A History of World War 2 in Movies - 1943
by philipglen | created - 7 months ago | updated - 6 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!
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1. Desert Commandos (1967)
PG | 96 min | Drama, War
German commandos are dropped behind enemy lines in the Sahara Desert and tasked with getting to Casablanca to assassinate Allied leaders.
Director: Umberto Lenzi | Stars: Ken Clark, Horst Frank, Jeanne Valérie, Carlo Hintermann
Votes: 417
Casablanca Conference January 1943
2. Stalingrad (1993)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, War
The story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph
Votes: 37,738 | Gross: $0.08M
Von Paulus surrenders VI Army January 1943
3. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,185
Kuban bridgehead January 1943
4. The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Approved | 131 min | Action, Drama, History
Norwegian resistance tries to stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component during World War II.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 8,069
Operation Gunnerside February 1943
5. Rosenstrasse (2003)
PG-13 | 136 min | Drama, War
After the death of her father, Hannah becomes concerned with the strange behavior of her mother. As her mother's troubled childhood is revealed, Hannah realizes how little she ever knew.
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Svea Lohde, Jutta Lampe
Votes: 2,537 | Gross: $0.73M
Rose Street Protests February 1943
6. Thousand Yard Stare (2018)
TV-MA | 91 min | War
Returning home after fighting in Africa during World War II, a soldier with PTSD finds reintegrating with family life increasingly difficult as he relives the battle of Kasserine Pass.
Director: Aaron Kurmey | Stars: Adam Munro, Kirsten Wendlandt, Gin Fedotov, Michael Dodge
Votes: 258
Battle of the Kasserine Pass February 1943
7. On Wings of Eagles (2016)
PG-13 | 108 min | Biography, Drama, History
Eric Liddell - China's first gold medalist and one of Scotland's greatest athletes - returns to war-torn China.
Directors: Stephen Shin, Michael Parker | Stars: Joseph Fiennes, Jesse Kove, Bruce Locke, Shawn Dou
Votes: 1,146
Eric Liddell interned March 1943
8. 633 Squadron (1964)
Approved | 102 min | Drama, History, War
A RAF squadron is assigned to knock out a German rocket fuel factory in Norway. The factory supplies fuel for the Nazi effort to launch rockets on England during D-Day.
Director: Walter Grauman | Stars: Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Harry Andrews
Votes: 4,572
Raid on Knaben March 1943
9. The 12th Man (2017)
Unrated | 135 min | Drama, History, Thriller
They were 12 saboteurs. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of the one that got away.
Director: Harald Zwart | Stars: Thomas Gullestad, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Marie Blokhus, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Votes: 29,227
Operation Martin March 1943
10. Stones for the Rampart (2014)
111 min | Drama, War
Based on a well-known Polish novel with the same title the movie re-tells a true life story of a group of scouts called ''Szare Szeregi'' (Gray Ranks) during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Glinski | Stars: Tomasz Zietek, Marcel Sabat, Kamil Szeptycki, Magdalena Kolesnik
Votes: 1,573
Operation Arsenal March 1943
11. Go for Broke! (1951)
Passed | 92 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Japanese-American soldiers who fought in Europe during World War II.
Director: Robert Pirosh | Stars: Van Johnson, Lane Nakano, George Miki, Akira Fukunaga
Votes: 1,747
Formation of 442 (Nisei) Regimental Combat Team March 1943
12. Patton (1970)
GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
Votes: 107,987 | Gross: $61.70M
Battle of El Guettar March 1943
13. The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama, History
Keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, must save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion in WWII Poland.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl, Timothy Radford
Votes: 46,613 | Gross: $17.45M
Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto April 1943
14. Alone in Berlin (2016)
R | 103 min | Drama, History, War
After a Nazi German working class couple loses their son in World War II, they decide to retaliate by secretly leafletting handwritten cards in Berlin denouncing their government.
Director: Vincent Perez | Stars: Louis Hofmann, Emil von Schönfels, Katrin Pollitt, Sammy Scheuritzel
Votes: 9,976
Hampels executed April 1943
15. Flame & Citron (2008)
Not Rated | 130 min | Action, Drama, History
A drama centered on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.
