Top 10 World War 2 combat films from the German perspective ranked.
(Image: SENATOR FILM)
, here are the best in the genre as depicted from the German combat perspective.
This list, once again ranked on IMDb, features films about the Third Reich’s armed forces fighting on different fronts by land, sea, and air.
Additionally, a couple of movies that made the ranking depict two of the most infamous periods at ’s High Command, where German combat decisions were made at the very top.
One of those is Downfall, which missed out on No 1 to another German-language epic reckoning with its country’s dark past.
10. The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Set in 1943, this British classic follows a fictional German plot ordered by Hitler to have Churchill kidnapped. Michael Caine and Robert Duvall star as Nazi colonels alongside Donald Pleasence as Heinrich Himmler. This was The Great Escape director John Sturges’ final film.
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9. Valkyrie (2008)
This film depicts the July 20, 1944 plot by German army officers to assassinate Hitler, arrest the Nazi leadership and take control of the country. Tom Cruise stars as plotter Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, alongside Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson.
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8. The Devil’s General (1955)
This West German film based on the play of the same name stars Curd Jürgens as a Luftwaffe General and World War 1 veteran who despises the Nazi regime and faces opposition from the Gestapo. A box office smash, the film was one of a number made in 1950s Germany depicting the resistance to Hitler among his generals.
(Image: REAL FILM)
7. 49th Parallel (1941)
Powell and Pressburger’s classic follows a German U-boat in the early days of World War II, which is sunk in Canada’s Hudson Bay. Given the US hadn’t entered the war, the small group of Germans attempt to cross the border. Released in the US as The Invaders, the film stars Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier.
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