Free World War 2 video collections online, with newsreels, military films. WW2 articles pdf free from magazines and newspapers.
World War 2 Video Collections
World War II Films – Collection – World War 2 Video Collections
More than 2,500 short films. Most were shot from 1942 to 1946 by photographers from the U.S. armed services. The majority are without sound, and shot on site wherever U.S. troops were located. Many newsreels are included. Some titles: Minesweeper hits Mine & Sinks, Task Group under Attack Off Okinawa, Assembly Area for Korean Occupation, Segi Air Field Pilot’s Recreation, Saipan Invasion: Bombardment by 14- and 5-inch guns, Invasion of Guam: LVTs & LCS on Way to Beach, Japanese Prisoners of War, Noumea, New Caledonia, WWII Jungle Training, Crossing the Rhine, War Crimes Trials Nuremberg, Towing Phoenix Units across Channel. Videos about World War 2.
World War II Films in Color – Collection – World War 2 Video Collections
Nearly 500 color films, mostly short films. Possibly a sub-set of the World War II Films collection above. Some titles: PT Boat Activities & Night Action Off New Guinea 1943, Carrier Deck Action Scenes & Ammo Transfer, Fire Fighting & Battle Damage on USS Enterprise, Hiroshima Way of Life 1946, Kiska Aleutian Islands, 1945 Submarine Film from USS Skate, Atomic Bomb Physical Damage Nagasaki, Torpedoed USS Honolulu, News Parade of the Year 1942. Videos about World War 2.
WWII Archive – World War 2 Video Collections
A collection of public domain World War II books, and films. Over 5,000 items. Includes training manuals, military unit histories, films by the Armed Services and contracted filmmakers such as Disney Studios, government handbooks for civilians, military maintenance manuals, more. Some titles: Handbook on the Italian Military Forces, Radio Operator’s Manual for Army ground forces, History of the 77th Infantry Division in WWII, US Navy WW2 Newsreel Compilation, Army Navy Screen Magazine, Tomatoes on Your Table, Nazi Newsreels, Manual on Land Mines and Booby Traps, Battle for Normandy film, Pilot Training Manual for the P-38 Lightning, Atomic Bomb Medical Aspect Hiroshima. Videos about World War 2.
WWII Newsreels – World War 2 Video Collections
About 170 newsreels from 1938 to 1946. From several sources, including U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. film companies contracted by the U.S. Government, and confiscated films from the German and Italian Armed Forces. Videos about World War 2.
World War 2 Articles PDF
First Food, Then Morality
Review essay of ‘The Bitter Taste of Victory: In the Ruins of the Reich’, by Lara Feigel
Gavin Jacobson, LA Review of Books 2016
See the Menu at the top of every page for Directories of Free Online Fiction and NonFiction Books, Magazines, and more, on 400 pages like this at Century Past
The Casablanca Conference – Unconditional Surrender
In January, 1943, President Roosevelt embarked on a secret mission that would determine the course of World War Two. His destination – Casablanca, Morocco. His goal – to finalize Allied military plans with the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Paul M. Sparrow, Blog of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum 2017
Soviet Women at War
Eager to prove themselves, women served the Red Army as nurses, medics, cooks and clerks—but also as snipers, surgeons, pilots and machine gunners.
Roger Reesem, History Net
Stalag 17-B
The prison that inspired a movie and a TV comedy was a dingy, fleabag patch of hell for the Allied “kriegies” who got stuck there.
Eric Ethier, America in WWII 2006
Adolf Burger, survivor of Nazi counterfeiting operation, dies at 99
Imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, he was detailed to Operation Bernhard, a massive Nazi plot that relied on concentration camp inmates to forge British currency.
Emily Langer, Washington Post 2016
Canadian Indians and the Second World War: The pivotal event of the 20th century for Canadian Indians and Canadian Indian policy?
M.A. Thesis.
Roy P. Toomey, Univ of Northern British Columbia 2006
Army battle casualties and nonbattle deaths in World War II
The final statistical record of battle casualties and nonbattle deaths incurred during World War II by United States Army military personnel, including members of the Army Air Forces. World War 2 deaths.
U S Adjutant General, Dept. of the Army 1953
World War II in Europe: Every Day
Animated YouTube map of Europe. This video shows the changing front lines of the European Theater of World War II every day from the German invasion of Poland to the surrender of Germany.
