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List of World War II films

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Below is an incomplete list of full-length films to feature or partly feature events of World War II in the narrative.

Restrictions

  • The film must be concerned with WWII and include events which feature as a part of the war effort.
  • Excludes non-fictional documenteries, shorts and animation.


Films made during the War

1940

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
UK The Big Blockade Charles Frend Economic blockade of Germany
UK Convoy Pen Tennyson Second Battle of the Atlantic
USA The Long Voyage Home John Ford Second Battle of the Atlantic
UK Secret Journey John Baxter
USA Waterloo Bridge Mervyn LeRoy While mobilizing for World War II, a British officer reminises about a romance in World War I *Released May 17, 1940 -- arguably the first Hollywood film set during the war
USA Women in War John H. Auer

1941

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
UK Forty-Ninth Parallel Michael Powell Survivors of a sunken U-Boat in Hudsons Bay trek across Canada to neutral US
USA Caught in the Draft David Butler Bob Hope gets drafted
USA Dangerous Moonlight Brian Desmond Hurst Battle of Britain
UK Freedom Radio Anthony Asquith
UK Pimpernel Smith Leslie Howard The Scarlet Pimpernel updated to contemoprary circumstances
USA Sundown Henry Hathaway
Germany U-Boote westwärts Günther Rittau U-Boats Westward; Second Battle of the Atlantic
USA Underground Vincent Sherman

1942

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
Italy Alfa Tau! Francesco De Robertis Italian submarine warfare; Mediterranean Theatre of World War II
Italy Bengasi Augusto Genina
USA Bugle Sounds, The S. Sylvan Simon
USA Captains of the Clouds Michael Curtiz Young Canadian pilots in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
USA Desperate Journey Raoul Walsh Allied aircrew escaping occupied France
USA Eagle Squadron Arthur Lubin American air volunteers in the RAF during Battle of Britain
USA/UK Flying Fortress Walter Forde
USA Flying Tigers David Miller American air volunteers in the Second Sino-Japanese War
UK The Foreman Went to France Charles Frend Battle of France
UK The First of the Few Leslie Howard Development of Spitfires
Germany Fronttheater Arthur Maria Rabenalt Battle of Greece?
Japan Hawai mare oki kaisen Kajiro Yamamoto The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay
UK In Which We Serve Noel Coward and David Lean Sinking of HMS Torrin
USA Lady from Chungking William Nigh Sino-Japanese War
USA Mrs. Miniver William Wyler Battle of Britain
USA Navy Comes Through A. Edward Sutherland
UK The Next of Kin Thorold Dickinson Careless talk costs lives message and fictional commando raid
Italy Odessa in fiamme Carmine Gallone Odessa in Flames
UK One of Our Aircraft is Missing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Allied aircrew escaping occupied France
USA Pacific Rendezvous George Sidney
Italy Un Pilota ritorna Roberto Rossellini
USA Reunion in France Jules Dassin
USA Somewhere I'll Find You Wesley Ruggles
USA Stand by for Action Robert Z. Leonard
Germany Stukas Karl Ritter
USA They Raid by Night Spencer Gordon Bennet
Japan Tsubasa no gaika Satsuo Yamamoto A Triumph of Wings ; co-written by Akira Kurosawa
USA Wake Island John Farrow Battle of Wake Island
UK Went the Day Well? Alberto Cavalcanti Fictional German invasion of England (see Operation Sealion)
USA A Yank on the Burma Road George B. Seitz Burma Road

1943

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
USA 'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders Ray Enright
USA Aerial Gunner William H. Pine
USA Air Force Howard Hawks
USA Bataan Tay Garnett Battle of Bataan, Philipines
USA Behind the Rising Sun Edward Dmytryk
UK The Bells Go Down Basil Dearden Auxiliary Fire Service during the Blitz
USA Bombardier Richard Wallace
USA Bombs Over Burma Joseph H. Lewis
USA Chetniks Louis King Glorification of the Chetniks Yugoslav guerillas
USA China John Farrow
USA Corregidor William Nigh Battle of Corregidor, Philipines
USA Corvette K-225 Richard Rosson and Howard Hawks
USA Crash Dive Archie Mayo
USA Cross of Lorraine, The Tay Garnett
USA Cry 'Havoc' Richard Thorpe
USA Destination Tokyo Delmer Daves Doolittle Raid
USA Destroyer William A. Seiter
USA Edge of Darkness Lewis Milestone Norwegian resistance
USA Five Graves to Cairo Billy Wilder Spy film set after the fall of Tobruk in the North African Campaign
UK The Flemish Farm Jeffrey Dell
USA Guadalcanal Diary Lewis Seiler Guadalcanal campaign
USA A Guy Named Joe Victor Fleming
USA Hangmen Also Die Fritz Lang Operation Anthropoid, the assaination of Reinhard Heydrich by Czech resistence
USA Immortal Sergeant John M. Stahl
UK The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger British Home Guard
USA The North Star Lewis Milestone Eastern Front
USA Pilot no. 5 George Sidney
USA Rookies in Burma Leslie Goodwins
USA Sahara Zoltan Korda North Africa
USA Salute to the Marines S. Sylvan Simon
USA So Proudly We Hail! Mark Sandrich Battle of the Philippines (1941-42)
USA The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler, James P. Hogan
USA This Land Is Mine Jean Renoir French Resistance
USA Three Russian Girls Henry S. Kesler and Fyodor Otsep
UK Undercover Sergei Nolbandov
UK We Dive at Dawn Anthony Asquith Submarine warfare during the Second Battle of the Atlantic