Director: Ole Christian Madsen | Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade, Peter Mygind
Votes: 19,949 | Gross: $0.15M
Holger Danske Group commence operations April 1943
16. The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
In order to fool the Germans into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily will take place elsewhere, British Military Intelligence comes up with a cunning ruse.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin
Votes: 5,786
Operation Mincemeat April 1943
17. Sole Survivor (1970 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Fantasy
This story is loosely based on the discovery of the B-24 "Liberator" bomber the "Lady Be Good" that was found in the Libyan desert after the crew got lost on their 1st bombing mission to Italy.
Director: Paul Stanley | Stars: Vince Edwards, Richard Basehart, William Shatner, Lou Antonio
Votes: 984
Lady Be Good crashes April 1943
18. Destination Gobi (1953)
Approved | 90 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1944, US Navy specialists run a weather station in the Gobi desert where they are harassed by Japanese warplanes but aided by local Mongol nomads.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Widmark, Don Taylor, Max Showalter, Murvyn Vye
Votes: 1,131
Sino -American Cooperation Organisation formed April 1943
19. Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet (2011)
140 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from the early 1930's to his death at the hands of the US military in 1943.
Director: Izuru Narushima | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Hiroshi Abe, Shûichi Azumaya, Mitsugorô Bandô
Votes: 1,255
Operation Vengeance April 1943
20. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,430 | Gross: $11.49M
Black May May 1943
21. Unbroken (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Biography, Drama
After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
Votes: 182,790 | Gross: $115.64M
Crash of the Green Hornet May 1943
22. Triumph of the Spirit (1989)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
In Greece during World War II, a young Jewish boxer, his girlfriend, and their families are sent to Auschwitz. When the camp guards learn of his boxing abilities, they force him to participate in weekly boxing matches.
Director: Robert M. Young | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Edward James Olmos, Robert Loggia, Wendy Gazelle
Votes: 2,785 | Gross: $0.41M
Salamo Arouca enters Auschwitz May 1943
23. Memphis Belle (1990)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Drama, War
In 1943, the crew of a B-17 based in the UK prepares for its 25th and final bombing mission over Germany before returning home to the USA.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones | Stars: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney
Votes: 30,548 | Gross: $27.44M
The Memphis Belle flies her last mission May 1943
24. The Dam Busters (1955)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, History, War
Drama based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during World War II.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney
Votes: 11,372
Operation Chastise May 1943
25. Return to the Hiding Place (2013)
PG-13 | 102 min | Drama, History, Thriller
When the Nazis begin killing Jews in Holland, a group of youth fight to save the lives of the innocent.
Directors: Peter C. Spencer, Josiah Spencer | Stars: John Rhys-Davies, Mimi Sagadin, Craig Robert Young, David Thomas Jenkins
Votes: 791
Hans Poley taken in by Corrie Ten Boom May 1943
26. In Darkness (2011)
R | 145 min | Drama, War
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the German-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader
Votes: 11,161 | Gross: $1.04M
Liquidation of the Lviv Ghetto May 1943
27. The Monuments Men (2014)
PG-13 | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, War
An unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from German thieves and return them to their owners.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 141,237 | Gross: $78.03M
Formation of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Commission June 1943
28. The Big Red One (1980)
R | 113 min | Drama, War
A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco
Votes: 21,403
Invasion of Sicily July 1943
29. Hatred (2016)
150 min | Drama, War
Despite being in love with a Ukrainian boy from the same village, Polish girl named Zosia is forced into marrying a wealthy widower. Soon World War II begins and ethnic tensions arise. Amidst the war chaos Zosia tries to survive.
Director: Wojciech Smarzowski | Stars: Michalina Labacz, Arkadiusz Jakubik, Wasyl Wasylik, Adrian Zaremba
Votes: 6,800
Volhynia massacre July 1943
30. Fortress (2012 Video)
R | 105 min | Action, Drama, War
A replacement co-pilot joins a B-17 bomber crew in North Africa. He soon finds himself at odds with the remainder of the crew and has to regain their trust and support.
Director: Mike Phillips | Stars: Bug Hall, Donnie Jeffcoat, Sean McGowan, Chris Owen
Votes: 2,171
Bombing of Rome begins July 1943
31. Missiles from Hell (1958)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama, War
A group of Polish fighters of the Polish resistance movement go on a mission to destroy the German V-1 'Flying Bomb' at Peenemünde and cripple the German war effort during World War II.
