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Why We Fight
Frank Capra's wartime series for the U.S. Army.
Frank Capra's seven-film U.S. Army series explaining the road to World War II, built from newsreels, captured footage and animated maps.
Directed by Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak · Narrated by Walter Huston · Music by Dimitri Tiomkin · Produced by the U.S. War Department
Content note: Wartime propaganda with racist caricatures of Japanese people; real combat footage.
Episodes
- Prelude to War · 52 min
Capra frames the war as a clash between a free world and a slave world, tracing how fascism rose in Germany, Italy and Japan.
- The Nazis Strike · 41 min
Germany's rearmament and expansion from the Rhineland to the invasion of Poland, told through newsreels and animated maps.
- Divide and Conquer · 56 min
The 1940 campaigns in Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries and France, ending with the fall of Paris.
- The Battle of Britain · 52 min
Outnumbered, the Royal Air Force and Britain's civilians withstand the Luftwaffe's 1940 air campaign.
- The Battle of Russia, Part 1 · 35 min
Russia's history of repelling invaders sets up Germany's 1941 assault and the defense of Moscow.
- The Battle of Russia, Part 2 · 47 min
The siege of Leningrad and the turning point at Stalingrad.
- The Battle of China · 62 min
Japan's invasion of China, the bombing of cities and the long Chinese resistance.
- War Comes to America · 65 min
How American public opinion moved from isolationism to war between 1931 and Pearl Harbor.
Why this series is free to watch
This film was made by the U.S. government. Works made by federal employees as part of their jobs have no copyright in the United States, so anyone may show it.
Learn more about it on Wikipedia.