1944

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
UK 2,000 Women Frank Launder
Italy Aeroporto Piero Costa Italian aviators flying for the Salo Republic; only surviving film made in the Republic of Salo
USA Days of Glory Jacques Tourneur Soviet partisans
USA The Eve of St. Mark John M. Stahl
USA The Fighting Seabees Edward Ludwig
USA Four Jills in a Jeep William A. Seiter
USA The Impostor Julien Duvivier
USA In the Meantime, Darling Otto Preminger
USA Ladies Courageous John Rawlins
USA Lifeboat Alfred Hitchcock Second Battle of the Atlantic
USA Marine Raiders Harold D. Schuster
USA Marriage Is a Private Affair Robert Z. Leonard
USA The Master Race Herbert J. Biberman
USA Mr. Winkle Goes to War Alfred E. Green
USA The Navy Way William A. Berke
USA Passage to Marseille Michael Curtiz
USA Passport to Destiny Ray McCarey
Australia The Rats of Tobruk Charles Chauvel Siege of Tobruk
USA Rosie the Riveter Joseph Santley
USA See Here, Private Hargrove Wesley Ruggles
USA Sergeant Mike Henry Levin
USA Since You Went Away John Cromwell
USA Song of Russia Gregory Ratoff
Italy Squadriglia bianca Ion Sava The White Squadron
USA The Story of Dr. Wassell Cecil B. DeMille
USA The Sullivans Lloyd Bacon Sullivan brothers
USA Sunday Dinner for a Soldier Lloyd Bacon
USA Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Mervyn LeRoy Doolittle Raid
USA Till We Meet Again
USA To Have and Have Not
USA Two-Man Submarine
USA U-Boat Prisoner
USA Waterfront
UK The Way Ahead Carol Reed Conscripts are trained and fight in the North African Campaign
USA The White Cliffs of Dover Clarence Brown
USA Wing and a Prayer
USA Winged Victory

1945

Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
USA Back to Bataan Edward Dmytryk
USA Blood on the Sun
USA China's Little Devils
USA Cornered Edward Dmytryk
USA Counter-Attack
USA First Yank Into Tokyo Gordon Douglas
USA God Is My Co-Pilot Robert Florey Flying Tigers
USA Keep Your Powder Dry Edward Buzzell
Germany Das Leben geht weiter Wolfgang Liebeneiner Life Goes On; about V-2 turning the tide of the war in Germanys favor
USA Objective, Burma! Raoul Walsh Burma Campaign
USA Out of the Depths
USA Pride of the Marines Delmer Daves
USA Prison Ship
Italy Roma, città aperta Roberto Rossellini Rome, the Open City; About the Italian resistance movement movement after the Nazis occupied northern Italy
USA Samurai
USA Story of G.I. Joe William A. Wellman
USA They Were Expendable John Ford
USA Too Young to Know Frederick De Cordova
USA A Walk in the Sun Lewis Milestone
UK The Way to the Stars Anthony Asquith RAF and USAAF bomber crews stationed in England
USA What Next, Corporal Hargrove? Richard Thorpe

