NARRATOR: World War
II strikes America. The country fights
back like never before. America becomes the most
powerful war machine the world has ever seen. By entering the war,
the United States transformed itself into a
superpower in only four years. [music playing] We are pioneers
and trailblazers. We fight for freedom. We transform our
dreams into the truth. Our struggles will
become a nation. America prepares for battle. The 1930s meant
poverty, no future. But with war comes
purpose and determination. American industry
goes into overdrive. It will go to war with the
economic and military powers of the Axis-- Germany, Italy, and Japan. Now every weapon,
ration, medical supply is mass produced on
a scale never seen before in human history. BRIAN WILLIAMS: Sometimes it
takes a terrific challenge and a horrific threat to
the republic to discover how good you can be. NARRATOR: But the
road to greatness begins with treachery. December 7, 1941, 200 miles
north of Hawaii, a pack of cutting-edge killing
machines are on a mission to destroy the American
fleet at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Zero was a
better fighter than anything the Americans had
produced at that time. NARRATOR: The Japanese Zero. It can fly 2,000 miles
without refueling, perfect for a surprise attack. When Pearl Harbor
was attacked, it was one of the most stunning
moments in American history. NARRATOR: Now 183 Japanese
bombers and fighters are heading straight for Hawaii. Another 170 follow right behind. Japan has built an empire
across Korea, Manchuria, and Hong Kong. It wants the whole
Pacific Ocean. But the US fleet in Pearl
Harbor stands in its way. Opana mobile radar station, 30
miles north of Pearl Harbor. Radar operator Joe Lockard
makes first contact. JOE LOCKARD: What's this? NARRATOR: Two blips are
showing something out to sea. Radar is still experimental
technology in 1941. Its importance is
about to be realized. If I could reach out and touch
you from greater distances, I had a tactical
strategic advantage. NARRATOR: Radar will
evolve into a system essential to the modern world,
tracking 10 million flights around America and five billion
passengers around the world every year. Definitely incoming. NARRATOR: So far, America has
kept out of the Second World War. We had almost a whole fleet
in one little harbor, one little area. We were sitting ducks. But then again, we
trusted in the Japanese. At the same time, we were
having peace talks with them. They even gave us a peace medal. NARRATOR: America is about
to receive the biggest wake-up call it's ever known. Operator. NARRATOR: Private Joseph
McDonald of the 580th Aircraft Warning Division. PRIVATE JOSEPH MCDONALD:
Yeah this is Opana. It looks like there are a large
number of planes coming in from the north,
three points east. I think everyone's
gone off shift. Hold on. NARRATOR: It's early
Sunday morning. Japan is over 4,000
miles from Hawaii. Pearl Harbor is not
expecting to be attacked. The surprise attack, once
the specialty of American rifleman in the War
of Independence, the tactic that
made America free is now being used against it. We still got planes coming in. It looks like an
awful big flight. Uh, OK. NARRATOR: Lieutenant
Kermit Tyler. He knows there was a flight of
American B-17s due in today. He assumes that's
what's on the screen. PRIVATE JOSEPH
MCDONALD: Oh, my god. Look, don't worry about it What do you think it is, sir? Nothing. NARRATOR: Though radar
is invented and used by the British as early as
1935, this SCR-270 mobile radar system was developed
by the US Army, but radar is still considered
a gadget by the military. There are only five
radar trucks to cover the whole of the
Hawaiian Islands, and they're only manned
three hours a day. 20 miles. NARRATOR: Radar has
another weak point. It can't see through
Hawaii's mountains. The low-flying Japanese squadron
vanishes from the screen. Shift over, there's nothing
more the men can do. McDonald types of his report. Hey, Bob. Take a look at this, will you? NARRATOR: Today America pays
the price for neglecting radar. When did this come in? NARRATOR: At 7:50 AM, the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. [explosion] Fire! Most of the
Marines and sailors were still in their rack. They were still asleep. They had no idea that
