Ireland, June 1944. The crucial decision about the right time to start Operation Overlord on D-Day comes to depend on the readings taken by Maureen Flavin, a young girl who works at a post office, used as a weather station, in Blacksod, in County Mayo, the westernmost promontory of Europe, far from the many lands devastated by the iron storms of World War II.
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
An unpublished documentary film proposed in restored version. 100 million meters of film viewing, film libraries inventoried 11 countries and 3 years of work were needed to bring these documents. This documentary evokes the destruction of the Nazi war machine with a particular emphasis on air power. The most significant events are recounted as the Normandy landings, the battle of Paris, the last German offensive with the historical siege of Bastogne and the landing on the island of Elba. Also shown are the bombing of German industrial centers, and the liberation of concentration camps.
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.