When World War II ended in Europe, American soldiers feverishly began calculating how soon they might go home based on a newly instituted point system.

Manning 155mm howitzers, African American gunners sacrificed themselves to defend fleeing infantry. Eleven of them were murdered by the Waffen SS, and then forgotten by the US Army.

Operation Dragoon was the successful Allied invasion of southern France that also highlighted the intense Allied disagreements over strategy.

Herbert Heilbrun describes the Christmas 1944 mission he took part in to bomb the oil refineries at Brux, Czechoslovakia and how well defended the area was.

Charles McGee discusses flying bomber escort for 15th Air Force heavy bombardment groups and downing a German Focke Wulf Fw 190 during one of those missions.

The 784th Tank Battalion's motto was "It Will Be Done." This African American unit imposed its will on the enemy in combat in 1945.

The 100th Infantry Battalion, comprised largely of second generation Nisei, bravely fought in Europe and became one of America's most highly decorated units of World War II.

The African American 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion's aggressive assault across Germany's Siegfried Line in 1945 earned the respect and camaraderie of white GIs in the front lines.

The United States was not the only leading power on the world stage after the end of World War II; it had a new competitor for this power in the Soviet Union. Tensions between the former allies quickly grew, leading to a new kind of conflict—one heightened with the threat of atomic weapons—that came to dominate global politics for the remainder of the twentieth century.

From January 1943 to June 1945, writer Kurt Vonnegut served in the US Army. His experiences with the 106th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge and then later as a prisoner of war in Dresden imprinted his life and provided traumatic (and sometimes comedic) material for his novel Slaughterhouse-Five and other works.