1940s War Movies
The 40 most popular 1940s war movies on Flickfolio, ranked by popularity. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.

The Great Dictator
1940 · 2h 5m
country: United States
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

A Family
1943 · 1h 23m
country: Soviet Union
The film is about the Soviet People's patriotism and friendship.

Why We Fight: Prelude to War
1942 · 53m
country: United States
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.

Spähtrupp Hallgarten
1941 · 1h 40m
country: Germany
Two German soldiers in the Norwegian Campaign.

The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 · 2h 51m
country: United States
It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Sergeant York
1941 · 2h 14m
country: United States
Alvin York a hillbilly sharpshooter transforms himself from ruffian to religious pacifist. He is then called to serve his country and despite deep religious and moral objections to fighting becomes one of the most celebrated American heroes of WWI.

Liberated Earth
1946 · 1h 20m
country: Soviet Union
After the liberation of the Kuban by the Soviet Army troops, farmers return home and begin to restore the destroyed economy. Under the leadership of the young chairman, Nadiezdha Pritulyak, growers are working with great enthusiasm.

Waterloo Bridge
1940 · 1h 48m
country: United States
On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.

Sailors Three
1940 · 1h 26m
country: United Kingdom
Three sailors get drunk while on shore leave and end up on the wrong ship. When they realise their mistake they scramble off it and onto their warship, HMS Ferocious. However, they soon realise that the vessel they have boarded is not the Ferocious but a German battleship.

My Home Village
1949 · 1h 32m
country: North Korea
This was the first feature film to be produced after the liberation of North Korea. It gives a pictures of boundless joy and emotion of the Korean people who are now liberated from the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism thanks to the glorious anti-Japanese struggle organized and led by the great leader Comrade Kim Il-Sung. Unable to endure the insult of the landlord, Gwan Pil gives vent to his rage. Because of this, the Japanese imperialists deprive him of his tenant land and put him in jail where he gains class consciousness under the influence of a KPA operative.

Moscow Skies
1944 · 1h 21m
country: Soviet Union
In September 1941, lieutenant Ilya Streltsov, who graduated from the flight school, was assigned to the fighter aviation regiment guarding the sky of Moscow. He meets in part the nurse Zoya, with whom he grew up in the same yard and with whom he has long been in love. During the first training flight on the "Seagull", lieutenant Streltsov shot down a German plane and received the nickname "Lucky." Streltsov is jealous of the squadron commander to nurse Zoya, believes that he is finding fault with him. For a whole month he is not allowed to fly sorties. In October 1941, lieutenant Streltsov made his first sortie, he shot down one plane and rams the second. For this battle, he is awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Mashenka
1942 · 1h 12m
country: Soviet Union
Lovely telegraph operator Masha Stepanova is a sanitary nurse. During a training alarm, she meets a taxi driver Alexei (Alyosha) Solovyov. He reads verses to a girl and invites her to the theater. But at the appointed time, Alyosha doesn't come, and Mashenka finds him, helps to recover. Young people fell in love with each other, but Alexei was too frivolous, and brings the girl a lot of sorrows and insults. Because of Alexei’s hobby for another girl, Masha breaks up with him. But she will be able to convey her faithful and true-hearted feeling through years of separation and the hardships of wartime, and when they meet again at the front of the Finnish War, Solovyov realizes what a gift of fate was meeting him with this girl.

Silent Barricade
1949 · 2h 8m
country: Czechoslovakia
A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

A Good Lad
1942 · 1h 7m
country: Soviet Union
A group of Russian partisans hiding within a remote forest attempt to destroy a nearby German airfield, all the while assisting a downed French pilot who happens to fall madly in love with a local girl.

Aleksandr Parkhomenko
1942 · 1h 47m
country: Soviet Union
About the life and heroic death of the old Bolshevik-Lugansk resident, participant in the civil war, Aleksandr Yakovlevich Parkhomenko. In 1918, capturing Ukraine, the German occupiers sought to use the Haidamaks, the White Guards and the Greens in their struggle. By order of Voroshilov, Aleksandr Parkhomenko from Lugansk arrives in Tsaritsyn. At the same time, the Germans launched an active offensive. The "red" battalions are poorly armed, however, Parkhomenko manages to raise them to the attack and put the enemy to flight.

Daughters of China
1949 · 1h 35m
country: China
Women play a heroic role in the Volunteer Army fighting the Japanese in the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Story of a Real Man
1948 · 1h 36m
country: Soviet Union
Alexey Meresyev was a fighter pilot during the war. One day he was shot down by Nazis, and because of his wounds both of his legs had to be cut off up to his knees. Because of his spirit and courage, Alexey was able to overcome his disability. He learned not only to walk on his artificial limps, but even dance and fly the plane again. Based on a real-life story.

