It got me thinking that, yes, not only are there a number of great World War II stories out there that haven’t been told, there are already so many that deserve to be rediscovered by a new audience. The cinema of World War II is gritty, glorious and seriously extensive. There were so many great war movies made during the war itself, it's a wonder anyone was available to do any actual fighting. The best World War 2 movies remind us that perhaps no single event has had a greater impact on the future of filmmaking than World War II. It arrived at the dawn of a new era in glossy, professional mainstream filmmaking, and it affected literally every facet of daily life in North America.
The film or miniseries must be concerned with World War II (or the War of Ethiopia and the Sino-Japanese War) and include events which feature as a part of the war effort. For short films, see the List of World War II short films. For documentaries, see the List of World War II documentary films and the List of Allied propaganda films of World.
This is a list of fictional feature films or miniseries which feature events of World War II in the narrative.
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There is a separate list of World War II TV series.
Fictional feature films specifically pertaining to the Holocaust appear in the List of Holocaust films#Narrative films.
Many aspects of this conflict have repeatedly been the subject of drama. These common subjects will not be linked when they appear in the film descriptions below:
Before the Second World War explicitly began with the Nazi German, then later Soviet (Russian) invasions of Poland in September 1939, Germany had already absorbed Austria in the Anschluß of 1938, then the Czechoslovakian lands of Bohemia and Moravia. Meanwhile, Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union were involved in the Spanish Civil War,[1] (1936-1939), and Italy had conquered Ethiopia (1935-1936) and Albania (1939).China had been fighting against Japan since the 1931 invasion of their northeastern province of Manchuria in a war that completely opened in 1937, called the Second Sino-Japanese War, until Japan attacked the U.S.A. at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. then the British Empire and the Dutch East Indies colonial possessions also in December 1941.
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | The Great Appeal | Il grande appello | Mario Camerini | Italian father and son in the War of Ethiopia |
| Nazi Germany | The Traitor | Verräter | Karl Ritter | Foreign spies in a German armaments factory |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | Sentinels of Bronze | Sentinelle di bronzo | Romolo Marcellini | Italian colonial soldiers defeat the Ethiopian attack on Walwal |
| Japan | Song of Marching† | Shingun no uta (進軍の歌) | Yasushi Sasaki | Volunteer in the Japanese Army fighting in China |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | Chocolate and Soldiers | Chocolate to heitai (チョコレートと兵隊) | Takeshi Sato | Japanese Army soldier's battlefield letters with chocolate wrappers sent to son while fighting in China |
| Soviet Union | Concentration Camp (Bog Soldiers / Soldiers of the Swamp) | Bolotnye soldaty (Болотные солдаты) | Aleksandr Macheret | Nazi concentration camp guards attempt to break spirits of Communists |
| China | The Eight Hundred Heroes | Bā bǎi zhuàngshì (八百壮士) | Ying Yunwei | Defense of Sihang Warehouse |
| France | It Happened in Gibraltar | Gibraltar | Fedor Ozep | British officer in Gibraltar pretends to be traitor |
| Japan | Invisible Invader | Sugata-naki shinnyūsha (姿無き侵入者) | Shuzo Fukuda | Foreign spies in Japan pretend to be travelers |
| Italy | Luciano Serra, Pilot | Luciano Serra pilota | Goffredo Alessandrini | Italo-Abyssinian War |
| Korea | Military Train | Gun'yō ressha (軍用列車) Gun-yong-yeolcha (군용열차) | Gwang-je Seo | A Korean train conductor is involved in espionage on a Japanese military train |
| Japan | A Pay by the Wayside (Five Scouts) | Gonin no sekkôhei (五人の斥候兵) | Tomotaka Tasaka | Five Japanese Army soldiers on reconnaissance mission behind Chinese lines |
| Japan | The Road to Peace in the Orient | Tōyō heiwa no michi (東洋平和の道) | Shigeyoshi Suzuki | Chinese farmers overcame their distrust of Japan after being helped by Japanese soldiers |
| France | The Shanghai Drama | Le drame de Shanghaï | Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Japanese Black Dragon agents in Shanghai |
Note: Soviet films are in Russian and originate in the Russian SFSR, unless otherwise noted.
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | Battles in the Shadow† | Lotte nell'ombra | Domenico Gambino | Foreign spies steal the formula of a new explosive |
| United States | Confessions of a Nazi Spy | Anatole Litvak | Nazi spy ring in the United States | |
| United States | Hitler, Beast of Berlin (Hell's Devils / Beasts of Berlin) | Sam Newfield | Drama. German anti-Hitler political prisoner | |
| United Kingdom | The Lion Has Wings | Michael Powell, Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Alexander Korda | RAF mobilization [2] | |
| Italy | The Little Adventurers | Piccoli naufraghi | Flavio Calzavara | Adventure. Twelve Italian boys embark on a merchantman ship to fight in the War of Ethiopia, but are shipwrecked on an island. Then they manage to take control of another merchantman smuggling weapons to Ethiopia. |
| Japan | Mud and Soldiers | Tsuchi to heitai (土と兵隊) | Tomotaka Tasaka | Drama based on Ashihei Hino novel. Effect of war on Japanese soldiers during Sino-Japanese War |
| United Kingdom | Q Planes (Clouds Over Europe) | Tim Whelan, Arthur B. Woods | Thriller. Foreign spies suspected in disappearance of secret aircraft [3] | |
| United Kingdom | Secret Journey (Among Human Wolves) | John Baxter | Based on Charles Robert Dumas' short story. British secret service agent on mission | |
| Japan | Shanghai Landing Squad | Shanhai Rikusentai (上海陸戦隊) | Hisatora Kumagaya | Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces |
| Nazi Germany | Shoulder Arms | Das Gewehr über | Jürgen von Alten | German emigrant in Australia returns to his country for military service in the Army |
| United States | South of the Border | George Sherman | Action/Western. US Federal Agent on mission in Mexico to prevent German agents from gaining control of Mexican oil refineries and inciting revolution | |
| Nazi Germany | Three Non-Coms† | Drei Unteroffiziere | Werner Hochbaum | Luftwaffe NCO's |
| United Kingdom | Traitor Spy (The Torso Murder Mystery) | Walter Summers | Mystery thriller based on T. C. H. Jacobs novel. German spy employed in anti-submarine patrol boat and torpedo factory | |
| United States | Wings of the Navy | Lloyd Bacon | Drama. Experimental fighter for the US Navy |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Arise, My Love | Mitchell Leisen | Romantic comedy. Spanish Civil War through French capitulation, 1940 | |
| Nazi Germany | Attention! The Enemy Is Listening!† | Achtung! Feind hört mit! | Arthur Maria Rabenalt | Foreign spies in a German armaments factory |
| United Kingdom | The Big Blockade | Charles Frend | Economic blockade of Germany | |
| Japan | The Blazing Heavens† (The Burning Sky / Flaming Sky) | Moyuru ōzora (燃ゆる大空) | Yutaka Abe | Action-drama. Imperial Japanese Army Air Service during Sino-Japanese War |
