The film stars David Niven, Stanley Holloway and William Hartnell along with an ensemble cast of other British actors, including Ustinov in one of his earliest roles.

The Way Ahead follows a group of civilians who are conscripted into the British Army and, after training, are shipped to North Africa where they are involved in a battle against the Afrika Korps.

In the days after the Dunkirk evacuation in the Second World War, recently commissioned Second Lieutenant Jim Perry (Niven), a pre-war Territorial private soldier, is posted to the (fictional) Duke of Glendon's Light Infantry, known as the "Dogs", to train replacements to fill its depleted ranks.

Evan Lloyd, an unscrupulous rent collector, Sid Beck (Leslie Dwyer), a travel agent, Geoffrey Stainer (Jimmy Hanley), a friend of Lloyd's, Ted Brewer (Stanley Holloway), a plumber working in parliament, Herbert Davenport (Raymond Huntley), a department store manager with his young employee Bill Parsons (Hugh Burden) and finally Scottish farm labourer Luke (John Laurie).

The conscripts also mistakenly believe that their drill sergeant Fletcher is treating them harshly due to a minor incident where Stainer spilt tea on the older man.

When Parsons appears to desert his post, Perry takes a kindly stance with the young man and learns that his wife is being threatened by debt collectors.

After completing their training, the battalion is transferred to North Africa to face Rommel's Afrika Korps, but their troopship is torpedoed en route and they are forced to abandon ship.

When Sergeant Fletcher is trapped below deck by a burning vehicle, both Perry and Private Luke (John Laurie) intervene and work to save him.

[6] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1944 Britain were For Whom the Bell Tolls, This Happy Breed, Song of Bernadette, Going My Way, This Is the Army, Jane Eyre, The Story of Dr Wassell, Cover Girl, White Cliffs of Dover, Sweet Rosie O'Grady and Fanny By Gaslight.