Best World War Ii Movies & TV Shows

Jeremy Clarkson tells the story of what’s been called ‘the original Mission Impossible’ – the audacious Commando raid on the German occupied dry dock at St. Nazaire in France on March 28th 1942. Operation Chariot, as the raid was codenamed, had a simple aim – to destroy the dry dock and thus deny the German battleship Tirpitz a safe haven on the Atlantic coast of France. There were many who thought the mission too risky, but the Chief of Combined Operations, Louis Mountbatten, pushed forward. This programme explores the story around March 26th 1942, when Commandos in Cornwall boarded their floating bomb and set off to see if the element of surprise really could overcome all the odds.

Winston Churchill, one of the most revered men of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated leaders in contemporary history. Between 1940 and 1945, these two enormously contradictory personalities faced each other in both politics and war. A clash of giants whose story begins in the trenches of the World War I and ends with the debacle of the World War II.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, this special presents the key events of the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe and the subsequent battles that captured the control of the Normandy coast. Some of the last surviving veterans recall in detail the terror, patriotism and drama from the frontlines of war. This special also honors the diverse backgrounds of all who served.

Inspired in part by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibition and supported by its historical resources, this documentary series examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, the eugenics movement in the United States, and race laws in the American south.

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.

The only two survivors of the Treblinka concentration camp recount the horrors they experienced and tell how their lives were after escaping during a revolt in 1943.

As the world faces its Second World War, John Halder, a good, intelligent German professor, finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences.

The shocking story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga navigated the horrors of World War Il and launched modern fashion.

The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

War and Remembrance is an American miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Herman Wouk. It is the sequel to highly successful The Winds of War.

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

A six-part French documentary about the Second World War composed exclusively of actual footage of the war as filmed by war correspondents, soldiers, resistance fighters and private citizens. The series is shown in color, with the black and white footage being fully colorized, save for some original color footage. The only exception to the treatment are most Holocaust scenes, which are presented in the original black and white.

The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

A documentary series that gives a historical account of the events of World War II, from its roots in the 1920s to the aftermath and the lives it profoundly influenced.

A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

A male hustler drifts into Key West, where he becomes involved in a series of steamy interludes with disreputable locals intertwined in various political intrigues.

Documentary detailing the successful Operation Mincemeat in 1943, which led to the Allies successfully invading Sicily and the war turning in their favour.

Historian James Holland goes inside the Nazi war machine, exploring the extraordinary weapons produced under the Third Reich, in a series that includes rare archive material

Based on a true story of a meeting in June 1945 between two powerful men with very opposite philosophies and perspectives on the future of their country.

This High Definition, PBS miniseries uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-American service men and women since the earliest days of the republic.

The story of the Convoys is a tale of compelling drama, full of bravery and tragedy. It takes us into the lives of hundreds of thousands of unheralded men whose incredible everyday courage, played out in the cruel seas and cold skies of the North Atlantic changed the course of the war.

Wartime sweetheart Vera Lynn presents this documentary which sets archive footage and newsreel film from World War Two to the popular sounds of the day. Artists featured include Flanagan and Allen, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Bing Crosby, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Andrews Sisters and the Mills Brothers.

Through vividly enhanced archival footage and voices from all sides of the conflict, this docuseries brings WWII to life like never before.

A New York City probation officer, noted for his sympathy with delinquents, put to a severe test when his daughter falls for a boy whom circumstances force into breaking the law.

During World War II, a hand-picked group of American GI's undertook a bizarre mission: create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and dazzling performance art to bluff the enemy again and again, often right along the front lines. Many of the men picked to carry out these dangerous deception missions were artists. Some went on to become famous, including fashion designer Bill Blass. In their spare time, they painted and sketched their way across Europe, creating a unique and moving visual record of their war. Their secret mission was kept hushed up for nearly 50 years after the war's end.

Dad’s Army is Britain’s favourite sitcom but 3 of the original 80 episodes have been lost. Now, using the original scripts by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, those three episodes have been recreated as faithfully as possible and come to the screen for the first time since 1969. The brilliant new cast includes Kevin McNally as Captain Mainwaring, Robert Bathurst as Sergeant Wilson, Kevin Eldon as Lance Corporal Jones, David Hayman as Private Frazer, Mathew Horne as Private Walker, Timothy West as Private Godfrey and Tom Rosenthal as Private Pike.

It had been 50 years since two Avro Lancaster bombers flew side by side. The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Avro Lancaster, VeRA, flew from Hamilton, Ontario to meet her British counterpart, Thumper - the only other surviving flight worthy Lancaster bomber in the world - the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's (BBMF) Lancaster in England. This documentary includes first-hand accounts from the men and women who experienced the war and were connected to the Lancaster. It transports the viewer back in time as they share what it was like during the Lancaster's glory days. REUNION OF GIANTS documents this historic mission as it unfolds through the eyes of the flight crews, veterans, friends and family. It includes all parts in this new chapter of the bomber's history, as VeRA crosses the Atlantic.

Using never-before-seen footage, Japan's War In Colour tells a previously untold story. It recounts the history of the Second World War from a Japanese perspective, combining original colour film with letters and diaries written by Japanese people. It tells the story of a nation at war from the diverse perspectives of those who lived through it: the leaders and the ordinary people, the oppressors and the victims, the guilty and the innocent. Until recently, it was believed that no colour film of Japan existed prior to 1945. But specialist research has now unearthed a remarkable colour record from as early as the 1930s. For eight years the Japanese fought what they believed was a Holy War that became a fight to the death. Japan's War In Colour shows how militarism took hold of the Japanese people; describes why Japan felt compelled to attack the West; explains what drove the Japanese to resist the Allies for so long; and, finally, reveals how they dealt with the shame of defeat.

Follow the deadliest conflict in human history in real time, week by week, blow by blow.

Blondie organizes Housewives of America to perform home-front wartime duties, including guarding the local dam... Blondie for Victory was twelfth in Columbia's series of comedy films based on Chic Young's popular comic strip Blondie. Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Mr. Dithers and a newlywed husband whose wife is never home thanks to the defense league.

Charles Ryder, an agnostic man, becomes involved with members of the Flytes, a Catholic family of aristocrats, over the course of several years between the two world wars.

Using highly advanced colourisation techniques, critical moments from World War II, from Stalingrad to The Battle of Britain, are shown in a whole new light.

Germany, 1944. Leyna, the 15-year old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi soldier, and they form an unlikely connection in this quickly changing world.

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

Twentysomething Miep Gies didn't hesitate when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops - and the consequences of their own blunders.

On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.