| Italy | The Cavalier from Kruja† | Il cavaliere di Kruja | Carlo Campogalliani | Adventure. An Italian journalist gets involved in the Albanian opposition to King Zog and is finally saved by the Italian invasion of Albania |
| United States | Comrade X | King Vidor | Spy drama. US journalist in the Soviet Union moonlights as spy. | |
| United Kingdom | Convoy | Pen Tennyson | Battle of the Atlantic | |
| Nazi Germany | Enemies† | Feinde | Viktor Tourjansky | Invasion of Poland justified by Polish persecution of ethnic Germans |
| United States | Foreign Correspondent | Alfred Hitchcock | Spy thriller. American reporter tries to expose spies in Britain on the eve of World War II. | |
| United States | The Great Dictator | Charlie Chaplin | Satire. Dictator Adenoid Hynkel is replaced by identical Jew | |
| United States | The Long Voyage Home | John Ford | Battle of the Atlantic | |
| United States | The Man I Married (I Married a Nazi) | Irving Pichel | Drama. American woman's German husband develops Nazi sympathies | |
| United Kingdom | Night Train to Munich (Gestapo) | Carol Reed | Mystery-thriller. Inventor and daughter kidnapped by Gestapo then rescued by British agent | |
| United States | The Phantom Submarine | Charles Barton | Action-mystery. Journalist and US Navy frogman investigate U-boat terror | |
| Nazi Germany | Request Concert | Wunschkonzert | Eduard von Borsody | Luftwaffe airmen fighting over Poland and then the Atlantic |
| United States | Ski Patrol | Lew Landers | Olympians oppose each other again in the Winter War | |
| Japan | The Legend of Tank Commander Nishizumi | Nishizumi senshacho-den (西住戦車長伝) | Kōzaburō Yoshimura | Japanese tank commander fights in the Sino-Japanese War and dies in the Battle of Nanking |
| United Kingdom | Ten Days in Paris | Jeremy Brown | Comedy mystery. | |
| United States | Waterloo Bridge | Mervyn LeRoy | Called-up British officer reminisces over World War I romance [4] | |
| United States | Women in War | John H. Auer | Action-drama. Allied nurses on pre-Dunkirk Battle of France front |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nazi Germany | Above All in the World† | Über alles in der Welt | Karl Ritter | German civilians abroad get involved in the beginning of World War II |
| United States | All Through the Night | Vincent Sherman | Lighthearted mystery-thriller. Nazi Fifth Columnists | |
| Nazi Germany | Annelie | Annelie | Josef von Báky | Heroic German mother during war |
| Nazi Germany | Bomber Wing Lützow | Kampfgeschwader Lützow | Hans Bertram | A bomber crew takes part in invasion of Poland and attacks on British shipping |
| United States | Buck Privates | Arthur Lubin | Comedy. Abbott and Costello enlist in the Army | |
| United States | Caught in the Draft | David Butler | Comedy. Bob Hope gets drafted | |
| United States | Confirm or Deny | Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang (uncredited) | Comedy-drama. London Blitz | |
| United Kingdom | Cottage to Let (Bombsight Stolen) | Anthony Asquith | Lighthearted mystery. Kidnapping of bombsight inventor from Scotland by Nazi agents | |
| United States | Dangerously They Live | Robert Florey | Nazi agents in US pursue Allied spy with secret of U-boat fleet off US coast | |
| United Kingdom | Dangerous Moonlight | Brian Desmond Hurst | The Battle of Britain | |
| United States | Dive Bomber | Michael Curtiz | Flight surgeons and medical flight research on pilots in Pacific | |
| Hungary | Europe Doesn't Answer† | Európa nem válaszol | Géza von Radványi | Spies on board of a transatlantic at the beginning of World War 2 |
| United Kingdom | 49th Parallel (The Invaders) | Michael Powell | Battle of the St. Lawrence and survivors of a sunken U-boat in Hudson Bay trek across Canada | |
| United Kingdom | Freedom Radio | Anthony Asquith | German Resistance | |
| Soviet Union | The Girl from Leningrad | Frontovye podrugi (Фронтовые подруги) | Viktor Eisymont | Russian woman volunteers as nurse on Finnish Front where she becomes involved with wounded soldiers; remade in US as Three Russian Girls |
| Nazi Germany | Goodbye, Franziska | Auf Wiedersehn, Franziska! | Helmut Käutner | A German globetrotting reporter is drafted into a Wehrmacht Propagandakompanie |
| United States | Great Guns | Monty Banks | Comedy. Laurel and Hardy are drafted into the US Army | |
| Nazi Germany | Hallgarten's Reconnaissance Patrol | Spähtrupp Hallgarten | Herbert B. Fredersdorf | Two German soldiers in the Norwegian Campaign |
| Nazi Germany | Homecoming | Heimkehr | Gustav Ucicky | Drama. Poles persecute ethnic Germans |
| United States | International Lady | Tim Whelan | Spy drama. | |
| Nazi Germany | In the Eye of the Storm | Menschen im Sturm | Fritz Peter Buch | Drama. Serbs persecute ethnic Germans[5] |
| Soviet Union | In the Rear of the Enemy | V tylu vraga (В тылу врага) | Yevgeni Shneider | Comedy. Finnish War [6] |
| United States | Man Hunt | Fritz Lang | Prewar assassination attempt on Hitler | |
| Italy | Men on the Sea Floor | Uomini sul fondo | Francesco De Robertis | The crew of an Italian submarine try to repair their damaged ship trapped on the sea bottom |
| United States | Parachute Battalion | Leslie Goodwins | Three men join a parachute battalion [3] | |
| United Kingdom | Pimpernel Smith | Leslie Howard | The Scarlet Pimpernel updated | |
| Japan | Prayer to Mother Earth† | Daichi ni inoru (大地に祈る) | Takeo Murata | Japanese military nurses in China |
| United Kingdom | Ships with Wings | Sergei Nolbandov | Battle of Taranto | |
| Nazi Germany | Six Days of Leave† | Sechs Tage Heimaturlaub | Jürgen von Alten | German soldiers on leave |
| Nazi Germany | Soldiers of Tomorrow† | Soldaten von morgen | Alfred Weidenmann | Hitler Youth |
| United States | Sundown | Henry Hathaway | The North African Campaign[3] | |
| Nazi Germany | U-Boat, Course West! | U-Boote westwärts | Günther Rittau | U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic[7] |
| United States | Underground | Vincent Sherman | German Resistance | |
| Korea | Volunteer† | Shiganhei (志願兵) Chiwŏnbyŏng (지원병) | Seok-yeong Ahn | Korean volunteers in the Japanese Army |
| Vichy France | The Well-Digger's Daughter | La fille du puisatier | Marcel Pagnol | A girl becomes pregnant by a military pilot, then shot down behind German lines during the Battle of France |
| Italy | The White Ship | La nave bianca | Francesco De Robertis, Roberto Rossellini | Sailors on a hospital ship after wounds in battle (depicted by footage filmed during the Battle of Calabria and the Battle of Cape Spartivento) |
| United States | A Yank in the RAF | Henry King | American volunteers in the RAF | |
| Korea | You and Me† | Kimi to boku (君と僕) Nŏ wa na (너와 나) | 'Eitaro Hinatsu' (Hae Yeong), Tomotaka Tasaka | Korean volunteer in the Japanese Army marries a Japanese woman |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nazi Germany | 5 June | Der 5. Juni | Fritz Kirchhoff | Battle of France |
| United States | Across the Pacific | John Huston, Vincent Sherman | Spy drama. Japanese plot against the Panama Canal | |
| Italy | Alpha Tau!† | Alfa Tau! | Francesco De Robertis | Italian submarine warfare in Mediterranean Theatre |
