This short subject where actor Leslie Howard meets three soldiers from Commonwealth countries, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia bears a lot of resemblance to the Frank Capra Why We Fight series that were made when America got into the war. As the United Kingdom was very desperately trying to woo America into the war at that point, some very flattering references to the USA was in the film including Howard quoting the Declaration of Independence at some length.
World War II was the last hurrah for the Commonwealth. It took a lot of effort to get some of them to declare war on the Axis Powers. Howard made reference to the autonomy that the French Canadians have in Quebec when referencing Canada. Of course the French Canadians held so much to their sovereignty that Canada had no draft for them. A position I have never understood since it was France that the British were trying to liberate. Go figure.
Australia and New Zealand had some voices of reluctance to send armed forces to Europe when they could be attacked, a fact that came home after Pearl Harbor and the fall of Singapore. For several months those two countries were very much vulnerable to invasion and many Aussies and Kiwis made no secret of their feelings about that.
Still these problems were papered over in this short and the contribution of Commonwealth troops in defeating Hitler cannot be overestimated.
And Leslie Howard himself was a very famous casualty of war in 1943, killed when the airliner he was on from Lisbon to Bristol was shot down. Howard was born Hungarian, but he did love his adopted country and their certainly was no better representative of the British and what they perceive as their national virtues than Leslie Howard.
I'm sure Frank Capra must have seen and liked this film, it's influence on our Why We Fight series is unmistakable.
World War II was the last hurrah for the Commonwealth. It took a lot of effort to get some of them to declare war on the Axis Powers. Howard made reference to the autonomy that the French Canadians have in Quebec when referencing Canada. Of course the French Canadians held so much to their sovereignty that Canada had no draft for them. A position I have never understood since it was France that the British were trying to liberate. Go figure.
Australia and New Zealand had some voices of reluctance to send armed forces to Europe when they could be attacked, a fact that came home after Pearl Harbor and the fall of Singapore. For several months those two countries were very much vulnerable to invasion and many Aussies and Kiwis made no secret of their feelings about that.
Still these problems were papered over in this short and the contribution of Commonwealth troops in defeating Hitler cannot be overestimated.
And Leslie Howard himself was a very famous casualty of war in 1943, killed when the airliner he was on from Lisbon to Bristol was shot down. Howard was born Hungarian, but he did love his adopted country and their certainly was no better representative of the British and what they perceive as their national virtues than Leslie Howard.
I'm sure Frank Capra must have seen and liked this film, it's influence on our Why We Fight series is unmistakable.