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.

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

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”.

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).

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

After a masterful Shakespearean performance in a London theater, Ralph Richardson is sought for an autograph by Fred, his dresser. Later, Fred has joined the Fleet Air Arm (Fly Navy) and become a hero, rescuing a pilot from his burning plane. When Fred arrives at Buckingham Palace, it's Ralph's turn to ask for an autograph.

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

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

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.

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

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.