Chimmo Branson / Midshipman
Ballard Berkeley / Engineer Commander
Hubert Gregg / Pilot
James Donald / Doc
Michael Whittaker / Sub
Kenneth Carten / Sub-Lieutenant R.N.V.R.
John Varley / Secco
Caven Watson / Brodie
Geoffrey Hibbert / Joey Mackeridge
Richard Attenborough / Young Stoker
Frederick Piper / Edgecombe
Lionel Grose / Reynolds
Leslie Dwyer / Parkinson
Charles Russell / Fisher
John Singer / Moran
Robert Moreton / Coombe
John Boxer / Hollett
Kenneth Evans / Posty
Johnnie Schofield / Coxswain
Franklyn Bennett / Cmdr. Spencer
Charles Compton / No. 1. 'Tremoyne'
Walter Fitzgerald / Col. Lumsden
Gerald Case / Jasper
Daniel Massey / Bobby Kinross
Ann Stephens / Lavinia Kinross
Kathleen Harrison / Mrs. Blake
Dora Gregory / Mrs. Lemmon
Penelope Dudley-Ward / Maureen
Barbara Waring / Mrs. Macadoo
Eileen Peel / Mrs. Farrell
Lesley Osmond / Nell Fosdick
Josie Welford / Emily
Kay Young / Barmaid
Trixy Scales / Mona Duke
George Carney / Mr. Blake
Wally Patch / Uncle Fred
Michael Anderson / Albert Fosdick
Jill Stephens / May Blake
Everley Gregg / Nurse
Roddy Hughes / Photographer
Norman Pierce / Mr. Satterthwaite
Juliet Mills / Freda's Baby
Neville Chamberlain / Self (voice) (archive sound)
John Brabourne / Soldier in the Dunkirk Sequence
Robin Burns / Survivor Crewman
Jeremy Hawk / Train Passenger
Adolf Hitler / Self (archive footage)
Leslie Howard / Narrator (voice)
Al Millen / Rescued sailor

Tarek Sharif / Yuri at 8 Years Old
Bernard Kay / The Bolshevik
Klaus Kinski / Kostoyed
Gérard Tichy / Liberius
Noel Willman / Razin
Geoffrey Keen / Medical Professor
Adrienne Corri / Amelia
Jack MacGowran / Petya
Mark Eden / Engineer at Dam
Erik Chitty / Old Soldier
Roger Maxwell / Beef-Faced Colonel
Wolf Frees / Delegate
Gwen Nelson / Female Janitor
Lucy Westmore / Katya
Lili Muráti / The Train Jumper
Peter Madden / Political Officer