Train Busters

Allied troops land on the Normandy coast and drive eastward to the gates of Germany. Opening scenes are of the D-Day landings and establishment of Canadian forces on the beachhead. Pictures of bitter street fighting and of pin-point bombing tell the story of Caen's capture and the advance towards Falaise. Made from footage filmed by units of the Canadian Army Overseas.

This short Second World War documentary from the World in Action series tells the story of the great Allied invasion of Northwest Europe in 1944. The film reviews the preparation, strategy and over-all campaign planning that went into this gigantic task.

This documentary is a record of the role played by Spitfires in defeating the Axis during World War II. The film, which shows these planes in action during the Battle of Britain, in Italy, and on D-Day, also depicts the work of aeronautical engineers and ground crews who kept the Spitfires in the air.

The NFB’s 1st Academy-Award winning film. It presents the strategy of the Battle of Britain, showing with penetrating clarity the relationships between the various forces made up the island's defenses. Here is the Royal Air Force in its epic battle with the Luftwaffe, the Navy in its stubborn fight against the raiders of sea and sky, the coastal defenses, the mechanized cavalry, the merchant seamen and behind them all, Britain's tough, unbending civilian army.

A film record, suitable for schools, of the war years of 1939 to 1945, showing major developments from the rise of Nazism in Germany to the first atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It does not minimize the brutality of war, but shows how this "total war," unlike wars of the past that engaged only the men of the fighting front, involved in varying degree almost every individual of every nation.

Part three of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, Endings and Beginnings focuses on the final phase of WWII in Europe in 1945 and the aftermath. Veterans recount their memories of the conflict at the Rhine and the celebrations on VE Day, followed by their contribution to the victory in the Far East. These recollections are complemented by outstanding footage filmed by army cameramen. The film also focuses on what transpired after the war, when the soldiers had to reintegrate back into society.

Part one of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, Turning the Tide documents the years between the outbreak of WWII in September 1939 and June 1944. A compilation of modern day interviews interspersed with photographs and footage from the war, this documentary covers landmark events such as the Battle of Britain, the raid on Dieppe, the landing in Sicily and the battle for Ortona. It focuses on both the Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in the war and the women who became part of the war effort, either by enlisting or by going to work in the factories and shipyards.

This short documentary includes highlights of the Allied advance from Normandy to Antwerp during WWII, including the bombing of Calais, the capture of V-2 launching sites, action on Walcheren Island and the arrival of Allied ships at Antwerp.

Part two of a 3-part series, Canada Remembers, The Liberators focuses on WWII during the period between June and December 1944. While following the action from the D-Day landings on the shores of Normandy up into Belgium and Holland, the film also highlights the contributions of the women who remained on the homefront. As the fourth largest producer of armaments among the Allied countries, Canada spent much of the war evolving into a formidable industrial nation.

Based on the diaries of Canadian doctor Ben Wheeler during his internment in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, this feature-length docudrama is a glowing account of the spirit and its will to survive physical and mental suffering. The film is comprised of newsreel footage, interviews and dramatic re-enactments.

They raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Sixty years ago, thousands of women from Thunder Bay and the Prairies donned trousers, packed lunch pails and took up rivet guns to participate in the greatest industrial war effort in Canadian history. Like many other factories across the country from 1939 to 1945, the shop floor at Fort William's Canadian Car and Foundry was transformed from an all-male workforce to one with forty percent female workers.