EmperorTigerstar, YouTube, 2013
Voting in the midst of Nazi terror
In March 1933, Germans voted for a new parliament – their last free election before all but the Nazi party was banned. Such extraordinary measures of terror preceded the election that there was little “free” about it. Rise of Adolf Hitler.
Marc von Lupke-Schwarz, Deutsche Welle 2013
Why did the Second World War happen?
We can now say without equivocation that this was Hitler’s war, say historians. But could more intelligent diplomacy on Britain’s part have saved Europe from a devastating conflict? Laurence Rees examines the evidence and what caused the Second World War
Laurence Rees, History Extra 2019
Time for America to get over its WWII nostalgia
There’s nothing wrong with an interest in history. But the distorted and chauvinist way the war’s history has been presented in the popular imagination is a major problem. It’s long since time Americans adopted a more realistic and sensible attitude towards World War II.
Ryan Cooper, The Week 2018
The 11 most significant battles of the Second World War
Second World War battles took place across the globe; some lasting days, others months or even years. But which are the most significant? Here, Professor Evan Mawdsley from the University of Glasgow lists the battles that had the most impact upon later military and political events, and indeed the outcome of the war itself
Evan Mawdsley, History Extra 2019
See our Newsweek Archives 1940s
The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan … Stalin Did – WW2 Articles PDF
Have 70 years of nuclear policy been based on a lie? War in the Pacific.
Ward Wilson, Foreign Policy 2013
Fresh-Water Flattops – The U.S. Navy’s Forgotten Great Lakes Aircraft Carriers
Two carriers, the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable, prepared thousands of naval aviators for the dangerous job of landing planes on pitching and rolling flight decks at sea.
Military History Now 2016
As rationing grows, so does the black market
You can’t buy shoes. You need a coupon book to buy a limited supply of groceries for the week. And your neighbor was arrested for black market oil books. All of this means one thing: rationing is here and it is here to stay, at least until the end of the war. WWII on the homefront.
Kevin Huebler, World War 2.0
Who Voted for Hitler?
The Nazi rise to power in Germany was largely due to voters opting for what they perceived as their economic self-interest. Rise of Adolf Hitler.
The Wilson Quarterly 2009
Why Did Operation Barbarossa Fail?
Operation Barbarossa was a huge undertaking that offered Hitler myriad opportunities. He believed that the defeat of the Soviet Union would force American attentions towards a then-unchecked Japan, in turn leaving an isolated Britain obliged to enter peace talks. WW2 strategy.
Simon Parkin, History Hit 2018
Why the Nazis studied American race laws for inspiration
On 5 June 1934 the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws, the centrepiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi race regime. They debated whether they should bring Jim Crow segregation to the Third Reich. They engaged in detailed discussion of the statutes from the 30 US states that criminalised racially mixed marriages. They reviewed how the various US states determined who counted as a ‘Negro’ or a ‘Mongol’, and weighed whether they should adopt US techniques in their own approach to determining who counted as a Jew. Throughout the meeting the most ardent supporters of the US model were the most radical Nazis in the room. Nazi ideology.
James Q. Whitman, Aeon
Germany’s post-war justice ministry was infested with Nazis protecting former comrades, study reveals – WW2 Articles PDF
Fully 77 per cent of senior ministry officials in 1957 were former members of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, a higher proportion even than during the 1933-45 Third Reich, the study found.
Frank Zeller, The Telegraph 2016
Thousands without a home: how will Washington respond?
With almost 400,000 people having moved to Washington since January of 1940, it is no wonder that there is no place for all of them to stay. More than 126,000 Americans in the nation’s capital will be homeless tonight. U.S. involvement in WW2, WWII on the homefront.
Aitana Robinson, World War 2.0
High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history
German writer Norman Ohler’s astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war
Rachel Cooke, The Guardian 2016
Higher Education Adapts to the War
Article written by 21st Century journalism student based on 1942 sources, in style used at that time. WWII on the homefront.
