In the entire history of warfare, there hasn't been another conflict of equal scale to World War II. Around 60 million people were killed during it. This final entry of this incredible series focuses on remembering the difficulties, experiences and memories of all who participated in the Second World War. Not just combatants, but civilians and ordinary people caught up in it. The episode shows a young Elizabeth II and some veterans attending a memorial in the UK. Throughout the war, Britain and its colonies lost around half a million dead. Many Poles and Czechs, their own countries taken by Hitler, joined the british military in order to help a nation that could still fight on. Britain fought in many different theaters of the war, including North Africa, Burma (Myanmar today), and on Europe itself. Special mention must be made of the horrific bombing campaign the Germans conducted against them, in which thousands of innocents were killed. A country that suffered much worse than britain was germany. During the war, germany lost over 5 million personnel, and had countless prisoners die of starvation and cold in Soviet labor camps. While it's easy to not feel bad for them, the average german soldier was drafted and forced to fight for a psychopath. Thousands of german civilians were killed by American and british bombing raids, the purpose of which were to destroy german factories and other facilities helping them wage the war. Compared to the other major factions, america got off relatively lucky. The United States lost around 300 thousand men killed during world war 2, most fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. America was not attacked directly, invaded, or even bombed, although german and japanese designers did their best to draw up aircraft capable of doing this. American industry made the crucial difference for the Allies during the war, as thousands of tanks, guns and planes rolled off production lines and the Axis found itself overwhelmed by a deluge of materiel. America's enemy in the pacific, japan, also got hit hard. The japanese lost about 2 and a half million people during ww2, a huge number of them civilians, who were killed as american planes relentlessly pounded the country from the sky in the closing months. Having a reputation for never going down without a fight, japan's losses in many pacific battles were atrocious, but they never failed to inspire fear in all who faced them. No other country in world war 2 suffered as much as Russia did. During the war, the Soviet Union lost so many people that even to this day it is hard to wrap your head around: about 20 million to be precise. Germany's invasion of the country in 1941 had started a disaster it seemed no country could live through, yet it was the russians who broke Hitler. Despite the unfathomable amount of stress this war caused, people who participated in it would sometimes go to reunions and meet people they used to serve alongside, and in some cases, fight against. Remember the millions in China killed by japan before the war itself began. Remember the Italians who fought for both the allies and axis in a country being leveled by civil war. Remember the members of the French Resistance who continued to do everything they could to fight the nazis after their country had been subdued. No matter what side all these men fought for, they all believed in something greater than themselves and were ready to die for it if necessary. Remember them all. At long last, World at War is finally over. This last episode ended the series in probably the best possible way, as it shows how sometimes wars are unavoidable, but those who survive them must never forget how damaging they were to so many aspects of life. If they do, there might be another war of this scale someday.
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