| United States | Atlantic Convoy | Lew Landers | Allied naval operations based in Iceland against U-boats in Atlantic | |
| Japan | The Battle of Hong Kong | Honkon kōryaku: Eikoku kuzururu no hi (香港攻略 英国崩るゝの日) | Shigeo Tanaka | Battle of Hong Kong |
| Italy | Bengasi | Bengasi (Bengasi anno '41)[8] | Augusto Genina | Italian resistance to the British occupation of Benghazi in 1941 |
| United States | Black Dragons | William Nigh | Japan's Black Dragon Society, in collaboration with Nazis, recruits a mad scientist to create likenesses of Western leaders[3] | |
| United States | The Bugle Sounds | S. Sylvan Simon | Cavalry and tank warfare | |
| United States | Captains of the Clouds | Michael Curtiz | Canadian bush pilots in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan[9] | |
| United States | Casablanca | Michael Curtiz | 1943 Best picture romantic-thriller set in Vichy-controlled Morocco | |
| United States | Commandos Strike at Dawn | John Farrow | Norwegian resistance | |
| United States | The Dawn Express | Albert Herman | A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula | |
| United Kingdom | The Day Will Dawn (The Avengers) | Harold French | Norwegian resistance | |
| United States | Desperate Journey | Raoul Walsh | RAF aircrew escape from Germany through occupied Netherlands | |
| Italy | Document Z-3 | Documento Z-3 | Alfredo Guarini | Italian agents in Yugoslavia in the last days before the invasion |
| United States | Eagle Squadron | Arthur Lubin | Eagle Squadron, American volunteers in the RAF during the Battle of Britain | |
| Georgian SSR | Elusive Ian† | Uchinari Jani (Georgian please) (in Georgian) Neulovimyy Yan (Неуловимый Ян) (in Russian) | Isidor Annensky, Vladimir Petrov | |
| Japan | Fear of the Fifth Column | Daigoretsu no kyofu (第五列的恐怖) | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | British and Chinese spies try to steal the projects of a Japanese airplane engine |
| United Kingdom | The First of the Few (Spitfire) | Leslie Howard | Development of the Spitfire[3] | |
| United States United Kingdom | Flying Fortress | Walter Forde | B-17 bombers | |
| United States | Flying Tigers | David Miller | American Volunteer Group in the Sino-Japanese War | |
| United Kingdom | The Foreman Went to France | Charles Frend | Battle of France | |
| Nazi Germany | Front Theater† | Fronttheater | Arthur Maria Rabenalt | Battle of Greece |
| Japan | General, Staff Officer and Soldiers† | Shōgun to sanbō to hei (将軍と参謀と兵) | Taguchi Satoshi | Sino-Japanese war |
| Italy | Giarabub | Giarabub | Goffredo Alessandrini | The Siege of Giarabub in 1941 |
| Nazi Germany | The Great Love | Die große Liebe | Rolf Hansen | War between Nazi Germany and USSR |
| Korea | Here We Go!† | Warera imazo yuku (吾等今ぞ征く) Nanŭn kanda (나는 간다) | Ki-chae Park | Korean volunteers in Japanese Army |
| United States | Hillbilly Blitzkrieg | Roy Mack | Nazi spies steal rocket formula in the US [3] | |
| United States | Hitler – Dead or Alive | Nick Grinde | Three American gangsters set out to collect the million-dollar reward for bringing Hitler to justice.[3] | |
| United Kingdom | In Which We Serve | Noël Coward, David Lean | Based on the sinking of HMS Kelly[3] | |
| United States | Joan of Paris | Robert Stevenson | Downed RAF aircrew meets the French Resistance | |
| United States | Jungle Siren | Sam Newfield | Free French, with two Americans, sent to African village to build an airfield [3] | |
| United Kingdom | King Arthur Was a Gentleman | Marcel Varnel | Comedy, Musical, Romance. Soldier fantasizes about King Arthur as he takes on the Wehrmacht | |
| United States | Lady from Chungking | William Nigh | Sino-Japanese War [3] | |
| United Kingdom | Lady from Lisbon | Leslie S. Hiscott | Farce. Nazi agents, Allied counterspies and several copies of the Mona Lisa | |
| United States | Let's Get Tough! | Wallace Fox | Juvenile delinquents battle Black Dragon Society saboteurs in New York [3] | |
| Italy | MAS | MAS | Romolo Marcellini | MAS (Italian torpedo boat) |
| United States | Mrs. Miniver | William Wyler | 1942 Best picture depicting the British home front | |
| United States | The Navy Comes Through | A. Edward Sutherland | Battle of the Atlantic | |
| United Kingdom | The Next of Kin | Thorold Dickinson | Message that careless talk costs lives, and fictional commando raid | |
| Italy Romania | Odessa in Flames | Odessa in fiamme(in Italian), Odessa în flăcări(in Romanian) | Carmine Gallone | Battle of Odessa, 1941 [3] |
| United Kingdom | One of Our Aircraft Is Missing | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Allied aircrew escape from the occupied Netherlands [3] | |
| United States | Pacific Rendezvous | George Sidney | Spy drama. Cryptography in the Pacific War | |
| Japan | Patriotic Flowers | Aikoku no hana (愛國の花) | Keisuke Sasaki | Japanese military nurses |
| United States | The Phantom Plainsmen | John English | 'The Three Mesquiteers' battle Nazi agents on a Western ranch | |
| United States | The Pied Piper | Irving Pichel | Drama based on Nevil Shute novel. Holidaymaker rescues French children, 1940 | |
| Italy | A Pilot Returns | Un pilota ritorna | Roberto Rossellini | Greco-Italian War |
| United States | Private Buckaroo | Edward F. Cline | Musical.[3] | |
| Nazi Germany | The Red Terror | GPU | Karl Ritter | GPU's plots in Rotterdam are foiled by the German occupation |
| United States | Reunion in France | Jules Dassin | French Resistance helps a downed US pilot | |
| United Kingdom | Sabotage at Sea | Leslie S. Hiscott | ||
| United States | Saboteur | Alfred Hitchcock | Airplane factory worker falsely accused of sabotage | |
| United States | Seven Days' Leave | Tim Whelan | Musical comedy. Soldier on leave must marry to inherit | |
| United States | Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon | Roy William Neill | Sherlock Holmes vs Nazi agents and Professor Moriarty | |
| United States | Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror | John Rawlins | Sherlock Holmes vs. Nazi saboteurs | |
| United States | Somewhere I'll Find You | Wesley Ruggles | War correspondents in China and Pacific | |
| Japan | The Spy Isn't Dead Yet | Kanchō imada shisezu (間諜未だ死せず) | Kōzaburō Yoshimura | Chinese and American spies in Japan |
| United States | Stand by for Action | Robert Z. Leonard | US Navy in the Pacific War | |
| Nazi Germany | Stukas | Stukas | Karl Ritter | German dive bomber, the Stuka[3] |
| United States | They Raid by Night | Spencer Gordon Bennet | Commando raids in occupied Norway[3] | |
| Italy | The Three Pilots | I tre aquilotti | Mario Mattoli | Three young pilots of the Regia Aeronautica |
| United States | To Be Or Not To Be | Ernst Lubitsch | Occupied Warsaw, and Polish air squadron in London | |
| United States | To the Shores of Tripoli | H. Bruce Humberstone | ||
| Japan | A Triumph of Wings | Tsubasa no gaika (翼の凱歌) | Satsuo Yamamoto | Two young Japanese become pilots of the Army Air Service[10] |
| Nazi Germany | Two in a Big City | Zwei in einer großen Stadt | Volker von Collande | Luftwaffe pilot meets a nurse while on leave in Berlin |
| United States | Wake Island | John Farrow | Battle of Wake Island | |
