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During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreign consumption. Animated films are not included here.
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Lion Has Wings | Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Michael Powell, Alexander Korda (uncredited) |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Burma Victory | Roy Boulting | |
| A Diary for Timothy | Humphrey Jennings | |
| Farm Work | ||
| Homes for the People | ||
| Song of the People | ||
| Steam | ||
| The Ten Year Plan | ||
| This Was Japan | ||
| The True Glory | Carol Reed | Shows the final invasion and victory in Europe; won Academy Award for Documentary Feature |
In Australia the Australian News and Information Bureau, under the Department of Information, produced the following
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Advance to Libya | Frank Hurley | |
| 1942 | Kokoda Front Line! | Ken G. Hall | Won Academy Award for Documentary Feature |
| 1942 | Men of Timor | Damien Parer | |
| 1942 | Moresby Under the Blitz | Ken G. Hall | |
| 1942 | Soldiers Without Uniform | Charles Chauvel | |
| 1943 | Assault on Salamaua | ||
| 1943 | The Bismarck Convoy Smashed | ||
| 1945 | Mid East | Frank Hurley |
In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada either distributed or produced the following as part of its Canada Carries On and The World in Action series.
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ACK ACK | Peter Baylis | French title: Défense contre avions |
| Battle of Brains | Stanley Hawes | |
| Call for Volunteers | Radford Crawley | |
| Churchill's Island | Stuart Legg | Won Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. First NFB Oscar winner. |
| Fight for Liberty | ||
| Food, Weapon of Conquest | Stuart Legg | |
| Guards of the North | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Heroes of the Atlantic | J.D. Davidson | Watch online |
| Iceland on the Prairies | Radford Crawley | |
| The People's War | ||
| Soldiers All | Stuart Legg | |
| Strategy of Metals | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Strategy of Metals | Graham McInnes | Combination of A Call for Volunteers (above) and Ottawa, Wartime Capital |
| Tools of War | ||
| Warclouds in the Pacific | Stuart Legg | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject |
| Who Sheds His Blood | Judith Crawley | |
| Wings of a Continent | Raymond Spottiswoode |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Battle for Oil | Stuart Legg | |
| Battle of the Harvests | Stanley Jackson | |
| Blitzkrieg Tactics | Contains footage of Nazi film Feuertaufe | |
| Everywhere in the World | Stuart Legg | Stresses Commonwealth and American solidarity |
| The Face of Time | Graham McInnes | Centenary of the Geological Survey of Canada. Contains war related information. |
| Ferry Pilot | Stuart Legg | |
| Field Training in Winter | Stanley Hawes | |
| Fighting Ships | Graham McInnes | |
| Forward Commandos | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Freighters Under Fire | ||
| Geopolitik - Hitler's Plan for Empire | Stuart Legg | |
| Great Guns | Graham McInnes | |
| If | Philip Ragan | |
| Inside Fighting Canada | Jane Marsh | Watch online |
| Inside Fighting China | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject | |
| Inside Fighting Russia | ||
| Voice of Action | James Beveridge | Watch online |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| John Bull's Own Island | Stuart Legg | |
| Headline Hunters |
The United States had the largest film industry of any of the Allied powers, and its use for propaganda purposes is legendary. Because it was so big, there was no single governmental or semi-governmental agency that centrally controlled it. Instead, the Office of War Information co-ordinated efforts among many entities to produce propaganda:
OCIAA: Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
OEM: Office for Emergency Management
OSS: Office of Strategic Services
USAAF: United States Army Air Forces
USASC: U.S. Army Signal Corps
USASSD: U.S. Army Special Service Division
USDA: United States Department of Agriculture
USDT: United States Department of Treasury
USN: United States Navy
USDW: United States Department of War
WACMPI: War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry
Several of these films, although they have propaganda value, were used as training films for the United States armed forces.
Pre-December films given IMDb release date where available.
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum | WACMPI | ||
| America Builds Ships | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| America Preferred | WACMPI; USDT | Released 20 May | |
| Army in Overalls | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Bits and Pieces | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Defense Review No. 1 | WACMPI | ||
| Defense Review No. 2 | WACMPI | ||
| Men and Ships | WACMPI; BPI | Released June 23 | |
| Pots to Planes | WACMPI; OEM | Released November 22 | |
| Power for Defense | WACMPI; NDC | Released February 18 | |
| Preflight Inspection of the B-17E | USASC; UASAAF | War Department Training Film 1-532 | |
| Red Cross Trailer | WACMPI; | ||
| Where Do We Go? | WACMPI; USO | Released May 28 | |
| Women in Defense | WACMPI; OEM | Released May 28; narrated by Katharine Hepburn; written by Eleanor Roosevelt |
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Tale of Two Cities | USDW; Army-Navy Screen Magazine | Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | |
| That Justice Be Done | George Stevens | OWI; OSS; WACMPI | Nuremberg Trials |
| Seeds of Destiny | Gene Fowler Jr. | USDW; UNRRA | Asks public for humanitarian aid to post-war Europe and Asia |
| Special Delivery | USDW; Army-Navy Screen Magazine | Operation Crossroads (the atomic tests bombings on Bikini Atoll) |
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don't Be a Sucker | USDW | Anti-intolerance film | |
| Thunderbolt! | William Wyler | USDW | About US airstrikes in Italy; introduced by Jimmy Stewart |
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Know Your Ally: Britain | OWI; USASC | ||
| Victory Gardens | USDA |
The low countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in the May–June 1940 blitzkrieg. The Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands most important colony, was conquered by Japan in early 1942. However each had a government in exile which set up the Belgian Ministry of Information and Netherlands Information Bureau, which produced the following films. There were also films made by the resistance while the respective countries were occupied.
| Year | Title | Director | Agency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Belgique toujours | Hippolyte De Kempeneer | Belgian resistance movement | Dutch title: Immer België; English title Forever Belgium |
| 1942 | Little Belgium | Belgian Ministry of Information | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject | |
| 1942 | People of the Indies | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | Holland in the Western Hemisphere | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | High Stakes in the East | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | The Dutch Next Door | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1943 | Glorious Colours | Alfred Travers | Netherlands Information Bureau |
In the Soviet Union, unless otherwise noted, the Central Newsreel Studio produced these films.