this was going to happen. But we all know that it did. NARRATOR: The Japanese
have prepared this attack for a year. They have rehearsed bombing a
model of Pearl Harbor in Japan until they reached
an 80% hit rate. All eight battleships
are put out of action. 1,178 Americans are
wounded, 2,403 are killed. [music playing] Private McDonald's
report was finally read, but by then it was too late. A day that will
live in infamy. We were completely unprepared
for that emotionally, and it turned the country
on a dime overnight. Anti-war people
were down signing up to join the Navy, the Army, the
Marines, whatever was required. NARRATOR: 27 hours
after the attack, America declares war on Japan. Three days later, the US
is at war with Germany. MICHAEL DOUGLAS: It unleashed
the wrath of America, and I think it gave us
an energy that carried us through the rest of the war. JAMES MEIGS: Once provoked, that
massive tiger of engineering was awakened. We had factories that
were sitting underutilized in Detroit and around the
country because of the Great Depression. We were ready to go
on a building spree. NARRATOR: The sleeping
giant awakens. America transforms into
an arsenal of democracy. The nation sets to work. Before the war, there were
three million unemployed. Now America's huge
potential is being realized. DAVID M. KENNEDY:
There was no country that had a deeper economic base
and an enormous pool of not just labor, but of scientists
and engineers, technologists. NARRATOR: An American
icon is born, the general purpose vehicle
known as the GP, or the Jeep. It's made for war-- tough, fast, and
low to the ground. It's 37 inches high, has a flat
hood, and a folding windscreen. Its low profile makes
it difficult to line up in an enemy's sights. It's small, but can
carry up to seven men. Even the front bumper is a seat. An M1 carbine gun goes
just below the windscreen. There's a shovel and an ax to
dig yourself out of trouble. There are Jerry cans
of gas to get you home. If the Jeep flips over,
you just lift it out. It weighs in at a lean
2,315 pounds, light enough to be put in gliders and
drop behind enemy lines. What the Jeep
symbolized in World War II was not cutting edge technology,
although it was a four wheel drive vehicle, so
it was very capable. But what the Jeep really
showed was the power of American manufacturing. NARRATOR: Designed by Bantam
and produced by Willys-Overland and Ford, three jeeps are
produced every four minutes by the end of the war. Over the course of the war,
we deployed over 600,000 Jeeps. To fly around in this
open vehicle at top speed was just something every
American boy wanted to grow up to do. To this day, I mean,
part of the boom in SUVs that we saw with that notion
that you want a vehicle that can go anywhere,
that can do anything. It's a very American
spirit, and it really started with the Jeep. NARRATOR: Jeeps, tanks, and
every other weapon of war will be produced
in record numbers, but America's best kept
secret weapon of World War II as yet to be revealed. America sets to work. The plan-- overwhelm the
enemy through mass production. 88,000 tanks, 7,333 ships, 20
million rifles and small arms, and 40 billion bullets
produced in four years. 43 million men are registered
for combat service, but America needs more manpower. The answer is the best kept
secret weapon of World War II. 1ST SGT. WILLIAM BODETTE: It
was actually the women back in this nation that were the
ones working in the factories, that were putting the tanks
together, building the ships, building the airplanes. So they are actually the ones
that logistically won the war for us. NARRATOR: Women like Peggy
Blakey, a migrant farm worker. Now she works in a
munitions factory like 2 million other women. The depression is suddenly over. The factory used
to make fireworks. Now it's pumping out
20-millimeter tracer shells. Tracer shells leave a trail of
burning chemicals containing magnesium. See where it's going, and
you can hit your target. The pressure to produce
quickly is real. So is the danger. Just combing your
hair could kill you. Static electricity and
gunpowder equal explosion. But the risk is worth it Peggy
makes real money, $32 a week. PEGGY BLAKEY (VOICEOVER):
To us it was just an absolute miracle. Before that we made nothing. Now we have money to
