Schedule

In the winter of 1943, an allied army of nearly 300,000 men invades Italy. Mussolini has surrendered, but Hitler and his feared paratroop regiments refuse to give up. At Monte Cassino, 60 miles south of Rome, the Allied forces under the command of General Harold Alexander come face to face with the fanatic defenders of Hitler's Third Reich. Will the sixth century monastery of Monte Cassino, now home to the Germans, become a casualty of war? Over the next six months more than a hundred thousand allied troops will be killed and wounded. Aerial reconnaissance photographs taken at the time have now been layered over a 3-D contour map to create a CGI "model" of the battles. For the first time these original high-resolution images allow the viewer to track the battles from the air. Individual stories of courage and heroism can be placed in the exact location where they took place.

Holding off invasion and protecting its people, ancient civilizations came up with creative, efficient and effective means of self-protection and defense. Walk the grounds of the castle that helped create Great Britain and learn why it was such an impregnable fortress. Discover the invisible underground defensive systems of Cappadocia and how they proved so successful that it is the longest continually inhabited fortress in history. Test the ancient Mayan killer bee castle defenses, and release bees in an attack. Next, build a replica section of the ancient Roman fort of Alesia and discover whether the great general Julius Caesar could really have built 24 miles of defenses in just six weeks. Investigate the most impregnable walls in history--the multi-layered defenses of Constantinople, and discover the type of cannon that the sultan Mehmet used to finally destroy them in the great siege of 1453.

In the face of bigotry and ignorance, the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter squadron, shattered racist stereotypes. Their exploits became the stuff of legend. Watch as pilots Wendell Pruitt and Lee Archer, the Gruesome Twosome; score their highest victory in a single day over the skies of the Po river valley in Northern Italy. Then pilot Charles Mc Gee knocks down an Fw190 near Pardubice, Czechoslovakia. Finally pilot Roscoe Brown and the Tuskegee Airmen take down three Me262 jet fighters in a wild engagement just south of Berlin. First-hand accounts, rare archival footage and original shooting supplement the remarkable computer graphics.

The Allies are bogged down in Normandy's hedgerows in the aftermath of D-Day, while on Saipan, victory turns to horror.

In March of 2003, the Marine Corps plan to send two columns north across the Iraqi desert to help the Army seize Baghdad. If there's going to be trouble, it will happen when the Marines try to traverse a north/south stretch of road between two bridges in Nasiriyah. On March 23, nothing goes right. When a convoy of supply trucks takes a wrong turn, they travel north up "Ambush Alley" almost to the end before they recognize their mistake and turn around. Returning south, they've almost made it back to the Euphrates River when gunfire explodes from buildings on both sides of the road. The Marines find themselves in a heated firefight with black-robed Fedayeen fighters. Over the next several hours, they try to fight their way out, save their wounded comrades and complete their mission.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Holding off invasion and protecting its people, ancient civilizations came up with creative, efficient and effective means of self-protection and defense. Walk the grounds of the castle that helped create Great Britain and learn why it was such an impregnable fortress. Discover the invisible underground defensive systems of Cappadocia and how they proved so successful that it is the longest continually inhabited fortress in history. Test the ancient Mayan killer bee castle defenses, and release bees in an attack. Next, build a replica section of the ancient Roman fort of Alesia and discover whether the great general Julius Caesar could really have built 24 miles of defenses in just six weeks. Investigate the most impregnable walls in history--the multi-layered defenses of Constantinople, and discover the type of cannon that the sultan Mehmet used to finally destroy them in the great siege of 1453.

In the face of bigotry and ignorance, the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter squadron, shattered racist stereotypes. Their exploits became the stuff of legend. Watch as pilots Wendell Pruitt and Lee Archer, the Gruesome Twosome; score their highest victory in a single day over the skies of the Po river valley in Northern Italy. Then pilot Charles Mc Gee knocks down an Fw190 near Pardubice, Czechoslovakia. Finally pilot Roscoe Brown and the Tuskegee Airmen take down three Me262 jet fighters in a wild engagement just south of Berlin. First-hand accounts, rare archival footage and original shooting supplement the remarkable computer graphics.

The Allies are bogged down in Normandy's hedgerows in the aftermath of D-Day, while on Saipan, victory turns to horror.

In March of 2003, the Marine Corps plan to send two columns north across the Iraqi desert to help the Army seize Baghdad. If there's going to be trouble, it will happen when the Marines try to traverse a north/south stretch of road between two bridges in Nasiriyah. On March 23, nothing goes right. When a convoy of supply trucks takes a wrong turn, they travel north up "Ambush Alley" almost to the end before they recognize their mistake and turn around. Returning south, they've almost made it back to the Euphrates River when gunfire explodes from buildings on both sides of the road. The Marines find themselves in a heated firefight with black-robed Fedayeen fighters. Over the next several hours, they try to fight their way out, save their wounded comrades and complete their mission.

