WORLD WAR II WAS FOUGHT ON MANY FRONTS. ONE OF THEM WAS FILM.
Filming Under Fire: John Ford’s OSS Field Photo Branch tells the story of how six-time Academy Award-winning director John Ford and many of its leading filmmakers - including cinematographers Harold Rosson, Gregg Toland, and Joe August; screenwriter Budd Schulberg and actor Sterling Hayden - contributed to America’s victory in World War II through their service in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Field Photographic Branch.
They conducted surveillance. They made training films. They shot combat. They created films to boost Americans’ morale and to demoralize the enemy.
General Eisenhower said that if it did nothing else, the intelligence gathered by the Field Photographic Branch in advance of D-Day alone justified OSS' creation. At the war’s conclusion, it gathered evidence that was instrumental in convicting the Nazi High Command at Nuremberg.
This film is a tribute to their heroic efforts; to Hollywood’s contribution to America’s victory in World War II; and to the enduring power of film in the never-ending struggle for freedom and human dignity - a timely reminder as the world once again confronts authoritarian forces.
One reviewer described it as “a brief yet captivating history of courageous filmmakers in WWII, featuring well-researched and astonishing archival footage brave men risked their lives for. Eight decades later, the story remains compelling.”
Steven Spielberg thanked The OSS Society for “preserving this history and keeping it in our conversations 80 years later.” Ken Burns described the film as “terrific.”
It was shown in Normandy by the US Special Operations Command Europe, and by CIA to its personnel worldwide, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Founded in 1947 by OSS founder General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society is a nonprofit organization that honors the historic accomplishments of the OSS during World War II, the first organized effort by the United States to implement a centralized system of strategic intelligence, and the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. It educates the American public regarding the continuing importance of strategic intelligence and special operations to the preservation of freedom.
The OSS Society led a successful effort to have a Congressional Gold Medal - Congress’s highest civilian honor - awarded to OSS. The OSS Congressional Gold Medal Act was signed into law by President Obama on December 14, 2016. It led another successful effort to have the OSS and original CIA headquarters on Navy Hill in Washington, D.C., added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2022, it installed a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery honoring OSS personnel who were killed or missing in action. It hosts the William J. Donovan Award ® Dinner, the preeminent annual gathering of the U.S. Intelligence and Special Operations communities. The OSS Society is planning to build the National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations® that will honor Americans who have served at the “tip of the spear” as our nation's first line of defense and inspire future generations to serve their country.