buy shoes and a dress, and pay rent and get
some food on the table. NARRATOR: And pay taxes. Tax returns jumped from
less than $4 million in 1939 to $42 million in 1945. World War II will
cost $300 billion, twice as much as the
federal government had spent since George Washington. Women's salaries set off
a wartime consumer boom. 11,000 supermarkets are
built. Purchases go up 12%. The precedent of what women
had accomplished in World War II did linger in the memory
of the society at large and, I think, was
one of the things that energized the feminist
movement a decade or two later. MERYL STREEP: In World
War II, when women entered the workforce, once they
got a taste of that kind of fulfillment that
work can give you, there was no going back. NARRATOR: But Peggy's job
is undeniably dangerous. PEGGY BLAKEY (VOICEOVER):
I was most worried about the detonators. NARRATOR: Detonators are put
into the tip of the shell last. They explode on impact. They set off the
gunpowder in the shell. Detonators are
extremely unstable. The factory is a giant bomb. It's loaded with
tons of explosives. It only takes a
spark to set it off. PEGGY BLAKEY (VOICEOVER): This
terrible thunderstorm came. VOICE ON SPEAKER: Would all
staff report to the cafeteria immediately, please. PEGGY BLAKEY (VOICEOVER):
We were in a hurry to go, and somebody knocked the
detonators on the floor. We were in the pitch dark. Somebody was screaming,
don't move, anybody. I just froze right where I was. I was afraid to step. I was so scared I crawled
on my hands and knees. We were in slow motion because
if we'd stepped on one-- [explosion sound] NARRATOR: Making weapons can
be as dangerous as using them. In the first 16 and
1/2 months of the war, 12,000 military men died,
but 64,000 American workers died through accidents. Another 6 million are injured. Tonight, Peggy is one
of the lucky ones. First, they survived
the Depression. Now they risk their lives every
day for their country at war. MICHAEL DOUGLAS: That was our
finest generation in terms of people who would
sacrifice and give something of themselves. NARRATOR: 300,000 aircraft
come out of US factories during the war. America will put them to
use with a bold new tactic-- high-altitude precision bombing
by day while the British bomb at night, August 17, 1942. These are the men who will
see if it can be done. If they survive, the way war
is fought will change forever. Paul Tibbets from
Quincy, Illinois, one of America's best
pilots of the B-17 bomber, the flying fortress. PAUL TIBBETS: My father thought
I was crazy not to be a doctor. He said, you want
to go kill yourself? Go ahead. NARRATOR: The planes
are cramped, unheated, and un-pressurized. Crews suffered claustrophobia,
altitude sickness, and frostbite. Of the 111 men on this mission,
31 will be dead or missing by the end of the war. These men depend on each other. If you ask anybody
that's ever been in combat, they will tell you, yeah, sure,
you fought for your country. You fought for your way of life. But in all reality, you're
fighting for your buddy that's right next to you. NARRATOR: The B-17 bomber is
just as tough as its crew. It's got four engines, not two. It's got 4,000 pounds
of bombs and it can go at least 2,000 miles. It bristles like a porcupine. Eight .50 caliber machine guns
fight off enemy air attacks. The B-17 bomber, it may not
have been the greatest aircraft that was ever created, but
it was tough, it was durable, and it found a
way to keep going, which is pretty much like an
American soldier, you know. Tough, durable, and found
a way to keep going. NARRATOR: The planes climb. Oxygen keeps you alive
above 10,000 feet. No oxygen, you could blackout
in three minutes and die in 20. The target is Rouen, the
Germans' biggest railway marshaling yard in
northern France. Trains supply the German
economic and military empire across Europe. Tibbets' mission is to
wipe the yard from the map. [bombs dropping] August 17, 1942. Before today, the
Allies had only bombed under the cover of night,
but targets are hard to see. To increase the chances
of a direct hit, America bombs by day. The aim is accuracy. The Norden bombsight
is the way to get it. It's an early computer. It's top secret. The crew will destroy
it rather than have it fall into enemy hands. Dial in air speed, wind
