8pm WWII MEGA WEAPONS - History
THE TUNNELS OF OKINAWA - The tide of war in the Pacific has now fully turned against the Imperial Japanese forces. In a fierce and brutal island hopping campaign, the Americans are winning battle after battle, rapidly gaining ground in their ultimate goal of invading mainland Japan. However, the Japanese decide that the island of Okinawa will be their last bastion of defense. It is a key strategic location for the Americans, but as Japanese territory, the Japanese will defend it at all costs.
9pm WORLD WAR II: THE PRICE OF EMPIRE - The history of the second world war.
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER - Late in 1944 the leaders are meeting again, this time at Yalta and this time to discuss reconstruction after the victory that now seems inevitable. A firestorm is unleashed on Tokyo and carpet bombing destroys Dresden, Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge are desperate last attempts to hold back the tide but it is irresistible. As Russian troops enter Berlin, Hitler commits suicide and the Third Reich accepts unconditional surrender. The War in the West ends with VE Day.
10pm DOOLITTLE'S RAIDERS: A FINAL TOAST - History
The bottle of 1896 Hennessy Cognac was uncorked in front of hundreds of people. The surviving World War II veterans from one of history's greatest military missions were about to raise their silver goblets one last time ending a decades long tradition. It was time for the veterans to hold this final toast. They could wait no longer. Their numbers had dwindled to just a few.
Many of the names of the 80 flyers who took part in the April 18, 1942 raid on Japan may not be familiar to most, but collectively they will always be known in history as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.
Long ago these American flyers, aboard 16 B-25 bombers, had accomplished a daring mission that changed the morale of an entire nation. The aviators, led by famed commander Lt. Col. James Harold Doolittle, had taken the fight directly to the enemy for the first time in World War II and delivered payback for Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
