A History of World War 2 in Movies - 1941
by philipglen | created - 8 months ago | updated - 8 months ago | PublicFollow the course of WW2 in movies, all of which depict or can be taken to represent an actual event. They are organised chronologically by month so that you can follow the course of the War. My other lists cover the other years. Only drama movies are included - no comedies, horror, musicals etc. Only movies in the English language or with English subtitles are featured. Enjoy!
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The One That Got Away (1957)
Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Drama, War
A cocky German fighter pilot is shot down over England in 1940 and makes numerous attempts to escape to fight again.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Hardy Krüger, Colin Gordon, Michael Goodliffe, Terence Alexander
Votes: 2,485
Franz Von Werra escapes January 1941
2. The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, War
In the North Sea in 1944, passengers of a downed Royal Air Force transport aircraft talk about their lives while awaiting rescue in their dinghy.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano, Jack Watling
Votes: 730
Air Sea Rescue service formed January 1941
3. Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
Approved | 130 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During World War II in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: John Mills, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, Harry Andrews
Votes: 6,627
Siege of Tobruk begins April 1941
4. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music, Romance
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale
Votes: 35,965 | Gross: $25.54M
Greece surrenders April 1941
5. U-571 (2000)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, War
A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.
Director: Jonathan Mostow | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi
Votes: 87,433 | Gross: $77.09M
Sinking of U110 and the capture of the Enigma machine May 1941
6. Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Drama, History
The World War II story of the Royal Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner, Laurence Naismith
Votes: 8,316 | Gross: $6.54M
Sinking of HMS Hood and Bismarck May 1941
7. In Which We Serve (1942)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, War
This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
Director: Noël Coward | Stars: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson
Votes: 6,451 | Gross: $0.45M
Sinking of HMS Kelly May 1941
8. Sword of Honour (2001 TV Movie)
208 min | Drama, War
Guy Crouchback, heir to a declining English Roman Catholic family, returns to England from Italy at the start of World War II, and joins the Royal Corps of Halberdiers along with various ... See full summary »
Director: Bill Anderson | Stars: Will Adamsdale, Nick Bartlett, Christopher Benjamin, Jane Bertish
Votes: 933
Fall of Crete May 1941
9. Undercover (1944)
61 min | Drama, War
A training film for OSS agents who are to be dropped behind enemy lines, covering cover and concealment, ambush techniques, etc.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Jack Carson, John Ford, Eddie Foster, Martin Garralaga
Votes: 468
Chetniks fired May 1941
10. Red Tails (2012)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Drama, History
A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard.
Director: Anthony Hemingway | Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr., Gerald McRaney, David Oyelowo, Andre Royo
Votes: 37,258 | Gross: $49.88M
99th Fighter Squadron formed June 1941
11. Fortress of War (2010)
Not Rated | 138 min | Action, Drama, History
A war drama set during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, in which Soviet troops held on to a border stronghold for nine days.
Director: Aleksandr Kott | Stars: Aleksey Kopashov, Andrey Merzlikin, Pavel Derevyanko, Aleksandr Korshunov
Votes: 10,523
Operation Barbarossa June 1941
12. Da hong zha (2018)
R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
During World War II, five different Chinese people fight their way through Japanese Air Force attacks to protect an important military machine in Chongqing, 1940.
Director: Xiao Feng | Stars: Ye Liu, Bruce Willis, Song Seung-heon, William Chan
Votes: 4,790
Chongquin massacre June 1941
13. The Exception (2016)
R | 107 min | Drama, Romance, War
A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.
Director: David Leveaux | Stars: Lily James, Jai Courtney, Christopher Plummer, Ella Holland
Votes: 15,415 | Gross: $0.61M
Kaiser Wilhelm II dies June 1941
14. Beyond the Front Line (2004)
127 min | Drama, History, War
A story of the infantry regiment 61 that fought from Syväri to the Karelian Ishtmus.