| Japan | The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya | Hawai Marē oki kaisen (ハワイまれ沖回線) | Kajiro Yamamoto | Attack on Pearl Harbor and Malayan Campaign |
| United Kingdom | Went the Day Well? | Alberto Cavalcanti | Fictional German invasion of England (see Operation Sea Lion) | |
| United States | A Yank in Libya | Albert Herman | Journalist exposes Nazis trying to start an Arab revolt in North Africa [3] | |
| United States | A Yank on the Burma Road | George B. Seitz | Burma Road | |
| United States | Yankee Doodle Dandy | Michael Curtiz | George M. Cohan |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Above Suspicion | Richard Thorpe | Honeymooners spy on the Nazis | |
| United States | Action in the North Atlantic | Lloyd Bacon | The Battle of the Atlantic | |
| United Kingdom | The Adventures of Tartu (Sabotage Agent) | Harold S. Bucquet | British spy posing as Romanian Iron Guard officer aids Czech partisans[3] | |
| United States | Aerial Gunner | William H. Pine | The B-17 bomber in the Pacific [3] | |
| United States | Air Force | Howard Hawks | B-17 bombers in the Battle of the Philippines | |
| Japan | The Air Raid by Enemy Aircraft† | Tekki raishū (敵機空襲) | Hiromasa Nomura | Air war over Japan |
| United States | Air Raid Wardens | Edward Sedgwick | Laurel and Hardy try to stop Nazi spies in the USA | |
| Japan | All-out Attack on Singapore† | Shingapōru sōkōgeki (シンガポール総攻撃) | Koji Shima | Japanese conquest of Singapore |
| United States | Background to Danger | Raoul Walsh | Intrigue involving Nazis in neutral Turkey | |
| United States | Bataan | Tay Garnett | The Battle of Bataan, Philippines | |
| United States | Behind the Rising Sun | Edward Dmytryk | ||
| United Kingdom | The Bells Go Down | Basil Dearden | Auxiliary Fire Service during the Blitz | |
| United States | Bombardier | Richard Wallace | B-17 bomber crewmen in the Pacific | |
| United States | Bomber's Moon | Edward Ludwig, Harold D. Schuster | ||
| United States | Bombs Over Burma | Joseph H. Lewis | [3] | |
| United States | The Boy from Stalingrad | Sidney Salkow | Russian children resisting Nazi forces at the Battle of Stalingrad | |
| United States | Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas | Louis King | Chetniks - Yugoslav guerrillas under General Draza Mihailovich | |
| United States | China | John Farrow | ||
| United States | Corregidor | William Nigh | The Battle of Corregidor, Philippines | |
| United States | Corvette K-225 | Richard Rosson, Howard Hawks | The Battle of the Atlantic, RCNcorvette | |
| United States | Crash Dive | Archie Mayo | USN submarine in the North Atlantic | |
| Nazi Germany | The Crew of the Dora | Besatzung Dora | Karl Ritter | The crew of a Ju 88 bomber is forced to land in the desert and is saved by an Italian SM.79 |
| United States | The Cross of Lorraine | Tay Garnett | French Resistance | |
| United States | Cry 'Havoc' | Richard Thorpe | Drama based on Allan Kenward play. Army nurses on Bataan work with civilians during the Battle of the Philippines (1941-42) | |
| United States | Destination Tokyo | Delmer Daves | USN submarine patrol for the Doolittle Raid | |
| United States | Destroyer | William A. Seiter | Fictional story of the destroyer USS John Paul Jones from commissioning | |
| United States | Edge of Darkness | Lewis Milestone | The Norwegian resistance movement | |
| Korea | Figure of Youth† | Wakaki sugata (若き姿) Chŏlmŭn mosŭp (젊은 모습) | Shirō Toyoda | Korean volunteers in Japanese Army |
| United Kingdom | Fires Were Started (I Was a Fireman) | Humphrey Jennings | Docudrama.[11] Firemen during the Blitz[12] | |
| United States | First Comes Courage | Dorothy Arzner | Norwegian resistance | |
| United States | Five Graves to Cairo | Billy Wilder | Spy drama set after the fall of Tobruk in the North African Campaign depicting an English soldiers interactions with Erwin Rommel | |
| United Kingdom | The Flemish Farm | Jeffrey Dell | Commando raids in occupied Belgium | |
| United States | Gangway for Tomorrow | John H. Auer | Anthology film. Five stories of American defense workers on way to work at munitions factory | |
| United States | Ghosts on the Loose | William Beaudine | Glimpy's newlywed sister and her husband buy a house next door to a nest of Nazi spies, but the East Side foil the Nazis' evil plot[3] | |
| United States | G-Men vs the Black Dragon (serial) | Spencer Gordon Bennet, William Witney, William J. O'Sullivan | ||
| Nazi Germany | The Golden Spider† | Die goldene Spinne | Erich Engels | Soviet spies try to discover the secrets of a new German tank |
| United States | Guadalcanal Diary | Lewis Seiler | US Marines in Guadalcanal Campaign | |
| United States | Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders | Ray Enright | Marine Raiders in the Central Pacific[3] | |
| United States | Hangmen Also Die! | Fritz Lang | Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by the Czech resistance | |
| Georgian SSR | He Would Come Back | Is kidev dabrundeba (Georgian please) (in Georgian) On eshchyo vernyotsa (Он ещё вернётся) (in Russian) | Diomide Antadze, Nikoloz Shengelaia | Kakhetian village and Battle of the Caucasus |
| United States | Hitler's Madman (Hitler's Hangman) | Douglas Sirk | Operation Anthropoid, assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and revenge taken by the Germans | |
| United States | Immortal Sergeant | John M. Stahl | British and Canadian troops in the North Africa Campaign | |
| United States | Journey Into Fear | Norman Foster, Orson Welles (uncredited) | Spy drama based on Eric Ambler novel. An American engineer, in neutral Turkey to help upgrade the Turkish navy, that is targeted by Nazi agents | |
| Italy | Letters to the Second Lieutenant† | Lettere al sottotenente | Goffredo Alessandrini | Comedy. A girl writes letters to a young officer, but she does not want to meet him because she feels ugly |
| United Kingdom | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | The Home Guard | |
| Japan | The Man from Chungking | Jūkei kara kita otoko (重慶から来た男) | Hiroyuki Yamamoto | Enemy agents try to sabotage Japanese war production |
| Italy | The Man with a Cross | L'uomo della croce | Roberto Rossellini | A chaplain of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia |
| Italy | Men of the Mountain | Quelli della montagna | Aldo Vergano | Alpini against France |
| United Kingdom | Millions Like Us | Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat | The home front | |
| United States | Minesweeper | William Berke | [3] | |
| United States | Mission to Moscow | Michael Curtiz | A biopic of Ambassador Joseph E. Davies. | |
| United States | The Moon Is Down | Irving Pichel | Resistance | |
| United States | The More the Merrier | George Stevens | Comedy. Soldier on American home front with housing shortage | |
| Japan | Navy† | Kaigun (海軍) | Tomotaka Tasaka | Attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese midget submarines |
| United States | Night Plane from Chungking | Ralph Murphy | ||
| United States | Northern Pursuit | Raoul Walsh | Royal Canadian Mounted Police uncover Nazi plot against Allied war effort to cripple transatlantic shipping of war materials | |
| United States | The North Star (Armored Attack) | Lewis Milestone | Guerrilla warfare on the Eastern Front[3] | |