direction, and altitude. One minute to target. NARRATOR: Machine
calculates where to fly and when to drop the bombs. By destroying the Germans
economic and industrial base, America will weaken the
Nazis' military might. Today's target is key. The railway yards at Rouen keep
the German war machine alive. 45 seconds to target. NARRATOR: US aircrews pay
a high price in casualties to achieve their goal. In 1943 alone, 2/3 of air
crews never came home. The weather is perfect
for the bombing run, visibility virtually infinite. But at 23,000 feet, B-17s leave
vapor trails, arrows in the sky pointing right to the planes. [radio chatter] NARRATOR: German anti-aircraft
fire explodes under the B-17s. Tibbets keeps his nerves
and the plane steady. The computerized bombsight
zeros in on the target. Target in sight. Target in sight. NARRATOR: The success
of the mission all rests on this moment. PAUL TIBBETS: Bombs away. [bombs dropping] NARRATOR: Success. 36,900 pounds of bombs
hit the rail yard. 50% of the bombs fall
in the target area. In 1942, that is precision
bombing, a big improvement over nighttime attacks. This technology
will ultimately lead to today's GPS-guided
smart bombs, but now the direct
hit rate is up to 95%. Tibbets knows his
mission is a success. PAUL TIBBETS (VOICEOVER): We
caught the Germans by surprise. They hadn't expected
a daytime attack. NARRATOR: But then
shrapnel rips the air. The Germans open
up their big guns. 88-millimeter
anti-aircraft shells explode around the plane. Tibbets goes into a steep climb,
swinging away from the flak. They have proved daylight
bombing is possible. PAUL TIBBETS
(VOICEOVER): A feeling of elation took hold of us as we
winged back across the channel. We had braved the
enemy in his own skies, and we're alive
to tell about it. NARRATOR: All sides
bombed industrial targets in cities in World War II. Targeting trade and
industry means bombing in or near population centers,
a grim fact of World War II that sees ordinary families killed in
numbers undreamed of in earlier conflicts. Paul Tibbets will be famous
for another bombing run, but it's three years away. He will drop the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima. For every B-17 shot
down, American workers produce two more. Overwhelm the enemy,
overwhelm them with machines and manpower. By 1943, 10 million
Americans have been drafted. One is 18-year-old Harold
Baumgarten, a New Yorker from the Bronx. He'd been offered a
tryout at Yankee Stadium. HAROLD BAUMGARTEN
(VOICEOVER): But before I could begin playing for
the team, I was drafted. On July 10, 1943, I
entered the US army. What they did as 18- or
19-year-old soldiers was far and away of greater significance
than anything they ever did in the rest of their lives. NARRATOR: William Dabney
convinces his grandmother to let him sign up
at the age of 17. WILLIAM DABNEY
(VOICEOVER): I just wanted to follow my buddies. GENERAL COLIN L. POWELL:
During the Revolutionary War, 1/6 of all of George Washington
soldiers were black men. And every time in the course
of our first couple of hundred years that we had a conflict
and we called upon all citizens, black citizens as well, to
serve, blacks stepped forward. NARRATOR: Despite the struggles
of war, old prejudices remain. Platoons are segregated. REV. AL SHARPTON: The Army
played a significant role because, in many ways, the Army
was the first place that blacks and whites began to have to
stand together and represent the same idea, even though they
were in segregated barracks. Attention! World War II changed
the entire world. It certainly transformed
the black American psyche in a way that led to and made
possible the civil rights movement of the
'50s and the '60s. NARRATOR: William
Dabney volunteers for the exciting-sounding
Special Service. But all the training
in the world could not prepare him for
the horror that is to come. June, 1944. Southern England becomes
a massive army camp of 3 million allied troops. Over a million and a
half tons of equipment are shipped and
flown from America. The goal is to retake
Europe from the Germans. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
takes command of the biggest amphibious military
operation in history, codenamed Operation Overlord. To the world, the
Normandy landings are simply known as D-Day. Every material factor
