World War II Newsreels on the Internet Archive

Before television, newsreels were how the public saw the war. Shown before feature films in theaters, these short films combined battlefield footage, narration, and music into a carefully constructed narrative that informed — and shaped — public opinion.

The Internet Archive holds thousands of WWII newsreels from American, British, and other Allied sources. They cover every theater of the war, from the Blitz to D-Day to the Pacific island campaigns, and they include the home front: war bond drives, rationing, women entering the workforce.

These newsreels are essential primary sources, but they require critical viewing. They were produced under wartime censorship and often with explicit propaganda aims. Understanding what was shown — and what was withheld — is as important as the footage itself.