Late 1940s

Year Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
1946 USA The Best Years of Our Lives William Wyler American servicemen struggles after returning home from the war
1946 UK Journey Together John Boulting
1946 UK The Captive Heart Basil Dearden British prisoners of war in Germany
1946 UK Theirs is the Glory Brian Desmond Hurst and Terence Young Operation Market Garden
1946 Italy Paisan Roberto Rossellini About Liberation of Italy
1947 UK Frieda Basil Dearden
1948 USA Command Decision Sam Wood
1948 UK Against the Wind Charles Crichton
1948 Norway Kampen om tungtvannet
1948 USA Fighter Squadron Raoul Walsh
1948 USA The Search Fred Zinnemann Displaced persons in postwar Berlin
1948 Germany Morituri Eugen York First post-1945 German film about the war
1949 USA Battleground William A. Wellman
1949 USA Sands of Iwo Jima Allan Dwan
1949 UK They Were Not Divided
1949 USA Twelve O'Clock High Henry King U.S. bomber crews stationed in England
1949 UK The Small Back Room Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Bomb disposal
1949 USSR Stalingradskaya bitva Vladimir Petrov
1949 USSR Padeniye Berlina Mikheil Chiaureli
1949 USSR Vstrecha na Elbe Grigori Aleksandrov and Aleksei Utkin

1950s

Year Country Title Director Battles, Campaigns, Events depicted
1950 USA Three Came Home
1950 USA When Willie Comes Marching Home
1950 UK Odette Herbert Wilcox
1950 UK They Were Not Divided Terence Young
1951 UK Albert(TV)
1951 USA The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
1951 USA Decision Before Dawn
1951 USA Fighting Coast Guard
1951 USA Flying Leathernecks
1951 USA Force of Arms
1951 USA Go for Broke!
1951 USA The Magic Face
1951 USA Submarine Command
1951 USA Target Unknown
1951 USA The Wild Blue Yonder
1952 UK Angels One Five George More O'Ferrall
1952 USA Operation Secret
1952 France Jeux interdits
1952 USA Stalag 17
1952 USA Red Ball Express
1952 UK Appointment in London Philip Leacock
1952 USA Thunderbirds
1953 USA Guerrilla Girl
1953 UK The Cruel Sea Charles Frend
1953 USA From Here to Eternity
1953 UK Malta Story Brian Desmond Hurst
1953 USA Destination Gobi
1953 UK The Red Beret Terence Young
1953 USA Fighter Attack
1953 UK Single-Handed Roy Boulting
1953 USA China Venture
1953 USA Albert RN
1953 USA El Alaméin
1953 USA The Desert Rats
1954 USA Betrayed
1954 USA The Caine Mutiny
1954 UK/Norway Shetlandsgjengen Michael Forlong Shetland Gang; Docu-drama about Norwegian smugglers in the North Sea; most members of the "gang" play themselves
1954 UK The Dam Busters Michael Anderson
1954 UK The Purple Plain Robert Parrish
1954 UK They Who Dare Lewis Milestone
1954 Germany 08/15 Paul May
1954 UK The Sea Shall Not Have Them Lewis Gilbert
1955 UK Above Us the Waves Ralph Thomas
1955 USA Battle Cry
1955 UK The Cockleshell Heroes José Ferrer
1955 UK The Colditz Story Guy Hamilton
1955 USA The Eternal Sea
1955 USA To Hell and Back
1955 USA Mister Roberts
1955 Germany Es geschah am 20. Juli Georg Wilhelm Pabst
1955 Germany 08/15 - In der Heimat Paul May
1955 Germany 08/15 - Zweiter Teil Paul May
1956 USA Attack
1956 USA Away All Boats
1956 UK The Battle of the River Plate
1956 USA Battle Stations
1956 USA Between Heaven and Hell
1956 USA The Bold and the Brave
1956 UK The Black Tent Brian Desmond Hurst
1956 UK The Man Who Never Was
1956 UK Reach for the Sky
1956 USA D-Day the Sixth of June
1956 UK A Town Like Alice Jack Lee
1957 USA/US The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 Germany Fuchs von Paris, Der Paul May The Fox of Paris; Battle of Normandy from German soldiers perspective
1957 Germany Haie und kleine Fische Frank Wisbar The Shark and the Little Fish; U-boats
1957 USA Ill Met by Moonlight
1957 UK The One That Got Away
1957 UK The Steel Bayonet Michael Carreras
1958 Germany Arzt von Stalingrad, Der Géza von Radványi The Doctor of Stalingrad; Battle of Stalingrad
1958 UK The Camp on Blood Island Val Guest
1958 UK Dunkirk Operation Dynamo; Dunkirk Evacuation
1958 UK Carve Her Name with Pride
1958 UK Ice-Cold in Alex
1958 UK The Battle of the V.1
1958 UK I Was Monty's Double
1958 UK The Key
1958 UK Sea of Sand
1959 UK Ten Seconds to Hell
1959 Germany Die Brücke
1958 Germany Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben Frank Wisbar Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever!; Battle of Stalingrad
1959 USA Never So Few

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

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