Director: Åke Lindman | Stars: Tobias Zilliacus, Ilkka Heiskanen, Christoffer Weiss, Kim Gustafsson
Votes: 1,666
Continuation War begins June 1941
15. Soldier of Orange (1977)
R | 165 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During World War II, Dutch students join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Edward Fox
Votes: 13,881
Dutch resistance fighters escape on the SS St Cergue June 1941
16. Defiance (I) (2008)
R | 137 min | Action, Drama, History
Jewish brothers in German-occupied Eastern Europe escape into a Belorussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters, and endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos
Votes: 155,720 | Gross: $28.64M
Belarus occupied July 1941
17. The Sea Chase (1955)
Approved | 117 min | Action, Drama, War
As World War II begins, German freighter Captain Karl Ehrlich tries to get his ship back to Germany through a gauntlet of Allied warships.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger
Votes: 3,420
The Erlanger scuttled July 1941
18. Berenshtein (2021)
105 min | Biography, History, War
The last of the great partisans, who located Hitler's "wonder weapon", returns to the war that took away his feelings and identity, but failed to rob him of his values as a human being.
Director: Roman Shumunov | Stars: Leonid Berenshtein, Yaroslav Kucherenko, Anton Karlinsky, Lilya Ostapovich
Votes: 441
First battle of Kyiv July 1941
19. Suicide Mission (1954)
Not Rated | 70 min | Drama, War
During World War II, a small group of Norwegian sailors take refugees from Norway to the Shetland Islands in small fishing boats, equipped only with low-caliber weapons to protect themselves from German airplanes and patrol boats.
Director: Michael Forlong | Stars: Leif Larsen, Palmar Bjørnøy, Anthony Oliver, Johannes Kalve
Votes: 235
Shetland Bus commences operations August 1941
20. Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Passed | 126 min | Drama, War
An American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat, and the survivors spend 11 days at sea on a raft. Their next assignment - bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked N. Atlantic.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Byron Haskin, Raoul Walsh | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Julie Bishop
Votes: 4,550
Arctic convoys begin August 1941
21. Reach for the Sky (1956)
Approved | 123 min | Biography, Drama, War
Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson
Votes: 2,993
Douglas Bader shot down August 1941
22. Leningrad (2009)
R | 110 min | Drama, War
Winter, 1941. World War II rages on as Nazi troops invade the Soviet Union and besiege the devastated city of Leningrad. Foreign journalists are quickly evacuated, but in the chaos that ensues, Kate Davies is left behind.
Director: Aleksandr Buravskiy | Stars: Mira Sorvino, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Olga Sutulova, Gabriel Byrne
Votes: 4,797
Siege of Leningrad begins September 1941
23. Red Joan (2018)
R | 101 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B.'s longest-serving British spy.
Director: Trevor Nunn | Stars: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes
Votes: 14,431 | Gross: $1.58M
Tube Alloys established September 1941
24. Saving Leningrad (2019)
TV-PG | 96 min | Action, Drama, War
September 1941. In a turn of events young lovebirds Kostya and Nastya find themselves on board of a barge that will evacuate people from sieged Leningrad. At night the barge gets into the ... See full summary »
Director: Aleksey Kozlov | Stars: Maria Melnikova, Andrey Mironov-Udalov, Gela Meskhi, Anastasiya Melnikova
Votes: 1,417
Sinking of Barge 752 September 1941
25. Panfilov's 28 Men (2016)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Drama, History
In November 1941, remaining squad of Soviet soldiers must stop a column of Nazi Germany tanks.
Directors: Kim Druzhinin, Andrey Shalopa | Stars: Maksim Abrosimov, Sergey Agafonov, Pavel Aseev, Ivan Batarev
Votes: 6,005
Operation Typhoon October 1941
26. The Last Frontier (2020)
136 min | Action, Drama, War
A film about the feat of the Podolsk cadets in October 1941 near Moscow. The cadets of the Podolsk artillery-infantry schools are ordered to take up defenses on the Ilyinsky line.
