Schedule

Marksmen face a supreme long-range test, the iconic 1000 yard shot. They will use the biggest gun ever used in Top Shot competition -- a Barrett 82A1 .50. Teams dissolve and it is every marksmen for himself.

September 17th 1944. 20,000 elite troops descend from the skies into Nazi occupied Holland in a massive airborne assault. In this dramatic race against time, an armored relief force has to fight through sixty miles of enemy defenses.

On November 15, 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta died while fighting to secure a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq. Peralta and fellow Marines were ambushed by guerillas who then lobbed a grenade at them.

In the annals of the Civil War, the great battles dominate. Names like Gettysburg, Chancellorsville or Antietam are famous by sheer weight of blood and horror.

On November 15, 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta died while fighting to secure a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq. Peralta and fellow Marines were ambushed by guerillas who then lobbed a grenade at them.

In the annals of the Civil War, the great battles dominate. Names like Gettysburg, Chancellorsville or Antietam are famous by sheer weight of blood and horror.

Marksmen face a supreme long-range test, the iconic 1000 yard shot. They will use the biggest gun ever used in Top Shot competition -- a Barrett 82A1 .50. Teams dissolve and it is every marksmen for himself.

September 17th 1944. 20,000 elite troops descend from the skies into Nazi occupied Holland in a massive airborne assault. In this dramatic race against time, an armored relief force has to fight through sixty miles of enemy defenses.

On November 15, 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta died while fighting to secure a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq. Peralta and fellow Marines were ambushed by guerillas who then lobbed a grenade at them.

In the annals of the Civil War, the great battles dominate. Names like Gettysburg, Chancellorsville or Antietam are famous by sheer weight of blood and horror.

Against a morning sky, a mushroom cloud spirals heavenward. A nuclear bomb has detonated in the heart of Washington D.C., incinerating 15,000 residents in just 15 seconds.

August 2nd 1944. The Allies have broken out of Normandy and are preparing to sweep into Central France. The US Army and their British Allies set a trap for the Germans. Seventy miles away in Paris, the French resistance eagerly watch the allies advance.

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.

An oral history of the shocking abuse inflicted on U.S. and Filipino P.O.W.s as their Japanese captors marched them day and night, without food or medicine, for over 50 miles. Many died en route to the camp, but many more were shot, bayoneted, or beheaded by prison gaurds. We follow one survivor as he returns to Bataan for the first time.

This countdown special reveals the weapons, inventions and vehicles that shaped and decided World War II, from the humble Studebaker to the shock and awe of the A-Bomb. With a countdown format and an outstanding cast of experts, we'll provide an explosive and definitive understanding of the greatest conflict of all time seen through the incredible hardware that tipped the balance and changed the world.