Macarena Solis, World War 2.0
The Employment of Negro Troops
Ulysses Lee, Center of Military History, U.S. Army 2001
The Enigma Machine: How Alan Turing Helped Break the Unbreakable Nazi Code – WW2 Articles PDF
Open Culture 2013
The Fake British Radio Show That Helped Defeat the Nazis – World War 2 Video Collections
By spreading fake news and sensational rumors, intelligence officials leveraged “psychological judo” against the Nazis in World War II
Marc Wortman, Smithsonian 2017
See our War Fiction PDF
Hitler Accuses Roosevelt, Jews in Speech at Berlin Conference
Article written by 21st Century journalism student based on 1942 sources, in style used at that time.
Anna Griffin, World War 2.0
In ‘Hitler,’ an Ascent From ‘Dunderhead’ to Demagogue
Review essay of ‘Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939’, by Volker Ullrich. Rise of Adolf Hitler.
Michiko Kakutani, NY Times 2016
House Votes Largest Appropriation Bill in History for War Efforts
Article written by 21st Century journalism student based on 1942 sources, in style used at that time. U.S. involvement in WW2.
Macarena Solis, World War 2.0
The Inside Story of How a Nazi Plot to Sabotage the U.S. War Effort Was Foiled
In late June 1942, two squads of German saboteurs landed on American beaches, ferried by U-boats to Long Island and Florida’s coast. The saboteurs had enough explosives for two years of mayhem, with immediate plans to blow up a critical railway bridge, disrupt New York’s water supply and spread terror.
David A. Taylor, Smithsonian 2017
Aggressive Action by Japan Imminent
Image of declassified Secret Memorandum. On November 28, 1941, the Commander of the Western Defense Command issued a memo (National Archives Identifier 41049939) to the Commanding Generals and Commandants on the West Coast, notifying them that negotiations with Japan had broken down and that “surprise aggressive action at any moment” was possible. War in the Pacific.
Tumblrweed Times 2017
Was Vichy France a Puppet Government or a Willing Nazi Collaborator? – WW2 Articles PDF
The authoritarian government led by Marshal Pétain participated in Jewish expulsions and turned France into a quasi-police state
Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian 2017
What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in ‘Dunkirk’ – World War 2 Video Collections
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ is likely to be the most widely seen or read depiction of history released in 2017. So how does a British historian who teaches and writes about World War II rate it as history?
John Broich, Slate 2017
FBI Cracks Down on Draft Dodgers: 638 Arrested
The FBI’s nationwide arrest of draft violators reached its peak the night of May 15, as 638 men across 20 cities were seized from their homes over the weekend. WWII on the homefront.
Seda Payton, World War 2.0
The USS Mason Battles U-Boats and Bigots
When the first African-Americans to crew a U.S. warship sailed into the war-tossed North Atlantic, they couldn’t have known it would take fifty years to gain honor in their own country
Mary Pat Kelly, American Heritage 2017
Unbreakable: The Navajo Code
The Japanese cracked every American combat code until an elite team of Marines joined the fight. One veteran tells the story of creating the Navajo code and proving its worth on Guadalcanal. code talkers of WWII. Videos about World War 2.
Chester Nez, HistoryNet
Universities in Nazi Germany
Universities in Nazi Germany were strictly controlled by the authorities. Senior university professors were hand-picked Nazis. The subjects that were taught in universities had to fit in to Nazi ideology and few in the universities were prepared to openly defy the regime. Videos about World War 2.
History Learning Site
Japanese Bombard, Occupy Manila – WW2 Articles PDF
Article written by 21st Century journalism student based on 1942 sources, in style used at that time. War in the Pacific. Videos about World War 2.
Benjamin K., World War 2.0
How Did Hitler Rise to Power? : New TED-ED Animation Provides a Case Study in How Fascists Get Democratically Elected
Ayun Halliday, Open Culture 2016
How Europe Went To War In 1939
The decisions that led to war reflected the ambitions, rivalries, fears and anxieties that developed in the two decades that followed the end of the First World War. The European powers were willing to go to war to extend or protect what each nation saw – in dramatically different ways – as matters of vital interest, great power status, international prestige, and national survival. Diplomatic and military strategy. Videos about World War 2.
Staff, Imperial War Museum 2018
How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler
Reports on the rise of fascism in Europe were not the American media’s finest hour. Videos about World War 2.
John Broich, Smithsonian 2016
How Millions Of Secret Silk Maps Helped POWs Escape Their Captors in WWII
The ingenious maps played a role in some 750 successful escapes. Videos about World War 2.