Director: Vernon Sewell | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight
Votes: 370
Operation Hydra August 1943
32. Rome, Open City (1945)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Marcello Pagliero, Vito Annichiarico
Votes: 28,988
Rome declared an open city August 1943
33. A Man Escaped (1956)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod
Votes: 25,017
Andre Devigny escapes from Montluc prison August 1943
34. Merrill's Marauders (I) (1962)
Approved | 98 min | Adventure, Drama, War
During WW2, a 3000-strong American unit, known as Merrill's Marauders, battles the Japanese forces in Burma.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown, Andrew Duggan
Votes: 2,780
Long Range Penetration Unit formed September 1943
35. Submarine X-1 (1968)
G | 89 min | Action, Drama, War
During World War II, the British Royal Navy used experimental midget submarines to raid German warships in Norway.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: James Caan, David Sumner, Norman Bowler, Brian Grellis
Votes: 737
Operation Source September 1943
36. The McKenzie Break (1970)
PG | 108 min | Action, Drama, War
During WW2, German POWs in Britain plot to escape from their prison camp in Scotland.
Director: Lamont Johnson | Stars: Brian Keith, Helmut Griem, Ian Hendry, Jack Watson
Votes: 1,702
Operation Kiebitz September 1943
37. The Scarlet and the Black (1983 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama, History, War
Vatican efforts, led by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, to save Allied P.O.W.s and downed Allied airmen as the Nazis invade Rome.
Director: Jerry London | Stars: Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, Raf Vallone
Votes: 3,717
The Scarlet Pimpernel begins operations September 1943
38. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,424 | Gross: $28.90M
Dodecanese campaign September 1943
39. PT 109 (1963)
Approved | 140 min | Biography, Drama, War
President John F. Kennedy kept a unique inauguration gift on his desk: a plastic-encased coconut. The tale of that coconut is the heroic story of PT 109.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson | Stars: Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Ty Hardin, James Gregory
Votes: 2,993
Raid on Choiceul October 1943
40. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, War
A tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage) takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 15,807
Black Thursday October 1943
41. Across the Waters (2016)
94 min | Drama, History, War
Fuglene Over Sundet is the gripping tale of the Danish Jews' escape to Sweden in October 1943.
Director: Nicolo Donato | Stars: David Dencik, Danica Curcic, Jakob Cedergren, Nicolas Bro
Votes: 1,056
Evacuation of Danish Jews to Sweden October 1943
42. Escape from Sobibor (1987 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama, History, War
German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Alan Arkin, Joanna Pacula, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker
Votes: 9,830
Escape from Sobibor concentration camp October 1943
43. Lancaster Skies (2019)
Not Rated | 98 min | Action, Drama, War
Douglas, a broken, solitary, Spitfire Ace, must overcome his past to lead a Lancaster bomber crew in the pivotal aerial war over Berlin, in 1944.
Director: Callum Burn | Stars: Rosa Coduri-Fulford, Joshua Collins, Kris Saddler, Callum Burn
Votes: 1,660
Battle of Berlin November 1943
44. Operation Crossbow (1965)
PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Drama, War
Allied agents attempt to infiltrate a German rocket research site.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills
Votes: 5,508
Operation Crossbow established November 1943
45. Army of Crime (2009)
Not Rated | 139 min | Drama, History, War
The poet Missak Manouchian leads a mixed bag of youngsters and immigrants in a clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. Twenty-two men and one woman fighting for an ideal and for ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Guédiguian | Stars: Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stévenin, Lola Naymark
Votes: 3,561 | Gross: $0.04M
Manouchian Group rounded up November 1943
46. 5 Fingers (1952)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
During WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hampden
Votes: 5,475
Cicero begins operations November 1943
47. Away All Boats (1956)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, War
The story of a U.S. Naval ship and its crew in the Pacific, from 1943 to 1945.
Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker, Julie Adams
Votes: 1,627
USS Pierce goes into action November 1943
48. Operation Pacific (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Romance, War
During WWII, a submarine's second in command inherits the problem of torpedoes that don't explode. When on shore, he is eager to win back his ex-wife.
Director: George Waggner | Stars: John Wayne, Patricia Neal, Ward Bond, Scott Forbes
Votes: 3,892
Sinking of the USS Corvina November 1943
49. The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Approved | 130 min | Action, Drama, War
A US Army lieutenant colonel is tasked with forming an elite commando-style unit from crack Canadian troops and the dregs of the US Army.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, Andrew Prine
Votes: 6,257
Battle of Monte La Difensa December 1943
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