of war is catered for. The Medical Corps alone
stockpiles tens of thousands of tons of medical supplies-- bandages, morphine, surgical
instruments, bedpans, oxygen tents, and X-ray machines. There are prosthetic
limbs, and even eyeballs in five sizes and four colors. By 1944, an American
combatant could draw on four tons of supplies
versus a Japanese combatant, who had just two pounds. No one had ever produced
so much in such a short time, and this is what really
shocked both the Japanese and the Germans. NARRATOR: Blood is so crucial. The US develops a
system of blood banks on an industrial scale. In the six months
leading up to D-Day, Americans donate a pint of
blood every two seconds. The blood is turned
into plasma so it can be used on the battlefield. It is bottled, put in
ice, and packed in cans. But all these supplies are
useless without men prepared to die. D-Day is coming. June 5, 1944. American industry
gives the military the means to retake Europe. Now the nation must
sacrifice its sons. Over 5.4 million US soldiers
will invade Europe in World War II. That's 40 times the
number of US combat troops that originally invaded Iraq. This is the night before the
biggest single amphibious landing the world
has ever seen, D-Day. Harold Baumgarten
has come a long way since enlisting a year ago. HAROLD BAUMGARTEN
(VOICEOVER): Many of us had our heads shaved so that
our hair could not be grabbed during hand-to-hand combat. NARRATOR: Many of these men
have less than 12 hours to live. HAROLD BAUMGARTEN
(VOICEOVER): I did not expect to come back alive. I wrote such to my sister, to
get the mail before my parents and break the news
gently to them when she received the telegram. We were brought up on
a good guys and bad guys. We go back, we talk about
our westerns that way. Hitler was a clear enemy. I think when you have
a really clear enemy, you've won the hearts and minds. There is that
commitment of sacrifice. NARRATOR: Eve of battle rituals
include Mohican haircuts and war paint. Preparations are mental
as well as material. Dog tags are taped together
so they don't rattle. Stealth can mean
you live or die. One officer tells his
men what they can expect. OFFICER (VOICEOVER):
Look to the right of you. Look to the left of you. There's only going to be one of
you left after the first week. NARRATOR: William Dabney now
knows what his Special Service mission is. He has to drag a barrage balloon
ashore while under heavy fire. It's a tactic designed to block
German aircraft from strafing allied troops. His chances are slim, but
he is determined to survive. WILLIAM DABNEY
(VOICEOVER): I will return. I will come back to the USA. I'm not looking forward to
getting shot and killed. I'm looking forward
to going home. NARRATOR: More than
70,000 American troops are about to invade
German-held France. Over 1,000 will die on the
first day, June 6, 1944, D-Day. Over 5,000 ships
and 10,000 aircraft are involved in the
first wave alone. Five beaches will be stormed. The most infamous is
codenamed Omaha Beach. Think about Omaha
Beach from the standpoint of the young man. The ramp is about to drop,
and the sights and the sounds all around provide
the context of hell. NARRATOR: The first
troops on Omaha Beach meet ferocious
German resistance. [explosions] Rocket launchers, mortars,
and 85 machine gun nests tear into the Americans. There were meant to
be 32 tanks with them. 27 sink. The men are left with virtually
no cover on the beach. William Dabney is
totally exposed. Tethered to his barrage
balloon, he's defenseless. When it's shot down,
he has his chance. Like every other soldier on
Omaha Beach, black or white, Dabney's mission
now is to survive. WILLIAM DABNEY (VOICEOVER):
There wasn't any segregation there. NARRATOR: Harold Baumgarten
is thrown straight into the carnage. HAROLD BAUMGARTEN
(VOICEOVER): So there were men with guts hanging
out of their wounds and body parts lying
along our path. NARRATOR: Some men were simply
overwhelmed by the hell they met. SOLDIER: Get down! Get down! NARRATOR: By 9:00 AM,
almost 5,000 men are ashore. There are more than 2,000
US casualties on Omaha Beach alone. William Dabney survives. He is later awarded
the Legion of Honor. Operation Overlord is
a logistical miracle, but the cost is staggering. Nearly 126,000 Americans
