A History of World War 2 in Movies - 1941
Follow 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!
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- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsHardy KrügerColin GordonMichael GoodliffeA cocky German fighter pilot is shot down over England in 1940 and makes numerous attempts to escape to fight again.Franz Von Werra escapes January 1941
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsMichael RedgraveDirk BogardeBonar ColleanoIn the North Sea in 1944, passengers of a downed Royal Air Force transport aircraft talk about their lives while awaiting rescue in their dinghy.Air Sea Rescue service formed January 1941
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsJohn MillsAnthony QuayleSylvia SymsDuring 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.Siege of Tobruk begins April 1941
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsNicolas CagePenélope CruzJohn HurtWhen a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.Greece surrenders April 1941
- DirectorJonathan MostowStarsMatthew McConaugheyBill PaxtonHarvey KeitelA German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.Sinking of U110 and the capture of the Enigma machine May 1941
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsKenneth MoreDana WynterCarl MöhnerThe World War II story of the Royal Navy's effort to defeat Nazi Germany's most powerful warship.Sinking of HMS Hood and Bismarck May 1941
- DirectorNoël CowardStarsNoël CowardJohn MillsBernard MilesThis "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.Sinking of HMS Kelly May 1941
- DirectorBill AndersonStarsWill AdamsdaleNick BartlettChristopher BenjaminGuy 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 eccentrics, though his attempts to get back with his wife Virginia, from whom he is separated, fail. After being implicated in a colleague's death, he is sent to train a commando brigade on a Scottish island, and ends up on Crete, taking part in its evacuation, and escaping to Egypt with fellow officers Ludovic and Ivor Claire. He is returned to England courtesy of Mrs. Stitch, to possibly prevent him from naming Claire as a deserter. Guy marries Virginia a second time, by which time she has a child by ex-lover Trimmer. While Guy is in Yugoslavia having a confusing time with the partisans, Virginia is killed, along with Guy's uncle Peregrine, by a doodlebug bomb. Guy returns to England after getting involved in charitable agencies, and eventually remarries.Fall of Crete May 1941
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJack CarsonJohn FordEddie FosterA training film for OSS agents who are to be dropped behind enemy lines, covering cover and concealment, ambush techniques, etc.Chetniks fired May 1941
- DirectorAnthony HemingwayStarsCuba Gooding Jr.Gerald McRaneyDavid OyelowoA 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.99th Fighter Squadron formed June 1941
- DirectorAleksandr KottStarsAleksey KopashovAndrey MerzlikinPavel DerevyankoA 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.Operation Barbarossa June 1941
- DirectorXiao FengStarsYe LiuBruce WillisSong Seung-heonDuring World War II, five different Chinese people fight their way through Japanese Air Force attacks to protect an important military machine in Chongqing, 1940.Chongquin massacre June 1941
- DirectorDavid LeveauxStarsLily JamesJai CourtneyChristopher PlummerA 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.Kaiser Wilhelm II dies June 1941
- DirectorÅke LindmanStarsTobias ZilliacusIlkka HeiskanenChristoffer WeissA story of the infantry regiment 61 that fought from Syväri to the Karelian Ishtmus.Continuation War begins June 1941
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsRutger HauerJeroen KrabbéSusan PenhaligonDuring World War II, Dutch students join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.Dutch resistance fighters escape on the SS St Cergue June 1941
- DirectorEdward ZwickStarsDaniel CraigLiev SchreiberJamie BellJewish 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.Belarus occupied July 1941
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsJohn WayneLana TurnerDavid FarrarAs World War II begins, German freighter Captain Karl Ehrlich tries to get his ship back to Germany through a gauntlet of Allied warships.The Erlanger scuttled July 1941
- DirectorRoman ShumunovStarsLeonid BerenshteinYaroslav KucherenkoAnton KarlinskyThe 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.First battle of Kyiv July 1941
- DirectorMichael ForlongStarsLeif LarsenPalmar BjørnøyAnthony OliverDuring 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.Shetland Bus commences operations August 1941
- DirectorLloyd BaconByron HaskinRaoul WalshStarsHumphrey BogartRaymond MasseyAlan HaleAn 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.Arctic convoys begin August 1941
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsKenneth MoreMuriel PavlowLyndon BrookBiopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.Douglas Bader shot down August 1941
- DirectorAleksandr BuravskiyStarsMira SorvinoArmin Mueller-StahlOlga SutulovaWinter, 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.Siege of Leningrad begins September 1941
- DirectorTrevor NunnStarsJudi DenchSophie CooksonStephen Campbell MooreThe story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B.'s longest-serving British spy.Tube Alloys established September 1941
- DirectorAleksey KozlovStarsMaria MelnikovaAndrey Mironov-UdalovGela MeskhiSeptember 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 storm. When it starts sinking, enemy planes - but not rescuers - are the first to arrive at the scene.Sinking of Barge 752 September 1941
- DirectorKim DruzhininAndrey ShalopaStarsMaksim AbrosimovSergey AgafonovPavel AseevIn November 1941, remaining squad of Soviet soldiers must stop a column of Nazi Germany tanks.Operation Typhoon October 1941