Theirs Is the Glory

A dramatized documentary re-enacting the Battle of Arnhem, filmed on the actual battle locations using veterans who had fought there as cast members. It follows the British 1st Airborne Division's desperate nine-day fight to hold the bridge. The film blends newsreel-style realism with staged reenactment.

Made just a year after the battle, this unique production used real Arnhem veterans returning to the battlefield to reenact their own experiences. It stands as one of the earliest war films to depict Operation Market Garden and remains valued for its unusual documentary authenticity.

As it was performed by actual veterans on the real terrain, it is considered unusually authentic in atmosphere though it contains no professional actors and a loose narrative structure.

The largest amphibious operation in history put Allied armies ashore on five beaches in Normandy, opening the campaign that would liberate Western Europe.

Airborne divisions landed behind the beaches overnight to secure flanks and causeways. Seaborne assaults hit Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword from first light; Omaha was very nearly held. By nightfall roughly 156,000 men were ashore, though few D-Day objectives inland had been taken.

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst

Cast: Bruce Buckham, Stanley Maxted, E. C. Hodgkinson

Positioned at September 17-25, 1944 within the Late 1944 phase of the war, as part of the Operation Market Garden. This is entry 125 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Arnhem
• veterans
• docudrama
• British Airborne
• Netherlands

• 

  A Bridge Too Far

  September 17-25, 1944

• 

  Storming Juno

  6 June 1944

• 

  Overlord

  1944

• 

  Ike: Countdown to D-Day

  February–June 1944

• 

  The Great Escape

  24–25 March 1944

• 

  D-Day the Sixth of June

  6 June 1944