Ministry of Information

A young, Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from Nazi-occupied territory. They are particularly interested in one person who may or may not have been a German agent.

A former leader of the French Resistance finds that one of his fellow actors looks like a detestable official he knew in Madagascar during the war. He tells about his time, operating an illegal radio station while evading the Nazis.

A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen. It opens as the assembled allied forces plan and train for the D-Day invasion at bases in Great Britain and covers all the major events of the war in Europe from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin.

Short WW II documentary

How to make porridge using a haybox.

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).

Government information film on how to get maximum wear from a man's suit, narrated by one such suit in the form of an autobiography.

Sheffield stands in as 'Smokedale', an industrial Everytown, in this stirring call for "new schools, new hospitals, new roads, new life", after WWII.

Members of three Commonwealth armies, an Aussie, a Canadian, and a New Zealander meet actor Leslie Howard who buys them a beer and makes them understand why they're fighting.

Part of BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.

The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.

Documentary short featuring a visit by American newsman Edward R. Murrow to the English town of Dover during the Second World War.

A brief documentary about the history of the Royal Mail.

Coventry prepares to rise from the ashes of WWII in this docu-drama written by Dylan Thomas.

This film explains how sneezing in public can spread disease, and shows how using a handkerchief can stop it.

Is your hedge thin and straggly? Don't worry, help is at hand.

An uncredited Anthony Asquith is one of the directors of this WWII film (a joint UK/US production) which aims to explain British culture and character to the newly arrived American soldier. Starting with the ubiquitous pub visit, the film breezes through geography lessons, food and entertainment on the Home Front.

World War II propaganda film.

Documentary on the young builders who'll rebuild Britain after the war.

Ever seen a snake with a moustache? The Middle East was as much an ideological as a physical battleground in the Second World War. In the midst of the conflict Halas & Batchelor were commissioned by the British Government to make four cartoons featuring a young boy Abu and his mule. They were intended to demonstrate in simple visual terms that Britain was a stout friend and the Axis powers a pernicious evil.