are killed, wounded, or go missing during
the Battle of Normandy. Harold Baumgarten
is hit five times. After losing blood
for over 30 hours, Baumgarten is brought back
from the dead by a plasma transfusion, then injections
of penicillin and morphine, the very supplies
America has mass produced to keep its men alive. D-Day is key to Hitler's defeat. Within a month, the
Allies have landed more than 877,000
troops, 112,000 vehicles, and 573,000 tons of supplies. US bombing destroys German oil
reserves and transportation. American machinery and men
powers the drive to Berlin and victory in Europe. But men are still dying
fighting the Japanese. America turns to
technology once again, a weapon to end the war, a
weapon to change the world. The Alamogordo
desert, New Mexico. July 16, 1945, 5:27 AM. In three minutes,
American technology will change the world forever. Robert Oppenheimer, the
theoretical physicist who loves poetry
as much as science. The FBI would track
his every move worried that he's a communist. Yet Oppenheimer would lead
the biggest scientific test in history, the top-secret
Manhattan Project. Theoretically, fission physics
would enable enormous amounts of explosive energy to be
released from a single device, the atomic bomb. The bomb is the most
technologically advanced weapon in the world, yet nobody is
sure whether it will work. Even many of the people who
worked on the bomb itself were skeptical that the bomb
would actually work. No one had ever done
anything like this. NARRATOR: The use of bombing
escalates on all sides in World War II, so that whole cities
of civilians are being hit. Now the US military
hope a single bomb can destroy an entire city. DAVID M. KENNEDY: Wreaking
that kind of mass destruction, that was something new in
the history of warfare. The atomic bombs put an emphatic
punctuation to that decision, but the decision was way
before August of 1945. NARRATOR: If this test works,
there are more atomic bombs to use on the Japanese, in
hopes of ending the war. Deputy Commanding General
of the Manhattan Project, Thomas Farrell,
watches Oppenheimer. THOMAS FARRELL (VOICEOVER):
Dr. Oppenheimer grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. He stared directly ahead. VOICE ON SPEAKER: 11, 10,
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [explosion] NARRATOR: The temperature
generated at the center of the explosion is
10,000 times greater than the surface of the Sun. The heat turns the
desert sand to glass. The explosion is more massive
than even Oppenheimer expects. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
(VOICEOVER): When it went off in the New Mexico dome,
that first atomic bomb, we thought of Alfred Nobel
and his hope, his vain hope that dynamite would
put an end to wars. Even the scientists themselves
recognized the gravity of that moment. And of course,
Oppenheimer famously said, I become death, the
destroyer of worlds, quoting the "Bhagavad Gita" and
recognizing that man had really reached a turning point where
the power available to us was almost limitless. NARRATOR: When atomic bombs
are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an estimated
120,000 people die instantly. Over the days, months and years
that follow, up to 80,000 more die slowly. A day after the second
bomb is dropped, the Japanese surrender. America's technical innovation
is decisive in winning the bloodiest war in history. Having survived the
Depression and World War II, the Greatest
Generation comes home. TOM BROKAW: They'd
been through it all, and they wanted one thing. They wanted a better life for
their families than they had, and that's what they
dedicated themselves to. NARRATOR: America's
distance from battle leaves its infrastructure
intact and its economy vibrant. It produces twice as much oil as
the rest of the world combined. It has half the world's
manufacturing capacity and 2/3 of its gold stocks. TOM BROKAW: And they had no
real competition in the world because Europe was devastated,
Asia was devastated, and America could be the
colossus that it became. NARRATOR: World War II
transforms the USA in only four years. Americans make
twice as much money as they did before the war. They have 50 million
babies in 15 years. There are 20 million
new jobs in 25 years. America becomes a super power. [music playing]
