Despite the bravery of African Americans in all of America’s previous wars, despite the argument made by the NAACP and others that “a Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world,” the armed forces of the United States remained strictly segregated.

While the British continued to bomb German cities at night, the Americans decided to take on the much more dangerous task of bombing defense industries by day.

Serving on the front lines at Anzio beach, Babe Ciarlo never revealed his experiences in his letters home.

On October 20, 1943, Babe Ciarlo writes home.

Bill Lansford and Pete Arias talk about being part of "Carlson's Raiders"

General George S. Patton uses new tactics in North Africa.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day in the European Theater, a million and a half Allied troops embark on one of the greatest invasions in history: the invasion of France.

Joseph Vaghi and Walter Ehlers manage to survive the disastrous landing on Omaha Beach where German resistance nearly decimates the American forces.

Young soldier Daniel Inouye comes face-to-face with the enemy.

Glenn Frazier survived the Bataan Death March, but had he known what was ahead of him at the time he would have "taken death."

When General Douglas MacArthur left Corregidor and went to Australia, Glenn Frazier knew it was "doomsday for Bataan."

In the September 20, 1943 issue of LIFE magazine published the first image of dead American servicemen that American civilians had been allowed to see in the twenty-one months since Pearl Harbor.

Marines Pete Arias and Bill Lansford land on Iwo Jima.

In his diary, James Fahey noted how his mates celebrated the Fourth of July.

After two months of sporadic fighting, the battle for North Africa suddenly intensified.

Daniel Inouye was preparing to go to church with his family when the attack on Pearl Harbor began.

The battle for Peleliu is one of the most brutal and unnecessary campaigns in the Pacific.

Marine Eugene Sledge before the invasion of Peleliu. From episode five.

Fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson recalls the first time he knew he'd "killed men."

A few days after her 10th birthday, Sascha Weinzheimer and her family moved into the Santo Tomas Camp on the Philippines.