| Vichy France | Occult Forces | Forces occultes | 'Paul Riche' | Freemasons work with Jews to bring France into the war [3] |
| Japan | On the Eve of War | Kaisen no zenya (开战前夜) | Kōzaburō Yoshimura | Kempeitai fights American spies in Japan |
| Japan | Our Planes Fly South† | Aiki minami e tobu (愛機南へ飛ぶ) | Yasushi Sasaki | The young pilot of a recon plane is shot down but survives |
| Italy | People of the Air† | Gente dell'aria | Esodo Pratelli | Two brothers become pilots of the Regia Aeronautica |
| United States | Pilot #5 | George Sidney | Battle of the Java Sea | |
| United States | Rookies in Burma | Leslie Goodwins | The Burma Campaign | |
| United States | Sahara | Zoltan Korda | Allied troops at the Second Battle of El Alamein | |
| United States | Salute to the Marines | S. Sylvan Simon | The Battle of the Philippines | |
| United States | Secret Service in Darkest Africa (serial) | Spencer Gordon Bennet | ||
| Italy | Spies Among the Propellers† | Spie tra le eliche | Ignazio Ferronetti | An Italian detective discovers enemy agents sabotaging a warplanes factory |
| United States | Sherlock Holmes in Washington | Roy William Neill | Sherlock Holmes travels to Washington D.C. in order to prevent a secret document that must be delivered to Congress from falling into Nazi hands. | |
| United Kingdom | The Silver Fleet | Vernon Sewell, Gordon Wellesley | Dutch resistance [12] | |
| United States | So Proudly We Hail! | Mark Sandrich | Army nurses and the Battle of the Philippines (1941-42) | |
| Italy | Special Correspondents† | Inviati speciali | Romolo Marcellini | An Italian journalist discovers an enemy female agent in the Spanish Civil War and then in Egypt during World War II |
| Korea | Straits of Chosun† | Chōsen Kaikyō (朝鮮海峡) Joseonhaehyeob (조선해협) | Ki-chae Park | Korean man volunteers to serve in the Japanese Army |
| United States | The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler | James P. Hogan | Man with likeness for Adolf Hitler plans his assassination takeover of his identity | |
| Japan | Suicide Squad at the Watchtower† | Bōrō no kesshitai (望楼の決死隊) | Tadashi Imai | Japanese, Koreans and Chinese cooperate against bandits near the Yalu river |
| United States | This Land Is Mine | Jean Renoir | French Resistance | |
| Italy | The Three-hundred of the Seventh† | I trecento della Settima | Mario Baffico | Alpini on the Greek front |
| United States | Thousands Cheer | George Sidney | Musical comedy romance. Soldier wants to be airman | |
| United States | Three Russian Girls | Henry S. Kesler, Fyodor Otsep | The Eastern Front | |
| United States | Tiger Fangs | Sam Newfield | Thriller. Nazis make man-eaters of Malayan tigers [3] | |
| Japan | The Tiger of Malaya† | Marai no Tora (マライの虎) | Koga Masato | The story of Japanese secret agent Tani Yutaka, known as 'Harimau' (Malay word for 'Tiger') |
| United States | Tonight We Raid Calais | John Brahm | ||
| Japan | Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky† | Kessen no ōzora e (決戦の大空へ) | Kunio Watanabe | Training of young boys in the Yokaren, a program feeding new pilots into the Japanese Army and Navy |
| Italy | The Train with the Cross† | Il treno crociato | Carlo Campogalliani | Italian hospital-train on the Russian front |
| United Kingdom | Undercover (Underground Guerrillas) | Sergei Nolbandov | Yugoslav guerrillas in Serbia | |
| United States | Watch on the Rhine | Herman Shumlin | Nazi agents pursue a German freedom-fighter and his family to Washington | |
| United Kingdom | We Dive at Dawn | Anthony Asquith | Submarine warfare during the Battle of the Atlantic | |
| United States | We've Never Been Licked (Texas to Tokyo / Fighting Command) | John Rawlins | Japanese spies at Texas A&M University |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Action in Arabia | Léonide Moguy | Intrigue involving Nazis in Damascus, Syria | |
| United States | Address Unknown | William Cameron Menzies | German-American returns to Germany with his family and becomes a Nazi, cutting off contact with his Jewish friend in America | |
| Italy | Air Base† | Aeroporto | Piero Costa | Italian aviators flying for the Regia Aeronautica in the summer of 1943 and then, after the armistice, for the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana |
| Japan | Battle Troop | Raigekitai shutsudo (来撃退しゅつど) | Kajirō Yamamoto | Torpedo bomber squadron at war |
| United Kingdom | Bees in Paradise | Val Guest | Musical comedy. Allied bomber crashes on mysterious Atlantic island [3] | |
| Japan | Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron (Colonel Kato's Flying Squadron) | Kato hayabusa sento-tai (過渡ハヤブサ線と歌い) | Kajiro Yamamoto | |
| United States | The Conspirators | Jean Negulesco | Spy drama | |
| Japan | The Daily Battle | Nichijō no tatakai (日常の戦い) | Yasujirō Shimazu | Japanese teacher of English language serves as an Army interpreter in South-East Asia |
| Philippines | Dawn of Freedom (Fire on That Flag!) | Liwayway ng kalayaan(in Tagalog) Ano hata o ute (あの旗を撃て) | Gerardo de León, Yutaka Abe | Japan–Philippines relations during Japanese occupation of the Philippines |
| United States | Days of Glory | Jacques Tourneur | Soviet partisans | |
| Japan | The Decisive Battle | Kessen (決戦) | Kōzaburō Yoshimura | Japanese war production |
| Nazi Germany | The Degenhardts | Die Degenhardts | Werner Klingler | Bombing of Lübeck on 28 March 1942 |
| United States | Dragon Seed | Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway | The Sino-Japanese War | |
| Argentina | End of the Night | El Fin de la Noche | Libertad Lamarque Homero Cárpena | A female Argentinetango singer in occupied France gets romantically involved with a Resistance member |
| United States | The Eve of St. Mark | John M. Stahl | Philippines Campaign (1941–1942) | |
| Italy | Everyday Is Sunday† | Ogni giorno è domenica | Mario Baffico | An Italian soldier is wounded on the Greek front and his leg is amputated, but when he returns home his girlfriend still loves him |
| Sweden | Excellency† | Excellensen | Hasse Ekman | Austrian poet opposes Nazism and therefore is imprisoned in a concentration camp |
| Japan | Field Army Band† | Yasen gungakutai (野戦軍楽隊) | Masahiro Makino | Music band of the Imperial Japanese Army in an occupied Chinese village |
| United States | The Fighting Seabees | Edward Ludwig | US Navy Seabees in the Pacific War | |
| United States | The Fighting Sullivans (The Sullivans) | Lloyd Bacon | The Sullivan brothers | |
| United States | Four Jills in a Jeep | William A. Seiter | Female stars of USO shows [13] | |
| United States | Going My Way | Leo McCarey | Ted Haines Jr. fights in Africa | |
| United States | Hail the Conquering Hero | Preston Sturges | Comedy. Civilian with medical discharge befriends Marines | |
| Japan | Hot Wind† | Neppū (熱風) | Satsuo Yamamoto | War production in a Japanese steel foundry |
| United States | The Hour Before the Dawn | Frank Tuttle | Drama based on W. Somerset Maugham novel. Austrian refugee is Nazi spy preparing for German invasion of England | |
| Japan | The Human Bullet Volunteer Corps | Nikudan teishintai (肉弾挺身隊) | Shigeo Tanaka | Guadalcanal Campaign |
| United States | The Impostor | L'Imposteur | Julien Duvivier | Condemned French killer escapes and joins Free French in Chad |