Director: Vadim Shmelyov | Stars: Artyom Gubin, Lubov Konstantinova, Igor Yudin, Aleksey Bardukov
Votes: 1,878
The Poldosk Cadets deployed to the Llyinskoye line October 1941
27. The Fighting Seabees (1944)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Romance, War
During WW2, the U.S. Navy implements a new idea of forming construction battalions that also are fighting units, in case of Japanese attack.
Director: Edward Ludwig | Stars: John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Dennis O'Keefe, William Frawley
Votes: 3,917
US Navy Construction Battalions formed October 1941
28. Kalashnikov (2020)
110 min | Biography, Drama, War
Wounded as a tank driver in 1941 during World War II, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov sees the latest Soviet machine gun fail. As he's also an inventor, he starts making improvements and in 1947 ends up creating the AK-47 assault rifle.
Director: Konstantin Buslov | Stars: Yura Borisov, Olga Lerman, Artur Smolyaninov, Sergey Gazarov
Votes: 4,826
Battle of Bryansk October 1941
29. The Desert Rats (1953)
Approved | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas
Votes: 5,303
Relief of Tobruk November 1941
30. The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
Approved | 88 min | Biography, Drama, War
The story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler
Votes: 6,712
Operation Flipper November 1941
31. Under Ten Flags (1960)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, War
German raider, using various disguises, forces British ship to surrender. Story told from German point of view.
Director: Duilio Coletti | Stars: Van Heflin, Charles Laughton, Mylène Demongeot, John Ericson
Votes: 553
Sinking of the Atlantis November 1941
32. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,242 | Gross: $29.55M
Attack on Pearl Harbour December 1941
33. The Silent Enemy (1958)
Not Rated | 112 min | Action, Biography, History
During WW2, Italian Navy divers use underwater chariots to mine the keels of British warships, forcing the British to send underwater demolition expert Lionel Crabbe and his team to counter these enemy actions.
Director: William Fairchild | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Dawn Addams, Michael Craig, John Clements
Votes: 848
Raid on Alexandria Harbour December 1941
34. Empire of the Sun (1987)
PG | 153 min | Drama, War
A young English boy struggles to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers
Votes: 134,368 | Gross: $22.24M
Occupation of Shanghai December 1941
35. No Man Is an Island (1962)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, War
During the early Pacific war years, American seaman George Tweed is the only U.S. serviceman on Guam not captured by the Japanese forces.
Directors: Richard Goldstone, John Monks Jr. | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Marshall Thompson, Barbara Perez, Ronald Remy
Votes: 589
Occupation of Guam December 1941
36. Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942)
Approved | 98 min | Drama, History, War
A gentle widower, enraged at German atrocities against his peaceful Norwegian fishing village, escapes to Britain and returns leading a commando force against the oppressors.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Paul Muni, Anna Lee, Lillian Gish, Cedric Hardwicke
Votes: 969 | Gross: $1.30M
Operation Archery December 1941
37. Hong Kong 1941 (1984)
R | 100 min | Drama, War
Years later, a woman narrates her personal story of the Japanese takeover of Hong Kong in 1941. She's Nam, young, attractive, daughter of a wealthy rice merchant, and prey to painful, ... See full summary »
Director: Po-Chih Leong | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Cecilia Yip, Alex Man, Stuart Ong
Votes: 691
Occupation of Hong Kong December 1941
38. Wake Island (1942)
Passed | 88 min | Action, Drama, War
December, 1941. With no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, William Bendix
Votes: 2,199
Wake Island falls December 1941
39. Battle for Sevastopol (2015)
110 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.
Director: Sergey Mokritskiy | Stars: Yuliya Peresild, Evgeniy Tsyganov, Oleg Vasilkov, Nikita Tarasov
Votes: 13,961
Siege of Sevastopol December 1941
40. Air Force (1943)
Approved | 124 min | Action, Drama, History
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy
Votes: 3,816
Clark Field overrun December 1941
Tell Your Friends