A REAL FIGHTING FORCE

Robbie McGuire cast his eye over British war films and compiles his top five

- Robbie McGuire

From the early days of commercial cinema, Britain has been producing war films. Some of the country's earliest attempts at making the genre came in 1900, with the pioneering Blackburn-based production company Mitchell and Kenyon creating a series of short films recreating scenes from the Boer War. At the time, some audience members believed they were watching real footage from the front lines. By the mid-1920s and into the 1930s, cinema was changing, and the public was hungry for full-length features starring famous faces.

Hollywood produced two huge war movies during that time with 1927's Wings directed by William Wellman, and Lewis Milestone's 1930 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front. Both productions set the pace for what war movies could be like both commercially and critically. The British film industry had released its own World War One literary adaptation just days before Milestone's epic, with the first filmed adaption of RC Sherriff's play Journey's End. It was a was also a huge financial and critical success. Although co-produced in the US, the film proved the British wartime experience was wanted by audiences and British studios could mix it with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, the British film industry would be changed forever. But the aftermath would herald a boom of war films that over time have seeped into our social and cultural fabric. Here are top five British war films you must watch.

THEIRS IS THE GLORY (1946)

The story of those filthy, grimy, wonderful gentlemen who drop from the clouds and fight where they stand.