Movies: World War II 1939AD -1945AD (Part I)

Jocks from 51st Highland Division riding on a valentine tank in the North African desert in 1942

1939

Battle of the River Plate (2006) (Peter Merritt)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0875504/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

On December 13th 1939, the first great naval battle of World War II took place off the coast of Uruguay. Known as the ‘Battle of the River Plate’, it set as rivals two great naval officers in a deadly psychological duel.

1940

The King’s Choice (2016) (Rob Cooper)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4353996/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

In April 1940, the German war machine arrives in Oslo, leaving Norway’s king with a difficult choice that will change his country forever.

Sink the Bismark (Dave Boundy)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054310/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

May 1940. The World War II story of the Royal Navy’s effort to defeat Nazi Germany’s most powerful warship.

Dunkirk (1958) (Philip Middleton)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051565/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3

May 1940. A dramatization of the British Expeditionary Force’s 1940 retreat to the beaches of France and the extraordinary seaborne evacuation that saved it from utter destruction by Nazi Germany.

Dunkirk (2017) (Jaap Boender)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

May 1940. Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

de Gaulle (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10880402/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.

Die Falscher (2007?) (Terry Martin)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

1940-42. The story of the Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history, carried out by Germany during WWII.

Cockleshell Heroes (1955) (Dave Boundy)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049083/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Set in 1940?? During World War II, German ships are “safely” docked upriver at Bordeaux, but the British send a team of kayakers to attack them.

Battle of Britain / The Blitz 1940-41

Battle of Britain (1969) (Philip Middleton)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

In 1940, the British Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.

The Bells Go Down (1943) (Jim Wallman)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035671/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Comedian Tommy Trinder plays it straight in this tribute to the wartime AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service). The dedicated band who kept the fires of London under control during the blitz and fire bombings of WWII.

Danger UXB (1977) (Andy Grainger)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078593/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

The series chronicles the exploits of the fictional Royal Engineer Tunnelling Company 97, which has been made a bomb disposal unit to deal with the thousands of unexploded bombs (“UXBs”) in London during the Battle of Britain.

Burma Railway / Death Railway 1940-43

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.

1941

European Theatre

In which we serve (1942)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034891/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

This “story of a ship”, the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.

Leningrad (2009) (Terry Martin)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432314/

Winter, 1941. World War II rages on as Nazi troops invade the Soviet Union and besiege the devastated city of Leningrad. Foreign journalists are quickly evacuated, but in the chaos that ensues, Kate Davies is left behind.

The Imitation Game (2014) (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.

Carve her Name with Pride (1958) (Peter Merritt)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051454/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

1941-45. During World War II, Violet Szabo, a recently widowed young woman, is recruited to work as a spy in France.

African Theatre

The Rats of Tobruk (1944) (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037212/

The story of three men–Bluey, a tough two fisted drover (Taylor), Milo, a laconic dingo trapper (Rafferty), and Pete, an intellectual English “new chum” (Finch). Together they serve in North Africa, fighting against the forces of Rommel in what has now become one of Australia’s greatest wartime legends–The Rats of Tobruk.

Asia/Pacific Theatre

Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) (Terry Martin)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066473/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.

1942

European Theatre

Went the Day Well? (1942) (Jim Wallman)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035429/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Produced at at time when the threat was very real for those watching it. An English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.

Battle of Stalingrad (1942-3)

Stalingrad (1993) (Jim Wallman)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108211/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.

Enemy at the Gates (2001) (Jim Wallman)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215750/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad.

They Fought for Their Motherland (Oni srazhalis za rodinu) (1975) (Terry Martin)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073488/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

July 1942. Soviet forces are retreating in the face of a massive German onslaught towards Stalingrad. An infantry platoon is tasked with holding a vital hill to give their comrades time to cross the Don River and regroup.

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065207/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Set in 1943-44. Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that’s not all that’s really going on.

African Theatre

El Alamein Bond of Honour (Andy Grainger)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329042/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

War seen through the eyes of Serra, a university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to fight with a company of Italian infantry in the Pavia Division in Africa.

(Amazon)

Asia/Pacific Theatre

Midway (2019) (Jonathon Pickles)

4-7 June 1942. The story of the Battle of Midway, told by the leaders and the sailors who fought it.

Thin Red Line (1998) (Philip Middleton)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

August 1942. Adaptation of James Jones’ autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.

Kokoda: 39th Battalion (2006) (Deborah Southwell)

July-November 1942. A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.

1943

European Theatre

The Dam Busters (1955) (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

16/17 May 1943. The story of how the British attacked German dams in World War II by using an ingenious technique to drop bombs where they would be most effective.

Guns of Navarone (1961)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054953/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Set in 1943. A team of Allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

Indigènes (Days of Glory; 2006) (Jaap Boender)

1943-45. During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate France from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination.

1944

European Theatre

D-Day / Normandy landings 6 June 1944

The Longest Day (1962) (Peter Merritt)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.

Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Philip Middleton)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Battle of the Bulge (1965)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058947/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

A dramatization of Nazi Germany’s final Western Front counterattack of World War II.

Theirs is the Glory (1946) (Jim Wallman)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171824/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

A re-enactment of the Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War which was later lavishly remade as A Bridge Too Far (1977).

A Bridge Too Far (1977) (Jaap Boender)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075784/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.

Asia / Pacific Theatre

The Highest Honor (1982).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084071/?ref_=kw_li_tt

September 1944. The true story of a daring raid on Japanese-occupied Singapore Harbour by Australian and British troops during WWII.

(Amazon)

1945

European Theatre

Die Brücke (The Bridge) (1959) (Philip Middleton)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052654/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3

In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.

Asia / Pacific Theatre

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) (Terry Martin)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418689/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) (Deborah Southwell)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.