Cara Giaimo, Atlas Obscura 2016
The Psychological Tricks used to Help Win World War Two – WW2 Articles PDF
What did the British government learn from Mein Kampf? And how did they deal with the idea of ‘the enemy within’? Fiona Macdonald finds out from a new book about British propaganda. Videos about World War 2.
Fiona Macdonald, BBC Culture 2016
See our old magazines online free
The reluctant kamikaze of the Second World War – World War 2 Video Collections
They’ve long been portrayed as brainwashed zealots lusting for destruction, death and glory. Yet, as Christopher Harding reveals, many kamikaze stepped into the cockpit for the final time wracked with fear, confusion and anger at their fate… Videos about World War 2.
Christopher Harding, History Extra 2014
Four Pulitzer-winning takes on the rise of Adolf Hitler
The biggest running international story of the 1930s was the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. Today we share the work of four reporters who won Pulitzer Prizes for covering this story. Videos about World War 2.
The Pulitzer Prizes
The Supermanagerial Reich
In Nazi Germany, economic history shows us a rapid change in the distribution of income and the emergence of a managerial elite who obtained an outsized share of national income, not just the now-proverbial one percent, but the top 0.1 percent. These were Nazi Germany’s equivalent to today’s so-called “supermanagers” (to use Thomas Piketty’s now-famous term). This parallel with today’s neoliberal society calls for a closer examination of the place of supermanagers in both regimes, with illuminating and unsettling implications. Videos about World War 2.
Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Raphaële Chappe, L.A. Review of Books 2016
I survived the Warsaw ghetto. Here are the lessons I’d like to pass on
I’m 93, and, as extremism sweeps across Europe, I fear we are doomed to repeat the mistakes which created the Holocaust. Videos about World War 2.
Stanisław Aronson, The Guardian 2018
Merchant Marine: The war’s riskiest form of service – WW2 Articles PDF
Article written by 21st Century journalism student based on 1942 sources, in style used at that time. U.S. involvement in WW2. Videos about World War 2.
Gary Phillips, World War 2.0
Monopoly vs. the Nazis: How British intelligence used board games to thwart the Germans
In WW2, MI9 smuggled escape maps and supplies in care packages to troops in POW camps. Here’s how. Videos about World War 2.
Tristan Donovan, Salon 2017
Muslims in Hitler’s War
The Nazis believed that Islamic forces would prove crucial wartime allies. But, as David Motadel shows, the Muslim world was unwilling to be swayed by the Third Reich’s advances. Videos about World War 2.
David Motadel, History Today 2015
The GIs’ favorite correspondent – World War 2 Video Collections
This article, “The God-damned Infantry” was written by Ernie Pyle in May 1943, reporting from the American front lines in Tunisia. Videos about World War 2.
Ernie Pyle, The Pulitzer Prizes 1944
Operation Barbarossa: 9 popular myths busted – WW2 Articles PDF
The German invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941, was the largest military operation in history. Borne out of Hitler’s desire to conquer the Soviet territories and defeat Bolshevism, Operation Barbarossa was part of Hitler’s racial fantasy of establishing ‘lebensraum’ (living space) in the east. Videos about World War 2.
Christer Bergström, History Extra 2019
Operation Downfall — The Campaign to Conquer Japan Would Have Dwarfed the D-Day Landings – World War 2 Video Collections
Operation Downfall, the codename for the U.S.-led mission to capture the Japanese homeland in 1945 and 1946 never did take place. Had the invasion not been preempted by the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, almost all agree that the campaign would have stood as the bloodiest chapter of the Second World War, adding as much as an additional 10 million dead to the war’s already mind-boggling final body count of 50 million. War in the Pacific. Videos about World War 2.
Editor, Military History Now 2013
This is the massive Nazi sneak attack at the Battle of the Bulge
On Dec. 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler launched an ambitious but badly planned counterattack meant to break the back of the Allied forces and allow the Nazis to dictate the peace terms that would end the war. Videos about World War 2.
Logan Nye, We Are the Mighty 2016
The Nazis Fought the Original War on Christmas
As they rose to power, party leaders sought to redefine the holiday to suit their own political needs. Nazi ideology. Videos about World War 2.
Joe Perry, Smithsonian 2016
Patton: Loved, Hated, Appreciated
Genius. Jerk. Call him what you will, General George Patton managed to do the impossible while alienating peers and subordinates alike. Videos about World War 2.
