Must see World War II movies
These are must-see not only for their production and historical value, but some were made during the war and were meant to boost morale.
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- DirectorLloyd BaconByron HaskinRaoul WalshStarsHumphrey BogartRaymond MasseyAlan HaleAn American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat, and the survivors spend 11 days at sea on a raft. Their next assignment - bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked N. Atlantic.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn GarfieldJohn RidgelyGig YoungThe crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsTyrone PowerMicheline PresleTom EwellAmerican soldiers stranded in the Philippines after the Japanese invasion form guerrilla bands to fight back.
- DirectorTay GarnettStarsRobert TaylorGeorge MurphyLloyd NolanIn 1942, in the Bataan peninsula of the Philippines, a ragtag American unit commanded by Sergeant Bill Dane attempts to blow-up a bridge in order to slow the Japanese advance.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsJohn WayneAnthony QuinnBeulah BondiIn 1942, after the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese, U.S. Army Col. Joseph Madden stays behind to organize the local resistance against the Japanese invaders.
- DirectorKen AnnakinStarsHenry FondaRobert ShawRobert RyanA dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsBurgess MeredithRobert MitchumFreddie SteeleAt the close of WWII, Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle travels with the U.S. Army's Company C Division during their liberation of Italy.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsVan JohnsonJohn HodiakRicardo MontalbanTrue tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
- DirectorSamuel FullerStarsLee MarvinMark HamillRobert CarradineA hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartIngrid BergmanPaul HenreidA cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsRichard BurtonJames MasonRobert NewtonRichard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.
- DirectorDelmer DavesStarsCary GrantJohn GarfieldAlan HaleIn order to provide information for the first air raid over Tokyo, a U.S. submarine sneaks into Tokyo Bay and places a spy team ashore.
- DirectorDavid MillerStarsJohn WayneJohn CarrollAnna LeeCapt. Jim Gordon's command of the famed American volunteer fighter group in China is complicated by the recruitment of an old friend who is a reckless hotshot.
- DirectorJohn DahlStarsBenjamin BrattJoseph FiennesJames FrancoTaking place towards the end of WWII, 500 American Soldiers have been entrapped in a camp for 3 years. Beginning to give up hope they will ever be rescued, a group of Rangers goes on a dangerous mission to try and save them.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsPreston FosterLloyd NolanWilliam BendixThe story of a large U.S. Marines invasion task force bound for Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1942.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJohn WayneKirk DouglasPatricia NealA Naval officer, reprimanded after Pearl Harbor, is later promoted to Rear Admiral and gets a second chance to prove himself against the Japanese.
- DirectorKen AnnakinAndrew MartonGerd OswaldStarsJohn WayneRobert RyanRichard BurtonThe events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
- DirectorSamuel FullerStarsJeff ChandlerTy HardinPeter BrownDuring WW2, a 3000-strong American unit, known as Merrill's Marauders, battles the Japanese forces in Burma.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsMichael CaineTrevor HowardHarry AndrewsIn 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.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsFrank SinatraGina LollobrigidaPeter LawfordDuring WW2, the American OSS mounts covert operations with the native Kachin against the Japanese army in the jungles of Burma.
- DirectorGeorge WaggnerStarsJohn WaynePatricia NealWard BondDuring WWII, a submarine's second in command inherits the problem of torpedoes that don't explode. When on shore, he is eager to win back his ex-wife.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsHumphrey BogartBruce BennettJ. Carrol NaishAfter the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.
- DirectorJohn FordRobert MontgomeryStarsRobert MontgomeryJohn WayneDonna ReedA Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of World War II.
- DirectorRichard FleischerKinji FukasakuToshio MasudaStarsMartin BalsamSô YamamuraJason RobardsThe story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsGregory PeckHugh MarloweGary MerrillA tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage) takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsHumphrey BogartLauren BacallWalter BrennanDuring World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsSpencer TracyVan JohnsonRobert WalkerIn the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsJames GarnerEtchika ChoureauJack WardenThe lives, loves, and battles of fictional characters in the Army's First Ranger Battalion during WWII.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsAnne BaxterThomas MitchellSelena RoyleThe lives of a close-knit group of brothers growing up in Iowa during the days of the Great Depression.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsJames GarnerEdmond O'BrienAndra MartinIn 1942, Navy Lieutenant Kenneth Braden from the underwater demolition team is sent to a Japanese island to photograph secret radio codes.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsDana AndrewsRichard ConteGeorge TyneDuring WWII, a platoon of American soldiers trudge through the Italian countryside in search of a bridge they have been ordered to blow up, encountering danger and destruction along the way.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsAnne BaxterDana AndrewsWalter HustonA Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the German invasion of June 1941.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsErrol FlynnJames BrownWilliam PrinceA platoon of special ops are tasked to parachute into the remote Burmese jungle and destroy a strategic Japanese radar station, but getting out isn't as easy.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsEdmond O'BrienRobert StackJohn RodneyDuring World War II, an insubordinate fighter pilot finds the shoe on the other foot when he's promoted.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsErrol FlynnAnn SheridanWalter HustonAfter two years under German rule, a small Norwegian fishing village rises up and revolts against the occupying Nazis.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsHumphrey BogartClaude RainsMichèle MorganFive patriotic convicts are helped to escape imprisonment in Devil's Island so they can fight for occupied Free French forces against the Nazis.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsDon AmecheDana AndrewsWilliam EytheIn WW2, an American aircraft carrier sails around the Pacific on a decoy mission until it joins the battle of Midway against the Japanese forces.
- DirectorAaron SchneiderStarsTom HanksElisabeth ShueStephen GrahamSeveral months after the U.S. entry into World War II, an inexperienced U.S. Navy commander must lead an Allied convoy being stalked by a German submarine wolf pack.