| United States | In the Meantime, Darling | Otto Preminger | Stateside military housing | |
| Sweden | The Invisible Wall† | Den osynliga muren | Gustaf Molander | In an unnamed country occupied by Nazis a girl becomes indirectly involved in a terrorist attack and helps Jews to escape |
| Soviet Union | Jurgais pari | Jurgais pari (ჯურღაის ფარი) (in Georgian) (Щит Джургая) (in Russian) | Siko Dolidze, Davit Rondeli | |
| United States | Ladies Courageous | John Rawlins | Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron | |
| United States | Lifeboat | Alfred Hitchcock | Drama. Survivors adrift in Battle of the Atlantic | |
| Sweden | Live Dangerously | Lev farligt | Lauritz Falk | Norwegian resistance movement |
| Soviet Union | Malakhov Hill | Malakhov kurgan (Малахов курган) | Iosif Kheifits, Aleksandr Zarkhi | Siege of Sevastopol |
| United States | Marine Raiders | Harold D. Schuster | Battle of Edson's Ridge during Battle of Guadalcanal, then Australian R&R | |
| United States | Marriage Is a Private Affair | Robert Z. Leonard | ||
| United States | The Master Race | Herbert J. Biberman | ||
| United States | The Miracle of Morgan's Creek | Preston Sturges | Comedy. Young woman wants big send-off for departing soldiers | |
| Japan | Mr. Sailor† | Suihei-san (水兵さん) | Kenkichi Hara | |
| Korea | Mr. Soldier† | Heitai-san (兵隊さん) Byeongjeongnim (병정님) | Han-jun Bang | Young Korean men conscripted into the Japanese Army |
| United States | Mr. Winkle Goes to War | Alfred E. Green | ||
| Japan | The Most Beautiful | Ichiban utsukushiku (一番美しく) | Akira Kurosawa | Japanese female workers in a war production factory |
| United States | The Navy Way | William A. Berke | [3] | |
| United States | Passage to Marseille | Michael Curtiz | ||
| United States | Passport to Destiny | Ray McCarey | Charwoman travels to Germany to assassinate Hitler | |
| United States | The Purple Heart | Lewis Milestone | POWs captured during Doolittle Raid | |
| Soviet Union | Rainbow | Raduga (Радуга) | Mark Donskoy | Drama based on Wanda Wasilewska novel. |
| Australia | The Rats of Tobruk (The Fighting Rats of Tobruk) | Charles Chauvel | Siege of Tobruk | |
| United States | Rosie the Riveter | Joseph Santley | Musical. | |
| Japan | Santarō Pitches In† | Santarō gambaru (三太郎頑張る) | Hiromasa Nomura | Santarō, a Japanese boy, works in a factory producing Zero fighters |
| United States | See Here, Private Hargrove | Wesley Ruggles | Comedy based on Marion Hargrove book. US Army training at Fort Bragg | |
| United States | Sergeant Mike | Henry Levin | Dog handler in the Pacific War | |
| United States | Since You Went Away | John Cromwell | Home front | |
| Japan | Sinking the Unsinkable† | Fuchinkan gekichin (不沈艦撃沈) | Masahiro Makino | Japanese workers in a factory increase their production of aerial torpedoes for the Japanese Navy after the sinking of the Prince of Wales |
| United States | Song of Russia | Gregory Ratoff | ||
| United States | The Story of Dr. Wassell | Cecil B. DeMille | Navy doctor in the Battle of Java | |
| Italy | Stronghold† | Caposaldo | Andrea Miano | Italian and German soldiers of the Army Group Liguria fighting against partisans[14] |
| United States | Sunday Dinner for a Soldier | Lloyd Bacon | Drama. Home front | |
| United States | Tampico | Lothar Mendes | U-boat operations in Gulf of Mexico with sinking of Mexican oil tankers make Mexico an Allied nation | |
| United States | Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo | Mervyn LeRoy | Doolittle Raid | |
| United States | Till We Meet Again | Frank Borzage | ||
| United States | To Have and Have Not | Howard Hawks | ||
| United States | Two-Man Submarine | Lew Landers | ||
| United Kingdom | 2,000 Women (Two Thousand Women / House of 1,000 Women) | Frank Launder | Internment camps for British women in occupied France | |
| United States | U-Boat Prisoner (Dangerous Mists) | Lew Landers | Rescued seaman considered German agent amidst submarine warfare | |
| United States | Uncertain Glory | Raoul Walsh | Condemned French killer escapes and aids Resistance | |
| United States | Waterfront | Steve Sekely | [3] | |
| United Kingdom | The Way Ahead (The Immortal Battalion) | Carol Reed | Conscripts are trained and fight in the North African Campaign[3] | |
| United States | The White Cliffs of Dover | Clarence Brown | ||
| Italy Romania | The White Squadron | Squadriglia bianca(in Italian) Escadrila albă(in Romanian) | Ion Sava | Royal Romanian Air Force squadron of hospital airplanes piloted only by women |
| United States | Wing and a Prayer (The Story of Carrier X) | Henry Hathaway | Battle of Midway | |
| United States | Winged Victory | George Cukor | Training of US Army Air Forces | |
| Nazi Germany | Young Eagles | Junge Adler | Alfred Weidenmann | Young boy in a factory of warplanes |
| Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Back to Bataan | Edward Dmytryk | Raid at Cabanatuan, Battle of Bataan, guerrilla warfare in the Philippines, Battle of Leyte | |
| Japan | Believe That Others Will Follow† | Ato ni tsuzuku o shinzu (後に続くを信ず) | Kunio Watanabe | The actions of company commander Tōichi Wakabayashi in China, Singapore and Guadalcanal |
| United States | Blood on the Sun | Frank Lloyd | Journalist persecuted by Japanese militarist government [3] | |
| British India | Queen of Burma† | Burma Rani | T. R. Sundaram | An Indian spy ring in Japanese-occupied Burma |
| United States | China's Little Devils | Monta Bell | A group of Chinese children assist downed American pilots escape the Japanese | |
| United States | Christmas in Connecticut | Peter Godfrey | Comedy. A food columnist hosts a coming-home banquet for a war hero. | |
| United States | Cornered | Edward Dmytryk | Ex-Nazis in Argentina | |
| United States | Counter-Attack | Zoltan Korda | Eastern Front | |
| Mexico | Escuadrón 201 | Escuadrón 201 | Jaime Salvador | 201st Air Fighter Squadron of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana in the Battle of Luzon and Philippines Campaign |
| United States | First Yank Into Tokyo | Gordon Douglas | American agent has to rescue a scientist bearing valuable secrets about the atomic bomb. | |
| Japan | Girls of the Air Base† | Otome no iru kichi (乙女のゐる基地) | Yasushi Sasaki | Girl mechanics work in a Kamikaze air base |
| United States | God Is My Co-Pilot | Robert Florey | Drama based on Robert Lee Scott, Jr. book. Flying Tigers | |
| United States | The House on 92nd Street | Henry Hathaway | Docudrama. Duquesne Spy Ring | |
| Denmark | The Invisible Army | Den usynlige hær | Johan Jacobsen | Danish partisan |
| United States | Keep Your Powder Dry | Edward Buzzell | Women's Army Corps | |
| Switzerland | The Last Chance | Die letzte Chance | Leopold Lindtberg | Escaping Nazi prison train in Italy, an American and a British soldier head for Switzerland [3] |
| Japan | The Last Visit Home† | Saigo no kikyō (最後の桔梗) | Shigeo Tanaka Misao Yoshimura | Kamikaze |
| Nazi Germany | Life Goes On | Das Leben geht weiter | Wolfgang Liebeneiner | German home frontV-2 rockets will turn the tide of war in Germany's favour[15] |
| Korea | Love and the Vow† | Ai to chikai (愛と誓ひ) Sarang kwa maengsŏ (사랑과 맹서) | Tadashi Imai In-kyu Ch'oe | Korean orphan living with Japanese parents volunteers in a Kamikaze unit |