Richard Sassaman, America in WWII
“Only skeletons, not people”: diaries shed new light on siege of Leningrad – World War 2 Video Collections
Academic says contemporary accounts of suffering are very different to stories survivors now tell of triumphant resistance. Videos about World War 2.
Dalya Alberge, The Guardian 2016
See our collection of free military fiction
“A Comparative Study of America’s Entries into World War I and World War II” – WW2 Articles PDF
Samantha Alisha Taylor, East Tennessee State University. Master’s Thesis
10 tips for surviving on the home front during the Second World War
During the Second World War millions of men bid farewell to their families in order to fight for their country. But how did those left behind cope? Videos about World War 2.
Megan Westley, History Extra 2014
Pearl Harbor: Why was the Attack a Surprise?
U.S. National Archives
Raid In Ruins: Ploesti
Ploesti was Hitler’s oil supply, so it had to burn. In August 1943, 179 American bombers set out to do the job. A third of them would never return.
Jay A. Stout, America in WWII
1939: Was Britain ready for war? – WW2 Articles PDF
Daniel Todman, History Extra 2009
Raoul Wallenberg’s Quest to Save a Nation
Raoul Wallenberg was the scion of one of Sweden’s most powerful and richest families. He saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in one of the greatest humanitarian feats in history.
Carlo D’Este, HistoryNet
Rudolf Hess’ Tale of Poison, Paranoia and Tragedy
In August 1945, an Army major named Douglas Kelley was handed one of the most sought-after assignments in his profession: examining the most prominent Nazis who’d been taken prisoner of war. It was at the Nuremberg prison that Kelley interviewed Rudolf Hess, beginning in October 1945. Hess was a special case.
Caren Chesler, Smithsonian 2014
Enough To Go Around
The Rationing system in the U.S. in WWII. WWII on the homefront.
by Carl Zebrowski, America in WWII 2006
The 10 Things You Need To Know About D-Day – WW2 Articles PDF
DDay Invasion.
Staff, Imperial War Museum 2018
Aleutian Islands: the U.S. Army campaigns of World War II
MacGarrigle, George L. , World War II Operational Documents
Auschwitz: the men behind the mass murder
Laurence Rees – who has interviewed war criminals from German, Russian and Japanese camps – explains why many of the former Nazi soldiers he met had a different mentality from the others…
Laurence Rees, History Extra 2015
Beyond the Hitler diaries
His mistaken authentication of the ‘Hitler diaries’ in 1983 shouldn’t overshadow the career of historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914-2003), writes Sir John Elliott
Sir John Elliott, History Extra 2014
Russian Women Speak Up About the Front Lines and the Home Front
Review essay of ‘The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II’, by Svetlana Alexievich. World War 2 women.
Dwight Garner, NY Times 2017
How a Nation Lost Its Mind – WW2 Articles PDF
Review essay of ‘Selling Hitler: Propaganda and the Nazi Brand’, by Nicholas J. O’Shaughnessy.
Pete Candler, LA Review of Books 2016
Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler reviews a crass and dangerously inaccurate account – World War 2 Video Collections
Ohler’s book claims not only that German soldiers and civilians commonly used methamphetamine, but that Hitler was a drug addict
Richard J Evans, The Guardian 2016
Dunkirk: how the Guardian reported the evacuation – archive, 1940
The full front page of that day’s Manchester Guardian.
Manchester Guardian, May 31, 1940
Eighth Air Force tactical mission report, operation no. 492, 24 July 1944, operation no. 494, 25 July 1944
World War II Operational Documents
She Spies – Six Amazing Female Agents Who Helped the Allies Win WW2 – WW2 Articles PDF
Article about the book ‘Shadow Warriors of WWII: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE’, by Gordon Thomas and Greg Lewis. World War 2 women.
Greg Lewis, Military History Now 2018
Related Pages on Century Past
These Century Past Pages May Be of Interest
Books about Asia and Asian History
Books about China and China History
Books about Japan and Japan History
Books about World History and Western Civilization
Books about World War 1 Military Operations
Directory for Century Past History Pages
Articles about Great Britain and Ireland in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Collected Historical Maps Worldwide
Books on Military History and US Wars
Articles about Military History
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Collected Military Historical Maps
History and Education Magazines
Articles about 20th Century US History
Books about US History 20th and 21st Centuries