# 1942 BRITISH WWII PROPAGANDA FILM "FORWARD COMMANDOS!" RAYMOND SPOTTISWOODE FILM 85504

Forward Commandos is a short 1942 film from Raymond Spottiswoode (father of Hollywood director Roger Spottiswoode) that shows viewers the winter/arctic guerilla tactics used by commandos of the Allied forces against the Nazis during World War II, based on tactics employed by Russians in a similar environment. The film also shows some commandos operating in other countries with drier, warmer climates, and concludes with an Allied raid on a Nazi-held city on the coast of Norway. The film opens with footage of a Japanese warship at sea (00:25). Tanks move across snowy ground (01:20). Serbians on horseback ride against German forces. British commandos run through the streets of a city (02:12). Commandos parachute out of a transport plane (02:37). Men run and man a tank in Libya (03:17). Commandos hide themselves in the forests of Burma. Soviet civilians mobilize to build defense barriers (04:22). Soviets blow up a Nazi radio station (05:01). The film shows soldiers with skis preparing to traverse snow fields. A bush pilot takes off from an arctic location (06:14). Men ski in line. Armored vehicles traverse snowy fields (06:43). At the Canadian Army Winter Training School in Ottawa (07:24), men train by skiing down slopes and across fields. The film shows footage of Nazi trucks stranded in the harsh Russian winter (08:14) and some of the men who succumbed to the cold, now just frozen corpses on the ground. A man comes out of a makeshift shelter in the harsh conditions (08:50).…

- Kind: Film
- By: PeriscopeFilm
- Genres: War, Industrial and advertising, Propaganda
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/85504-foward-commandos)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/85504-foward-commandos?play=1)