As a pseudo-history buff who has lived in France, Belgium, and Germany for a long time. Let's talk about the "controversial" parts of the movie.
A sensational scene in the movie is Churchill in order to "save" more than 300,000 British soldiers in Dunkirk, and let 4,000 British soldiers stationed in Calais "send to death". All kinds of hesitation in internal meetings, and a tear from a beautiful female typist, all show the heroic color of self-sacrifice under the cruelty of war.
But did the main sacrifice come from the British soldiers? French and Belgian sources seem to show a different scenario:
Churchill planned to launch Operation Dynamo to protect the British from retreating. In order to stabilize Belgium and France so that they could continue to fight against the Germans, the two countries were not informed of the retreat plan in time. Churchill also promised the Belgian Prime Minister that Britain would fight Germany with the Belgian Legion.
Losing the British allies, the remaining Belgian troops, plus seven divisions of the French army, fought the Germans to the last minute, basically fighting ten.
By the time the last ship left Dunkirk, 35,000 French soldiers had been killed or captured.
On June 12, Churchill refused to help then French Prime Minister Paul Reno to continue resisting the Germans in France. Confidence between the Anglo-French alliance collapsed.
Soon after, France, fighting alone, had to surrender and form the Vichy government.
History is the history of the victors, and it is also the history that is sung.
The real darkest are those cannon fodders who are not even mentioned.
View more about Darkest Hour reviews
