List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreign consumption. Animated films are not included here.
British Empire and Commonwealth
United Kingdom
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Australia
In Australia the Australian News and Information Bureau, as well as the Australian Department of Information, produced the following| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1941 | Advance to Libya | Frank Hurley | |
| 1942 | Kokoda Front Line! | Ken G. Hall | Won Academy Award for Documentary Feature |
| 1942 | Men of Timor | Damien Parer | |
| 1942 | Moresby Under the Blitz | Ken G. Hall | |
| 1942 | Soldiers Without Uniform | Charles Chauvel | |
| 1943 | Assault on Salamaua | ||
| 1943 | The Bismarck Convoy Smashed | ||
| 1945 | Mid East | Frank Hurley |
Canada
In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada either distributed or produced the following as part of its Canada Carries On and The World in Action series.1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
India
United States
The United States had the largest film industry of any of the Allied powers, and its use for propaganda purposes is legendary. Because it was so big, there was no single governmental or semi-governmental agency that centrally controlled it. Instead, the Office of War Information co-ordinated efforts among many entities to produce propaganda:OCIAA: Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
OEM: Office for Emergency Management
OSS: Office of Strategic Services
USAAF: United States Army Air Forces
USASC: U.S. Army Signal Corps
USASSD: U.S. Army Special Service Division
USDA: United States Department of Agriculture
USDT: United States Department of Treasury
USN: United States Navy
USDW: United States Department of War
WACMPI: War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry
Several of these films, although they have propaganda value, were used as training films for the United States armed forces.
1941
Pre-December films given IMDb release date where available.| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
| Aluminum | WACMPI | ||
| America Builds Ships | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| America Preferred | WACMPI; USDT | Released 20 May | |
| Army in Overalls | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Bits and Pieces | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Defense Review No. 1 | WACMPI | ||
| Defense Review No. 2 | WACMPI | ||
| Men and Ships | WACMPI; BPI | Released June 23 | |
| Pots to Planes | WACMPI; OEM | Released November 22 | |
| Power for Defense | WACMPI; NDC | Released February 18 | |
| Preflight Inspection of the B-17E | USASC; UASAAF | War Department Training Film 1-532 | |
| Red Cross Trailer | WACMPI; | ||
| Where Do We Go? | WACMPI; USO | Released May 28 | |
| Women in Defense | WACMPI; OEM | Released May 28; narrated by Katharine Hepburn; written by Eleanor Roosevelt |
1942
- The 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary, whose time frame included part of 1943, was split among four films, including the two seen here. Also, that year saw the amalgamation of the feature and short subject documentary categories into a single category.
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
Year uncertain
Netherlands and Belgium
The low countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in the May–June 1940 blitzkrieg. The Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands most important colony, was conquered by Japan in early 1942. However each had a government in exile which set up the Belgian Ministry of Information and Netherlands Information Bureau, which produced the following films. There were also films made by the resistance while the respective countries were occupied.| Year | Title | Director | Agency | Notes |
| 1941 | Belgique toujours | Hippolyte De Kempeneer | Belgian resistance movement | Dutch title: Immer België; English title Forever Belgium |
| 1942 | Little Belgium | Belgian Ministry of Information | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject | |
| 1942 | People of the Indies | Netherlands Information Bureau | - | |
| 1942 | Holland in the Western Hemisphere | Netherlands Information Bureau | - | |
| 1942 | High Stakes in the East | Netherlands Information Bureau | - | |
| 1942 | The Dutch Next Door | Netherlands Information Bureau | - | |
| 1943 | Glorious Colours | Alfred Travers | Netherlands Information Bureau | - |
Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, unless otherwise noted, the Central Newsreel Studio produced these films.| Year | Title | Director | Original title | Note |
| 1941 | For the Front | Gurgen Balasanyan | Razmatchakati hamar | Produced by Armkinokhronika |
| 1941 | Fascist Boots Shall Not Trample Our Motherland | A.Ivanov & I.Vano | Не топтать фашистскому сапогу НАШЕЙ РОДИНЫ | Produced by Soyuzmultfilm |
| 1942 | Day of War | Mikhail Slutsky | День войны/Den voiny | - |
| 1942 | Leningrad in Combat | Roman Karmen | Ленинград в борьбе/Leningrad v borbe | - |
| 1942 | Crushing Defeat of the German Troops under Moscow | Ilya Kopalin | Разгром немецких войск под Москвой | - |
| 1943 | Ukraine in Flames | Aleksandr Dovzhenko & Yuliya Solntseva | Битва за нашу Советскую Украину | - |
| 1943 | The People's Avengers | Vasili Belayev | Народные мстители/Narodniye mstiteli | - |
| 1943 | Stalingrad | Leonid Varlamov | - | |
| 1943 | Narrated by Brian Donlevy | |||
| 1943 | In the Sands of Central Asia | Aleksandr Zguridi | В песках Средней Азии/V peskakh Sredney Azii | - |
| 1943 | Przysiegamy ziemi polskiej | Aleksander Ford | Title in Polish | |
| 1944 | Sons of Armenia | Gurgen Balasanyan | Hayastani zavaknere | Produced by Armkinokhronika |
| 1944 | K voprosu o peremirii s Finlyandiey | Yuli Raizman | Produced by Sojuzintorgkino Studios | |
| 1945 | Fall of Berlin – 1945 | Yuli Raizman & Yelizaveta Svilova | Битва за Берлин 1945 г. | - |
| 1945 | Victory in the Ukraine and the Expulsion of the Germans from the Boundaries of the Ukrainian Soviet Earth | Aleksandr Dovzhenko & Yelizaveta Svilova | Pobeda na Pravoberezhnoi Ukraine i izgnaniye nemetsikh zakhvatchikov za predeli Ukrainskikh sovietskikh zemel | - |
| 1945 | The Rout of Japan | Iosif Kheifits | Razgrom Yaponii | - |
Soviet films made for foreign markets
In addition to the above the Soviet cinema import company Artkino produced the following for foreign markets.| Year | Title | Director | Note |
| 1942 | Our Russian Front | Joris Ivens & Lewis Milestone | Narrated by Walter Huston |
| 1942 | Moscow Strikes Back | Ilya Kopalin & Leonid Varlamov | Nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject |
| 1943 | Russians at War | ||
| 1947 | The Nuremberg Trials | C Svilov | Soviet view of the Nuremberg Trials |