Join THE HISTORY CHANNEL for Shootout! as we continue to examine famous shootouts in history - from the perspectives of both sides of the fight. Meet the men and women with guns in their hands, thousands of miles from home, where the winners are the only ones left alive.

IWO JIMA
The Battle of Iwo Jima is best known for the famous flag-raising photograph taken on Mt. Suribachi, but there's an untold story behind the picture. Just before the photo was snapped, there was a bloody shootout on the mountain crest. This is just one of the stories of true grit told by the veterans of one of the Pacific's bloodiest battlefields, where 70,000 Marines fought 21,000 entrenched Japanese over eight square miles of death. Follow along day-by-day and moment-by-moment as Corporal Tony Stein takes out an entire Japanese bunker complex with a modified aircraft machine gun, Lt. John Keith Wells leads his men against a mountain stronghold, gutsy Sergeant William Harrell loses both hands while defending his company command post, and the men of the 5th Pioneer Battalion fight off a savage, last-ditch suicide attack in the waning days of the battle.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE
It was Hitler's boldest move. The Axis of Evil creates an 85-mile "bulge" along the Western front that extends from the North Sea down to Switzerland. Hitler's mission is to drive a wedge between the Allied armies in the north and south, retake the seaport city of Antwerp and claim victory. The Americans not only fight the Germans but the weather--minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. In some places, the snow is knee deep. Foxholes become frozen tombs and frostbite takes 15,000 men off the line. After six weeks of hellish combat, the battle pulverizes Hitler's forces on the Western Front and aids the Allies in winning the war.

IRAQ'S MOST WANTED: TERROR AT THE BORDER

In the summer of 2005, Muslim jihadists are spilling over the Syrian border to swell the ranks of al Qaeda in Iraq. Before setting out for Baghdad, they're stopping at a terrorist training facility to arm, equip, build car bombs and IED's and learn the fine art of hostage taking. They're also oppressing and brutalizing peaceful local citizens. Now, a task force of 1,000 U.S. Marines has come to wipe out the jihadist nerve center. It's history in the making as 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines move in to exterminate the terrorists and smash their base of operations. Unique visual graphics and untold stories by the men who were there make this a compelling hour.

OKINAWA: THE LAST BATTLE OF WWII

It was the last battle before the bombs--the final stepping stone on the warpath to Japan. Equal parts bloodbath and chess match, these are the strategies and tragedies that made Okinawa the Pacific's bloodiest battlefield. Rifleman Leonard "Laz" Lazarick and mortarman Donald Dencker relive the massive Japanese assault on Nishibaru Ridge that nearly cost them their lives. Sgt. Jack Mullikin and machine-gunner Mel Heckt take us moment-by-moment through a death-defying shootout inside a ruined shack, and Private Jack Houston recalls the terrifying moments as his company of Marines is cut down on the slopes of infamous Sugar Loaf Hill. We will examine the strategy, leadership, and firepower of this battle using unique visual graphics and eyewitness testimony.

RAID ON BATAAN DEATH CAMP

With the American fleet still smoldering in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack the Philippines. Thousands of American GIs and their Filipino allies are surrounded on the Bataan Peninsula. The American-led force finally surrenders, only to be subjected to the horrors of the Bataan Death March. Three years later the American military return to the shores of the Philippines on a secret mission to liberate 500 Allied prisoners still languishing behind the barbed wire of the Cabanatua death camp. Captain Bob Prince and Lt. Robert Andersen were there, and they take us shot-by-shot through one of the most daring lightning raids in history.

TET OFFENSIVE
It's the most desperate shootout of the Vietnam War. During the early morning hours of January 31, 1968, North Vietnamese communist troops launch a surprise attack on dozens of towns and villages across South Vietnam. They hope the bold offensive will spur a nation-wide uprising in the south and push U.S. forces from Vietnam. U.S. troops beat back the assault and hundreds of the communist fighters are killed. From remote jungle crossroads to the streets of Saigon, average Americans, under attack, display incredible courage and make sacrifices to save their buddies. The impact will be felt in the consciousness of the American public itself. We use unique visual graphics and interviews with survivors to complete the story.

THE BIG RED ONE
The First Infantry Division, a.k.a. Big Red One, is the oldest and best division in the U.S. Army. These warriors fought more campaigns than any other U.S. division in World War Two. Elements of the division experienced action during the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War and fired the first American shots in World War I. Decorated veterans of World War II will take the viewer back to the tense battlefields of El Guettar, North Africa, Troina, Sicily, Normandy (Omaha beach) France and their final shootout at the Falkenau concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.

AFGHANISTAN'S DEADLIEST SNIPERS For five years, heroic U.S. Servicemen and their allies have hunted Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists who caused the deaths of 3,000 Americans in a single day. Special Forces Captain Jason Amerine orchestrates a bombing campaign that forces the Taliban to surrender Kandahar and escape into the hills. 10th Mountain Division and 101st Airborne Division soldiers kill or capture hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Dozens more are rooted out in the birthplace of the Taliban, the Oruzgan Province in south-central Afghanistan. The on-going search for enemy combatants in the mountains of Afghanistan has brought both battlefield successes, and heartbreaking tragedies. This is the story of the gun battles from that search--harrowing, deadly shootouts.