| Japan | Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors | Momotaro no koumi no senshi (百田炉の香味の戦士) | Mitsuyo Seo | Anime. Japanese folk hero and animal buddies drive British soldiers off an island [16] |
| United States | Objective, Burma! | Raoul Walsh | Burma Campaign | |
| United States | Out of the Depths | D. Ross Lederman | Fictional rogue Japanese resistance during the USS Missourisurrender ceremony | |
| United States | Pride of the Marines | Delmer Daves | Battle of Guadalcanal and civilian readjustment | |
| United States | Prison Ship | Arthur Dreifuss | Revolt of American POWs aboard a Japanese ship | |
| Denmark | The Red Meadows | De røde enge | Bodil Ipsen, Lau Lauritzen Jr. | Young Danish saboteur |
| Italy | Rome, Open City | Roma città aperta | Roberto Rossellini | Italian resistance in German-occupied Rome |
| United States | Samurai | Raymond Cannon | Japanese spy in California | |
| Italy | The Song of Life† | Il canto della vita | Carmine Gallone | Italian partisan hiding in the countryside |
| Japan | Spy Ship 'Sea Rose' | Kanchō Umi no bara (間諜海の薔薇) | Teinosuke Kinugasa | Kempeitai discover an American spy ring and help sinking the enemy spy-submarine Sea Rose |
| United States | The Story of GI Joe | William A. Wellman | Journalist Ernie Pyle with Company C, 18th Infantry in the North African Campaign and the Battle of Monte Cassino | |
| United States | They Were Expendable | John Ford | PT boats in the Battle of the Philippines (1941-42) | |
| United States | This Man's Navy | William A. Wellman | Adventure. US Navy airships | |
| Italy | The Timeless House† | La casa senza tempo | Andrea Forzano | Enemy spies try to steal the blueprints of a new airplane [17] |
| United States | Too Young to Know | Frederick De Cordova | War in the South Pacific separates young couple | |
| Italy | Two Anonymous Letters | Due lettere anonime | Mario Camerini | Italian resistance and collaboration in German-occupied Rome |
| United States | A Walk in the Sun | Lewis Milestone | Invasion of Salerno | |
| United Kingdom | The Way to the Stars | Anthony Asquith | RAF and USAAF bomber crews stationed in England | |
| United States | What Next, Corporal Hargrove? | Richard Thorpe | Comedy. Final adventures of Private Hargrove in Europe |
| Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | France | Battle of the Rails | La bataille du rail | René Clément | Resistance on French railways |
| 1946 | Italy | Before Him All Rome Trembled | Avanti a lui tutta Roma tremava | Carmine Gallone | Italian resistance in German-occupied Rome |
| 1946 | United States | The Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler | 1946 Best Picture depicting American servicemen struggling to return to civilian live after the war | |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | The Captive Heart | Basil Dearden | British POWs in Germany | |
| 1946 | Italy | A Day in Life | Un giorno nella vita | Alessandro Blasetti | A group of Italian partisans seek refuge in a cloistered convent |
| 1946 | Philippines | Death March | Leopoldo Salcedo | Bataan Death March | |
| 1946 | Poland | Forbidden Songs | Zakazane piosenki | Leonard Buczkowski | Musical. Polish resistance 1939–1945 [18] |
| 1946 | Philippines | Garrison 13 | Gregorio Fernandez | War crimes committed by Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines | |
| 1946 | Philippines | Golden Clock | Orasang Ginto | Manuel Conde | Battle of Bataan and Battle of Corregidor |
| 1946 | Poland Italy | The Great Road† | Wielka droga(in Polish) | Michał Waszyński | Polish Campaign 1939, Russia, Africa, Italy 1944 |
| 1946 | Philippines | Guerilyera | Guerilyera | Octavio Silos | Guerrilla movement in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines |
| 1946 | Philippines | I Remember Bataan | Dugo ng Bayan | Fernando Poe, Sr. | Filipino resistance |
| 1946 | Soviet Union Yugoslavia | In the Mountains of Yugoslavia | V gorach Yugoslavii (В горах Югославии) (in Russian) U planinama Jugoslavije(in Serbo-Croatian) | Abram Room | Yugoslav partisans; Draza Mihailovich and Chetniks |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | Journey Together | John Boulting | Three RAF pilots from recruitment to first combat | |
| 1946 | Italy | Monte Cassino | Montecassino (Montecassino nel cerchio di fuoco) | Arturo Gemmiti | Battle of Monte Cassino and destruction of the abbey |
| 1946 | Italy | O sole mio | O sole mio | Giacomo Gentilomo | Four days of Naples |
| 1946 | United States | O.S.S. | Irving Pichel | US agents infiltrate in German-occupied France | |
| 1946 | United States | Rendezvous 24 | James Tinling | Germans planning revenge on Allies through atomic weapons | |
| 1946 | Italy | Outcry | Il sole sorge ancora | Aldo Vergano | Italian disbanded soldiers after the armistice and resistance |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | School for Secrets | Peter Ustinov | Operation Biting | |
| 1946 | United States | The Stranger | Orson Welles | A member of the United Nations War Crimes Committee hunts down a Nazi war criminal who has fled to Connecticut | |
| 1946 | United Kingdom | Theirs is the Glory | Brian Desmond Hurst and Terence Young | Operation Market Garden | |
| 1946 | Philippines | Walang Kamatayan | Walang Kamatayan | Tor Villano | Japanese Occupation of the Philippines |
| 1947 | Italy | Christmas at Camp 119 | Natale al campo 119 | Pietro Francisci | Comedy-drama. Italian POWs in a US camp before repatriation |
| 1947 | United Kingdom | Frieda | Basil Dearden | ||
| 1947 | Italy | How I Lost the War | Come persi la guerra | Carlo Borghesio | Comedy. An unlucky soldier fights in nearly every Italian campaign since the Second Italo-Ethiopian War |
| 1947 | Denmark | Jenny and the Soldier | Soldaten og Jenny | Johan Jacobsen | |
| 1947 | Poland | The Last Stop | Ostatni etap | Wanda Jakubowska | Auschwitz-Birkenau |
| 1947[19] | Italy | Men and Skies† | Uomini e cieli | Francesco De Robertis | Regia Aeronautica |
| 1947 | Occupied Germany | Seven Journeys (In Those Days) † | In jenen Tagen | Helmut Käutner | Twelve years of Nazi rule as experienced by a car |
| 1947 | China | The Spring River Flows East | Yījiāng Chūnshuǐ Xiàng Dōng Liú (一江春水向東流) | Cai Chusheng, Zheng Junli | Sino-Japanese War |
| 1947 | United States | 13 Rue Madeleine | Henry Hathaway | US agents infiltrate in German-occupied France | |
| 1947 | Italy | To Live in Peace | Vivere in pace | Luigi Zampa | Two former American PoWs hide in an Italian village occupied by the Germans in 1944 |
| 1947 | Japan | War and Peace | Sensō to heiwa (戦争と平和) | Fumio Kamei | Japanese soldier falls prisoner of the Chinese and then returns to his home |
| 1948 | Italy | ..And Not Say Goodbye† | ..E non dirsi addio | Silvio Laurenti Rosa | Three escaped Allied PoWs and three German soldiers fraternize near Rome in November 1943 |
| 1948 | United Kingdom | Against the Wind | Charles Crichton | Commando raid into occupied Belgium | |
| 1948 | Austria | The Angel with the Trumpet (The Angel with the Trombone) | Der Engel mit der Posaune | Karl Hartl | Drama based on Ernst Lothar novel. Salzburg through both world wars |
| 1948 | Poland | Border Street | Ulica Graniczna | Aleksander Ford | Holocaust in occupied Poland |