July 10th 1943. The Allied armies launch the first major attack against Hitler's Fortress in Europe. Over the next thirty-eight days, half a million Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen will fight a bloody battle of attrition against German and Italian troops in one of the largest combined operations of World War II. Eleven months later, the men who were baptized in blood on this Mediterranean island would be hitting the beaches of Normandy and changing the course of history. Aerial reconnaissance photographs taken at the time have now been layered over a 3 dimensional map to create a CGI "model" of the island. For the first time these original high-resolution images allow the viewer to track the battle, step by step, from the air. Individual stories of courage and heroism can be placed in the exact location where they took place.

In the winter of 1943, an allied army of nearly 300,000 men invades Italy. Mussolini has surrendered, but Hitler and his feared paratroop regiments refuse to give up. At Monte Cassino, 60 miles south of Rome, the Allied forces under the command of General Harold Alexander come face to face with the fanatic defenders of Hitler's Third Reich. Will the sixth century monastery of Monte Cassino, now home to the Germans, become a casualty of war? Over the next six months more than a hundred thousand allied troops will be killed and wounded. Aerial reconnaissance photographs taken at the time have now been layered over a 3-D contour map to create a CGI "model" of the battles. For the first time these original high-resolution images allow the viewer to track the battles from the air. Individual stories of courage and heroism can be placed in the exact location where they took place.

Holding off invasion and protecting its people, ancient civilizations came up with creative, efficient and effective means of self-protection and defense. Walk the grounds of the castle that helped create Great Britain and learn why it was such an impregnable fortress. Discover the invisible underground defensive systems of Cappadocia and how they proved so successful that it is the longest continually inhabited fortress in history. Test the ancient Mayan killer bee castle defenses, and release bees in an attack. Next, build a replica section of the ancient Roman fort of Alesia and discover whether the great general Julius Caesar could really have built 24 miles of defenses in just six weeks. Investigate the most impregnable walls in history--the multi-layered defenses of Constantinople, and discover the type of cannon that the sultan Mehmet used to finally destroy them in the great siege of 1453.

In the face of bigotry and ignorance, the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-black fighter squadron, shattered racist stereotypes. Their exploits became the stuff of legend. Watch as pilots Wendell Pruitt and Lee Archer, the Gruesome Twosome; score their highest victory in a single day over the skies of the Po river valley in Northern Italy. Then pilot Charles Mc Gee knocks down an Fw190 near Pardubice, Czechoslovakia. Finally pilot Roscoe Brown and the Tuskegee Airmen take down three Me262 jet fighters in a wild engagement just south of Berlin. First-hand accounts, rare archival footage and original shooting supplement the remarkable computer graphics.

The Allies are bogged down in Normandy's hedgerows in the aftermath of D-Day, while on Saipan, victory turns to horror.

In March of 2003, the Marine Corps plan to send two columns north across the Iraqi desert to help the Army seize Baghdad. If there's going to be trouble, it will happen when the Marines try to traverse a north/south stretch of road between two bridges in Nasiriyah. On March 23, nothing goes right. When a convoy of supply trucks takes a wrong turn, they travel north up "Ambush Alley" almost to the end before they recognize their mistake and turn around. Returning south, they've almost made it back to the Euphrates River when gunfire explodes from buildings on both sides of the road. The Marines find themselves in a heated firefight with black-robed Fedayeen fighters. Over the next several hours, they try to fight their way out, save their wounded comrades and complete their mission.

By spring of 1942, Japan controlled the western Pacific, the Philippines, and large parts of Indochina. America and her allies knew that final victory could only be achieved by unconditional surrender and that would involve occupation of the Japanese homeland. This is the story Operation Downfall, the plan to invade and occupy Japan that would dwarf the D-Day landings in Europe. According to the plan, on X-Day--November 1, `45--General MacArthur would lead an invasion force onto the beaches of Kyushu, the southern most of the Japanese Islands. Y-Day would follow six months later when the largest beach landing in military history would take Tokyo. Politicians and military strategists knew that Japanese resistance would be ferocious. Plans for the invasion continued throughout `45 until President Truman made the decision to drop the atom bomb. We trace the invasion plans from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and analyze why Truman chose the bomb over Operation Downfall.

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, this two-hour HISTORY special will strip away the romanticized veneer of the Civil War and present the engagement in a new light: a visceral, terrifying experience with everything on the line. At its core, this is the story of the soldiers on the ground, not the generals who commanded from behind the frontlines. Compelling CGI and powerful action footage place viewers in the midst of the fighting, delivering both an emotional cinematic experience and an information packed look at the turning points, technology, and little known facts of perhaps America's greatest battle.

Based on Jay Winik's bestseller "April 1865: The Month That Saved America," our 2-hour documentary special offers a new look at the Civil War's final days that will forever change the way we see the war's end and the nation's new beginning. These 30 most pivotal days in the life of the United States witnessed the frenzied fall of Richmond, Lee's harrowing retreat, Appomattox, and Lincoln's assassination five days later. It's not only the tale of the war's denouement, but the story of the rebirth of our nation.