To Have and Have Not
1945 · 1h 40m
country: United States
A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.

Mrs. Miniver
1942 · 2h 14m
country: United States
Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

Rome, Open City
1945 · 1h 44m
country: Italy
During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

They Died with Their Boots On
1941 · 2h 20m
country: United States
The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains the 7th Cavalry, appeases Chief Crazy Horse and later engages in bloody battle with the Sioux nation.

For Whom the Bell Tolls
1943 · 2h 50m
country: United States
Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan—who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era—has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress.

Anahit
1947 · 1h 6m
country: Soviet Union
The prince falls in love with an ordinary girl and marries her. Later, when enemies capture the prince, it's his young wife who gets him out of trouble.

Hail the Conquering Hero
1944 · 1h 41m
country: United States
Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

Youth of Athens
1949 · 1h 12m
country: Greece
A rich widower impregnates a poor young woman and dumps her. Her brother, member of a resistance group during the Occupation, tries to mend things up.
My Life for Ireland
My Life for Ireland
1941 · 1h 35m
country: Germany
A Nazi propaganda movie from 1941 directed by Max W. Kimmich, covering a story of Irish heroism and martyrdom over two generations under the occupation of the British.

Spy Smasher
1942 · 3h 35m
country: United States
Prior to the United States' involvement in World War II, the masked vigilante Spy Smasher fights Nazi agents operating within the US, led by the treacherous sabotage leader codenamed The Mask.

To Be or Not to Be
1942 · 1h 39m
country: United States
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

Ragismenes kardies...
1945 · 1h 3m
country: Greece
Marios and Louiza broke up because of the war. Marios goes to the front to fight, and Louiza agrees, under pressure from her father, to marry a wealthy man named Alkis, as she believes that Marios has died. When Marios comes back from the front, he wants Louiza back, and he meets with his friend Alkis, who asks him not to contend for the woman he loves. Louiza gets very upset by the new turn of events and loses her memory.

Shield of Jurgai
1944 · 1h 10m
country: Soviet Union
In the Caucasus foothills, battles rage against the German fascist invaders who have broken through. Reinforcements, including Russians, Ukrainians, and Kazakhs, are moving to defend the region. Along the way, the soldiers stop at a half-ruined ancient castle. There, a grey-haired old man recounts the legend of Dzhurga, a valiant warrior who once lived there. The legend comes to life on the screen, depicting a wedding feast in the castle where Dzhurgai celebrates his union with a shepherdess. However, the festivities are interrupted by a foreign enemy attacking Georgia. Led by Dzhurgai, Georgian warriors fight bravely and emerge victorious against the Mongol hordes.

Burma Rani
1945 · 1h 55m
country: India
No overview available

In the Mountains of Yugoslavia
1946 · 1h 25m
country: Soviet Union
Yugoslav farmer-turned-partisan Slavko Babić starts an uprising against the fascist Germans and their allies.

Desire Me
1947 · 1h 31m
country: United States
A war widow falls in love with the man who informed her of her husband's death.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1944 · 2h 18m
country: United States
In 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.

Cadets
1941 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
The year is 1760: it is the time of the Seven Years' War and the advancing Russian army has taken captive 100 underage Prussian cadets. The kids are mishandled by the raping and pillaging Russians, but with the help of a Rittmeister now in the service of the Tsar, they succeed in getting away. They hole up in a deserted fort and eventually sally forward to take back their military academy from the bloodthirsty, pillaging Cossacks.

Bon Voyage
1944 · 26m
country: France
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.

Two Lives
1946 · 1h 20m
country: Norway
During the occupation, informer Klaus Thun insinuates himself into the life of lawyer Nordgård and his happy family. He informs on Nordgård's son Lars and seduces his daughter Eva. Then the children's mother takes matters into her own hands.

Mighty Prince
1945 · 2h 35m
country: Mongolia
This film revolves around Choghtu Khong Tayiji, a 17th century Mongolian prince who waged a campaign of independence against Tibetan and Manchu forces.

Guadalcanal Diary
1943 · 1h 33m
country: United States
Concentrating on the personal lives of those involved, a war correspondent takes us through the preparations, landing and initial campaign on Guadalcanal during WWII.

Zygmunt Kolosovsky
1948 · 1h 28m
country: Soviet Union
Polish anti-fascist Zygmunt Golemba, posing as Baron Fedrucci or a Catholic priest, blows up German headquarters, frees Polish prisoners, and kills Gestapo generals. His name becomes a symbol of revenge and hatred of the enemy...