The first B-29s over Tokyo were pathfinders. Coming in over the target from opposite directions, the pathfinders dropped their payload, which immediately burst into flames. The pathfinder's job now done, they retreated from the area, the target now brightly illuminated in the shape of an enormous fiery “X”.

The fire seemed to become a living entity, changing course at will, consuming everything in its path, and generating a heat that melted glass and cutlery and turned bricks to ash. For over four hours, Hamburg burned. 

The Allied capture of Rome in June 1944 marked the fall of the first Axis capital but was ultimately overshadowed by the D-Day landings in Normandy.

In the opening strokes of the Battle of the Bulge, platoon leader Vernon McGarity distinguished himself in combat, inspired his men, and saved lives while delaying the onslaught of German forces.

Mexican American US Army medic Corporal Anthony Acevedo suffered unimaginable horrors as a POW of the Germans. He survived Stalag IXB and then the Berga slave labor camp as well as the trauma and stigma of having been a prisoner of war.