In addition to the above, the Soviet cinema distributing company, Artkino, produced the following for foreign markets.
| Year | Title | Director | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Our Russian Front | Joris Ivens & Lewis Milestone | Narrated by Walter Huston |
| 1942 | Moscow Strikes Back | Ilya Kopalin & Leonid Varlamov | Narrated by Edward G. Robinson. One of four winners at the 15th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature. [5] |
| 1943 | Russians at War | ||
| 1947 | The Nuremberg Trials | C Svilov | Soviet view of the Nuremberg Trials |
Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the war, but US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered distribution for public viewing.
Military production during World War II was the production or mobilization of arms, ammunition, personnel and financing by the belligerents of the war, from the occupation of Austria in early 1938 to the surrender and occupation of Japan in late 1945.
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. From 1942 to 1945, the OWI revised or discarded any film scripts reviewed by them that portrayed the United States in a negative light, including anti-war material.
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the "Big Four" - United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.
Nicola Napoli, was the President of Artkino Pictures, Inc., the primary distributor of Soviet films in the United States, Canada, Central America and South America from 1940 to 1982. Napoli was a double agent Soviet Spy for the United States. In 1941, he became an informant for the secret information concerning formulas and products manufactured by Dupont Corporation of America. As part of his role he was a member of Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and is known to have passed classified Soviet intelligence information (NKVDUS) to US intelligence during World War II. He was the secretary for the Anti-Fascists movement in, New York.
The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological warfare against German troops and recently liberated countries in Northwest Europe, during and after D-Day. It was headed by US Brigadier-General Robert A. McClure. The Division was formed from staff of the US Office of War Information (OWI) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE).
Ring of Steel is a 1942 short documentary film directed by Garson Kanin and narrated by Spencer Tracy. "Dedicated to the American Soldier", the film was released on April 2, 1942, and distributed free to all U.S. theaters. The film was produced by Warner Bros. and the United States Office for Emergency Management.
The Allied leaders of World War II listed below comprise the important political and military figures who fought for or supported the Allies during World War II. Engaged in total war, they had to adapt to new types of modern warfare, on the military, psychological and economic fronts.
Britain re-created the World War I Ministry of Information for the duration of World War II to generate propaganda to influence the population towards support for the war effort. A wide range of media was employed aimed at local and overseas audiences. Traditional forms such as newspapers and posters were joined by new media including cinema (film), newsreels and radio. A wide range of themes were addressed, fostering hostility to the enemy, support for allies, and specific pro war projects such as conserving metal and growing vegetables.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to World War II:
Pincers on Japan(Piège à Nippon)is a 19-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The film was directed by James Beveridge, who also produced and directed a similar NFB documentary, Look to the North (1944). Its companion film, Road to Tokyo, was produced in 1942.
U.N.R.R.A. presents In the Wake of the Armies ... is a 13-minute 1944 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film, directed by Guy Glover, described the work of the UNRRA during the Second World War and Canada's role in the relief agency. The film's French version title is À la suite de nos armées viendra l'entraide.
Inside Fighting Russia is a 1942 22-minute Canadian short documentary film produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) for distribution by United Artists, as part of the wartime The World in Action series. The film documents Russia's fight against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Inside Fighting Russia is produced by Stuart Legg, and narrated by Lorne Greene. The film's French version title is La Russie sous les armes.
The War for Men's Minds is a 21-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime The World in Action series. The film was produced by Stuart Legg. The film describes the impact of propaganda from the Axis powers in 1943, during the Second World War. The French version title is À la conquête de l'esprit humain.
Food - Weapon of Conquest is a 22-minute 1941 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film was directed and produced by Stuart Legg. Food - Weapon of Conquest shows the food shortage in Nazi-occupied countries in the Second World War, contrasted with the Allied response to the global food crisis. The film's French version title is Une armée marche sur son estomac.
Pincer on Axis Europe is a 20-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film describes the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942 during the Second World War.
Bombing the Nazis is a 10-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the World War II newsreels shown at theatres in Canada and abroad. The film describes the Allied air war over Europe during the Second World War, concentrating on attacks in 1942 and 1943 on an automobile factory in Vichy France.
Zero Hour is a 22-minute 1944 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of both the wartime Canada Carries On and The World in Action series. The film was produced by Stuart Legg. Zero Hour describes the Axis and Allied invasions that have taken place during the Second World War.
The Battle of the Harvests is an 18-minute 1942 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film was produced by James Beveridge and directed by Stanley Jackson, who also provided the narration. The Battle of the Harvests shows how the farmers were mobilized worldwide in a battle of harvests to serve the fighting nations during the Second World War. The film's French version title was La Bataille des récoltes.
Men of the Sky is a 1942 American Technicolor short propaganda film, directed by B. Reeves Eason. The documentary film reenacted the training of a group of United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) pilots.
available for free download at the Internet Archive