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12/04/1943 War, Documentary 1h 0m
62
User score

The most terrifying scenes ever taken under fire!

Overview

A featureless land fit only for war, as the narrator, J. L. Hodson stated in the early scenes: "If war was to be fought then let it begin here". In endless miles of rock-strewn scrub desert, where civilians hardly existed. Desert Victory tells the story of the Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa is analysed, with the major portion of the film examining the battles at El Alamein, including some re-enactment. Won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944.

  1. David MacDonald

    Director

  2. J.L. Hodson

    Writer

  3. Roy Boulting

    Director

Top billed cast

  1. Harold Alexander

    Self (archive footage)

  2. Winston Churchill

    Self (archive footage)

  3. Adolf Hitler

    Self (archive footage)

  4. Bernard L. Montgomery

    Self (archive footage)

  5. Erwin Rommel

    Self (archive footage)

  6. Claude Auchinleck

    Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

  7. Alan Brooke

    Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

  8. Alan Cunningham

    Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

  9. Joseph Goebbels

    Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

  10. View more

Full Cast & Crew

Reviews

A review by CinemaSerf
Written by CinemaSerf on 2025-07-07
This wartime documentary has one advantage over many of it’s contemporaries. It’s a largely self-contained story of the planning and execution of a battle from the Second World War that was actually won. It’s also a much more internationalist depiction of the activities by soldiers of many different nations that fought against Rommel’s hitherto unbeaten Afrika Korps across Mesapotamia and towards El Alamein, a mere sixty miles from Alexandria and not much farther from the crucial Suez Canal. There is an astonishing collection of wartime photography to supplement a narration that is fre...read the rest
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Status
Released

Original Language
English

Budget
$0.00

Revenue
$0.00

Keywords