Ministry of Information

After escaping a Nazi POW camp, a young Scottish RAF gunner recounts his perilous journey through occupied France with the help of the Resistance. During his debriefing in London, French intelligence officers press him for details—especially about one companion whose true loyalties may not be what they seemed.

Trawlers at work; the crew on board and landing a catch. The fishing crew are seen with their families on shore shopping and enjoying themselves in the pub. Life aboard a West Coast trawler under arduous and dangerous wartime conditions.

The story of how newspapers were distributed during the Blitz, stressing the importance of an accurate and objective press on the home front.

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.

Two evacuee children living in the United States receive a letter from their mother, Mrs Taylor, telling them of her life in Blitz-era London. Glimpses of the events of Mrs Taylor's typical day, including ration shopping and fire warden training, belie the letter's innocuous statements.

Backstage before a performance, a French actor recalls his time in Madagascar during World War II, when he secretly ran a Resistance radio station under the watch of a collaborationist police chief. His story unfolds in flashback, revealing espionage, deception, and divided loyalties within the French ranks. Made for Britain’s Ministry of Information, this 1944 French-language propaganda short satirizes Vichy opportunism and wartime hypocrisy, and was shelved for decades before its release in 1993.

A 1941 Ministry of Information propaganda film set to the tune of The Lambeth Walk, a popular song from the musical Me and My Girl.

A look at Cally House, a wartime evacuation school established by the Glasgow Education Authority in Gatehouse-of-Fleet.

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

How Somerton, Oxfordshire benefits from membership of the Village Produce Association during 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.

About the war effort in the West Indies.

Documentary by Andrew Buchanan illustrating a time when faith lay at the heart of the British Experience.

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

A tribute to the Avro Lancaster, “the most powerful and efficient bomber in the world, and one of the most important war-winning weapons in the UN”.

Bernard Miles and Percy Walsh play two members of the Home Guard, on duty by a windmill, discussing the causes of the war and the issues at stake.

A romantic tour of Britain set to Dylan Thomas's poetry.

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.

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

A 1944 British documentary showing farming in a rural part of Britain. Produced by Greenpark Productions for the Ministry of Information.