In episodes 11 and 12, the Allies try to turn victory in North Africa into a direct road toward Nazi Germany, only to discover that Italy will be anything but the “soft underbelly” Winston Churchill imagined. From Sicily to Salerno, Anzio, Monte Cassino and the long road to Rome, the campaign becomes a grinding test of endurance, strategy and sacrifice. What was hoped to be a swift breakthrough into the heart of Hitler’s Reich turns into months of mud, mountains, shattered towns and devastating losses, revealing the brutal cost of forcing open a new front in Europe. The story then rises into the skies, where another deadly battle is being fought above the continent. Allied bomber crews fly from England into the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, facing freezing altitude, flak, fear and the lethal power of the German Luftwaffe. As B-17s, fighter escorts and air commanders struggle to win control of the air, every mission becomes a gamble between destruction and survival. Together, these episodes show a war closing in on Germany from the ground and from the sky, where courage, technology and human endurance collide on a terrifying scale.
The story then rises into the skies, where another deadly battle is being fought above the continent. Allied bomber crews fly from England into the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, facing freezing altitude, flak, fear and the lethal power of the German Luftwaffe. As B-17s, fighter escorts and air commanders struggle to win control of the air, every mission becomes a gamble between destruction and survival. Together, these episodes show a war closing in on Germany from the ground and from the sky, where courage, technology and human endurance collide on a terrifying scale.