| 1948 | United Kingdom Netherlands | But Not in Vain | Niet Tevergeefs | Edmond T. Gréville | Drama.[20] |
| 1948 | United States | Command Decision | Sam Wood | Command stresses in the US Eighth Air Force | |
| 1946 | Italy | Damned War!..† | Accidenti alla guerra!.. | Giorgio Simonelli | Comedy. An Italian disguises himself as a German soldier and is chosen to take part to the Lebensborn |
| 1948 | United States | Fighter Squadron | Raoul Walsh | P-47 fighters in the air war in Europe | |
| 1948 | Italy | The Great Road† | La grande strada | Michał Waszyński, Vittorio Cottafavi | Polish Campaign 1939, Russia, Africa, Italy 1944 [21] |
| 1948 | United States | Jungle Patrol | Joseph M. Newman | P-40 fighters in the air war in the New Guinea campaign | |
| 1948 | Italy | The Mascot of the Blue Devils† | La mascotte dei Diavoli Blu | Carlo Baltier | An Italian child becomes blind due to an accident with German cavalrymen during an American bombing, but regains his sight thanks to American physicians |
| 1948 | Occupied Germany | Morituri | Morituri(in Latin) (Freiwild(in German)) | Eugen York | [22] |
| 1948 | Yugoslavia | On Their Own Territory | Na svoji zemlji | France Štiglic | Slavs fighting to kill Germans and Italians on Eastern Front (World War 2) |
| 1948 | Norway France | Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water | La Bataille de l'eau lourde(in French) Kampen om tungtvannet(in Norwegian) | Jean Dréville, Titus Vibe-Müller | Docudrama. Norwegian heavy water sabotage |
| 1948 | Italy | Phantoms of the Sea | Fantasmi del mare | Francesco De Robertis | The effects of the Italian armistice on an Italian warship (based upon the facts happened on the battleship Giulio Cesare) |
| 1948 | United States Switzerland | The Search | [23] | Fred Zinnemann | Displaced persons in postwar Germany |
| 1948 | Poland | The Steel Hearts | Stalowe serca | Stanisław Januszewski | Silesia, Poland 1944 / 1945 |
| 1948 | Denmark | The Viking Watch of the Danish Seaman | Støt står den danske sømand | Bodil Ipsen, Lau Lauritzen Jr. | Docudrama. Danish sailors |
| 1949 | United States | Battleground | William A. Wellman | 101st Airborne Division in the Battle of the Bulge | |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | The Battle of Stalingrad | Stalingradskaya bitva (Сталинградская битва) | Vladimir Petrov | Battle of Stalingrad |
| 1949 | Philippines | Capas | Capas | Gregorio Fernandez | Bataan Death March survivor, appointed hometown mayor by Japanese, supports guerrilla activity |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | Encounter at the Elbe | Vstrecha na Elbe (Встреча на Эльбе) | Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksei Utkin | Elbe Day |
| 1949 | Soviet Union | The Fall of Berlin | Padeniye Berlina (Падение Берлина) | Mikheil Chiaureli | Battle of Berlin |
| 1949 | Italy | The Flame That Will Not Die | La fiamma che non si spegne | Vittorio Cottafavi | Italian hero Salvo D'Acquisto |
| 1949 | United Kingdom United States | The Hasty Heart | Vincent Sherman | British and US wounded soldiers in the Burma campaign | |
| 1949 | United States | Home of the Brave | Mark Robson | Black soldier paralyzed after unit attacked on Pacific island | |
| 1949 | United States | Lost Boundaries | Alfred L. Werker | Drama. White US Navy officer is actually Negro | |
| 1949 | United States | Malaya | Richard Thorpe | Smuggler paroled to sneak rubber crop out of Japanese-held Malaya | |
| 1949 | France | Mission in Tangier | Mission à Tanger | André Hunebelle | Journalist carries documents to London from Tangiers |
| 1949 | Italy | Monastery of Santa Chiara† | Monastero di Santa Chiara | Mario Sequi | Drama. Naples during the German and then the Allied occupations |
| 1949 | Spain | Neutrality | Neutralidad (Los caballeros del mar) | Eusebio Fernández Ardavín | A neutral Spanish merchantman rescues American sailors from a sunk ship |
| 1949 | Poland | The Others Will Follow | Za wami pójdą inni | Antoni Bohdziewicz | Warsaw, Polish resistance |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | Private Angelo | Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov | Light-hearted story. Reluctantly conscripted Italian soldier | |
| 1949[24] | Italy | Sailors Without Stars† | Marinai senza stelle | Francesco De Robertis | Italian boys embark on a torpedo boat (depicted by a Gabbiano-class corvette) |
| 1949 | United States | Sands of Iwo Jima | Allan Dwan | Battle of Tarawa and Battle of Iwo Jima | |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | The Small Back Room | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Bomb disposal | |
| 1949 | Denmark | That applies to us all†· | Det gælder os alle | Alice O'Fredericks | Young survivor from a concentration camp |
| 1949 | United Kingdom | They Were Not Divided | Terence Young | The British Guards Armoured Division | |
| 1949 | United States | Twelve O'Clock High | Henry King | B-17 bombers of the US Eighth Air Force |
A dramatised documentary is a documentary film which includes dramatised scenes using actors in costume.
This format is distinct from a docudrama, which is a fully dramatised fact-based fictional work in a documentary style.
| Year | Country | Main title (Alternative titles) | Original title (Original script) | Director | Battles, campaigns, events depicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | France | My Crimes After Mein Kampf | Après Mein Kampf, mes crimes | 'Jean-Jacques Valjean' | Assassinations of Ernst Röhm and Kurt von Schleicher on Night of the Long Knives, 1934, then Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, also 1934 |
| 1940 | United Kingdom | Mein Kampf - My Crimes (After Mein Kampf?: The Story of Adolph Hitler) | Norman Lee (uncredited) | ||
| 1992 | Canada | A Savage Christmas: The Fall of Hong Kong (TV) | Brian McKenna | Drama. Royal Rifles regiment at Battle of Hong Kong, 1941 | |
| 1992 | Canada | Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command (TV) | Brian McKenna | Drama. RCAFLancaster bombing of German cities | |
| 1992 | Canada | In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944 (TV) | Brian McKenna | Drama. Black Watch regiment at Battle of Verrières Ridge, 1944 | |
| 1995 | Canada | War at Sea: U-boats in the St. Lawrence (TV) | Brian McKenna | Drama. | |
| 1995 | Canada | War at Sea: The Black Pit (TV) | Brian McKenna | Drama. | |
| 1996 | Canada | A Web of War | Brian McKenna | Drama. Polish Gen. Wladyslaw Anders | |
| 2003 | United Kingdom | Killing Hitler (TV) | Jeremy Lovering | Drama. Operation Foxley plan to kill Hitler, 1944 |
In the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists (the rebel side) are supported by Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and a small number of international rightist volunteers. The Republicans (government side) are supported by Stalin's Soviet Union and a large number of leftist volunteers, the International Brigades.
The Nationalists under Francisco Franco win.
During World War II, Franco remains neutral – so Gibraltar is never overrun – but nevertheless he sends the Blue Division to fight for Germany on the Eastern Front.
For films about the Blue Division, see the List of World War II films since 1950.