War Time: WWII

American Colonel Mellnik is one of 11,000 captives from Corregidor: "The silence after the surrender was worse than the shelling. It's uncanny, awful."

Japanese troops celebrate on Corregidor, finally taken after five months of battle- Tokyo planned to conquer the Philippines in just two months.

Island of Corregidor, last US stronghold in the west Pacific, has fallen. 13,000 Allied troops surrendering to Japanese Army:

General Wainwright, US commander on Corregidor, telegraphs President Roosevelt: "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed."

Defence of Corregidor is collapsing. Japanese troops are about to storm the island's hospital, Malinta tunnel, packed with 1000 helpless casualties.

Despite brave Filipino & American resistance, Corregidor's defenders are outnumbered & outgunned, trying to cover miles of beaches with limited men & ammunition; Japanese are flooding ashore.

Amidst the wrecks of other invasion craft, Japanese troops are suffering terrible death toll to US firepower on Corregidor's oil-slicked beaches.

Japanese troops are staging amphibious landings on Corregidor island, eager to break the last vestiges of American resistance in the Philippines.

Battle has begun in the Coral Sea: US & Japanese warships launch planes to reconnoiter, bomb, & shoot each other down. First naval combat in history where opposing fleets cannot see each other.

Madagascar's defenders are mostly Malagasy & Senegalese troops in French colonial army- they're fighting defiantly, forcing invaders back towards their landing beaches.

"Operation Ironclad" aims to preemptively conquer Madagascar's ports, in fear of its Vichy French rulers letting Japanese or Nazi warships establish harbours to control the Indian Ocean.

British & South African troops are invading Madagascar, landing on beaches around Toamasina & attacking the French colony's defenders at the northern port of Diego Suarez.

4 Japanese warships in the Coral Sea have been sunk by planes taking off from American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Japanese fleet are guarded by a screen of submarines, but Allied forces were able to slip between the subs undetected.

US Navy ships, forewarned by American codebreakers, are heading to intercept the Japanese fleet- they plan to stop & destroy them in the Coral Sea.

A Japanese invasion fleet is bearing down on the Allied ports of Port Moresby & Tulagi, south Pacific- both in easy striking range of Australia.

Following a meeting between Hitler & Mussolini, the fascist dictators have agreed to invade Malta. "Operation Herkules" will use Italian amphibious landing & German paratroopers to conquer last British stronghold in the Mediterranean this summer.