World at War - Stories from WWII

It is 03:14 on 22nd June 1941. Along a 1,800-kilometre front line that stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north, to Romania in the South, German soldiers are ready for battle. A minute later, all hell breaks loose. The Luftwaffe begins attacking targets behind the Red Army's front line, and the artillery opens fire. Germany's dreaded Panzer tanks follow – the spearhead of Operation "Barbarossa", Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. With 3.7 million soldiers, it's the largest invasion to date. The first few weeks seem to confirm the supremacy of Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics as city after city falls. This issue follows the advancement of the Axis forces in the conflict that, during 1941, turns into an all-out world war.

The Germans and their Japanese allies have gone from victory to victory since the start of the war, but in the autumn of 1942, that begins to change. On the small Pacific island of Guadalcanal, US forces drive back the Japanese to capture a key airfield. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, Hitler's blitzkrieg slams to a halt at Stalingrad, stopped by the Russian winter and a Red Army determined to defend every street. As the war enters its fourth year, the conflict becomes ever more brutal. Both sides try to break their enemies' spirits by carpet-bombing civilian-filled cities. The Nazis also break the Geneva Convention. As a result, more than half of all Soviet prisoners of war die in German captivity. This issue covers the dramatic moments that turned the war in favour of the Allies – both on the Eastern Front and in the Pacific.