This series details, week by week, the last six months of World War II, from February through August 1945.

From the race through France and the Battle of Berlin, to the climax of the Pacific War, the series paints a comprehensive step by step account of the crucial decisions and personalities that culminated in the end of World War II.

In Europe, several high ranking Nazi officials are arrested, including Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler’s most notorious and brutal henchmen. Soon after, Himmler commits suicide.

In Tokyo, the Japanese government at last accepts the inevitable and surrenders to the Allies unconditionally.

President Truman, addressing crowds from the portico of the White House, said ‘this is the day we’ve been waiting for since Pearl Harbor’. The surrender will be formally made to General MacArthur at a later ceremony on board the Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.

Emperor Hirohito makes an emotional broadcast to the Japanese nation saying that they had no choice but to surrender otherwise the country would have been destroyed by what he described as ‘a new and most cruel bomb’.

General MacArthur is appointed Supreme Allied Commander and VJ Day - Victory Over Japan - is declared a national holiday.

In London, Winston Churchill - now leader of the opposition, makes a speech in which he speaks darkly of ‘an iron curtain’ descending over Europe. He has become alarmed at the way the Soviet Union is clamping down on Europe’s eastern countries.