleet, the Japanese army engages in an increasingly fanatic battle to the last man. In order to bring the Empire of the Rising Sun to its knees, the U.S. unleashes the atomic bomb.