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Victory in Europe seems imminent, but Holland, the Vosges Mountains, and the Hurtgen Forest, GIs learn painful lessons as old as war itself - that generals make plans, plans go wrong and soldiers die. Meanwhile, on the island of Peleliu, the Marines fight one of the most brutal and unnecessary battles of the Pacific.

Americans are shocked by Hitler's massive counterattack in the Ardennes Forest - but by mid March, 1945, they are across the Rhine, while Russians are 50 miles from Berlin. In the Pacific, after weeks of desperate fighting, Iwo Jima is secured, and American bombers begin a full-fledged air assault of Japan.

A few weeks after the death of President Roosevelt shocks the country, Germany surrenders. Meanwhile, American sailors, soldiers and Marines endure the worst battle of the Pacific - Okinawa. In August, American planes drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese, too, surrender. Millions return home - to try to learn how to live in a world without war.

The Second World War brought out the best and the worst in a generation. From 1939 to 1945, between 50 and 60 million people died, most of them civilians, and more than 405,000 Americans in uniform lost their lives. The opening of The War by Ken Burns sets out the scale of the conflict and introduces the four American towns at its heart.

For The War, Wynton Marsalis composed original music built on a central theme evocative of America, rooted in the country's early sounds but adaptable to the swing of the 1940s. At a recording session, the filmmakers explain how his suite varies that theme to capture the character of Mobile, Sacramento, Waterbury and Luverne.

Born on the Crow reservation in Montana in 1913, Joseph Medicine Crow was raised by his elders in the warrior tradition of his grandfather, a great war chief. Serving with the 103rd Infantry Division in Europe, he led a war party, touched an enemy and took his weapon, and captured German horses, unknowingly completing the four deeds required of a Crow war chief.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick set out to honor veterans by letting them bear witness to their own stories in the most direct and unsentimental way. Here, they and their editors show how a daunting volume of material was organized, cut and cut again, until what once ran longer became The War's 14 and a half hours.