It’s easy to forget the sprawl of World War II when it’s been more than a decade since you learned about it in high school history and most of those lessons back then were tailored to focus on the involvement of the United States. Thankfully, there’s a wealth of movies and television shows that depict the stories and the scale from a vast number of perspectives. If you’re looking for a way to celebrate the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, look no further.
Check out this list of World War II movies and television shows chronologically ordered by the real events that inspired them.
While Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, World War II started in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, which in turn prompted declarations of war from the United Kingdom and France.
Movies like The Pianist (2002) and Schindler’s List (1993), while technically not “war” movies and covering more than the initial invasion itself, give a glimpse into the inciting incident and the events that followed.
After the invasion of Poland, Germany advanced further into Europe in pursuit of what they termed the “Low Countries,” including France. France was defeated, and in May of 1940, Allied forces were miraculously evacuated with the help of civilians, which is depicted in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film Dunkirk.
Following Dunkirk, now would be a good time to check out season one of SAS: Rogue Heroes, which tells the origin story of the British Army Special Air Service in the spring of 1941. Light-hearted in tone, SAS: Rogue Heroes is a rare look into the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.
On the other hand, Japan was busy in December of 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor depicted in the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor directed by Michael Bay was the incident that prompted the United States’ official involvement in the war. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, after steadily gaining control in China since 1937, Japan attacked the Shanghai International Settlement. This was a significant event because the settlement was under international control, and the story of a young British boy who lived in the settlement and found himself separated from his parents during the attack is depicted in Stephen Spielberg’s 1987 film Empire of the Sun.
After Pearl Harbor, the United States began their campaign in the Pacific, where two of the most notable battles were the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Guadalcanal. The Battle of Midway took place in June of 1942, when the Japanese launched a strike on United States Navy ships, and is depicted in the 2019 movie Midway. The Battle of Guadalcanal, which would span until February of 1943, is depicted in episodes one and two of the 2010 HBO limited series The Pacific, which is centered around members of the United States Marine Corps, and in the 1998 film The Thin Red Line.
On the other side of the world, the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the Axis powers tried to claim control over the Soviet city of Stalingrad, ran almost concurrently to Guadalcanal. The events and impact of this battle, which is often argued as the most gruesome in the entire war, can be seen in the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates.
Meanwhile, as all of this unfolds, you can watch episode one of HBO’s Band of Brothers to see the men of Easy Company as they train at Camp Toccoa in Georgia. They would eventually storm Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army on D-Day.
As the 101st Airborne got ready to take the beaches, the British Army Special Air Service both prepared for and participated in the Allied invasion of Italy in the spring and summer of 1943. This is depicted in season two of SAS: Rogue Heroes. Concurrently, the 100th Bombardment Group in the United States Air Force would undertake dangerous missions within Nazi-occupied Europe, all of which are chronicled in the 2024 HBO limited series Masters of the Air. It’s worth nothing that Masters of the Air, The Pacific, and Band of Brothers have all been intentionally designed by HBO to serve as companion pieces to each other.
Which leads us to the day most Americans associate with the Second World War and perhaps one of the most widely depicted: D-Day. Both the preparation for and the events of D-Day are captured in episode two of Band of Brothers as well as in episode eight of Masters of the Air. Most iconically, the invasion of Normandy and the aftershocks of that infamous day are captured in the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, also by Steven Spielberg.
Band of Brothers continues to capture the journey of the 101st Airborne as they advance through Europe, fighting in the Battle of Carentan and in the Battle of the Bulge until their capture of Hitler's “Eagle’s Nest,” marking the end of the war in Europe. Set in April of 1945, the final weeks in the European theater of war are depicted in the 2014 film Fury.
Despite the war having ended in Europe, it had not yet finished in the Pacific. From February to March of 1945 the Battle of Iwo Jima waged on. These events are depicted in episode eight of HBO’s The Pacific as well as in Clint Eastwood’s 2006 Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, another set of companion pieces meant to explain the story of the battle from the two opposing sides fighting it.
In April of 1945, the United States Army and the United States Marine Corp launched the invasion of Okinawa, considered to be the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific throughout all of the war. This depicted in the 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge.
The war officially ended in 1945 with Japan's surrender, but not before the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story of the creation of these devastating bombs is chronicled in the 2023 Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer.
Suffice it to say that World War II bought out the best in some and the worst in others. However, this collection of movies will caution you of the dangers of letting history repeat itself, show you the power of bonds forged in unfathomable circumstances, and above all remind you of the resilience of the human spirit.
Those we’ll be remembering on Memorial Day—this is what they were fighting for.
Featured still from “Masters of the Air” via Apple Studios.
