Originally published in the 2017 issue 16 of "Watching Movies Weekly" in August 2017 and the 2017 issue 9 of "Watching Movies Midnight" in September 2017, the two articles are now combined and published here. Compared with the version published in the magazine, this version has slightly modified details, and the pictures may differ from those of the magazine:
Great Rescue and Miraculous Retreat
In July 2017, the war movie "Dunkirk" directed by the famous British director Christopher Nolan will be released in the highly anticipated release. Nolan has directed a variety of film themes, and the addition of war movies has made it almost a Kubrick-style director. When asked by a reporter why he chose the evacuation at Dunkirk as the subject matter, he replied: "The evacuation of Dunkirk and its legend, as the British grew up, is in our DNA. … It's the kind of thing that I don't think I'm ready to do." So, what kind of thrilling story happened on the beach in Dunkirk that year, so that Nolan felt "not ready to do it"?
The "mystery" of the German army's suspension of the offensive
On September 1, 1939, Germany launched a blitzkrieg, which together with the Soviet Union invaded and divided Poland. World War II broke out. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, but they always avoided the war passively, and even hoped that the misfortune would lead to a war between Germany and the Soviet Union. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded Denmark and Norway. On May 10, German forces invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. On the border between Germany and France, the French army built the "Maginot" line of defense known as "invincible". The French believed that the large-scale German mechanized forces could not pass through the rugged Ardennes forests of Belgium, and thus were weakly deployed here. The German army used the loopholes of the French army in the Ardennes to bypass the "Maginot" line of defense in one fell swoop. The German Army Group A was surging, and the steel torrent of the "Crest" armored group went straight to the southeast. With the German Army Group B heading south from the Netherlands, the British Expeditionary Force, the French 1st Army and the 7th Army were divided. A total of 400,000 troops, the Free Polish Army, the Dutch Army, and the Belgian Army remnants, surrounded the Dunkirk area. The Allies were backed by the English Channel, surrounded by enemies on three sides, and the battle was in jeopardy.
Facing the wolf-like roaring German tanks, the Allies seemed helpless. The combat levels of the various divisions of the British Army are uneven, and elites like the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Cold Creek Guards can still fight to the death. ; and the British Home Defense Forces stationed in Albert had no training, and these whimsical recruits even planned to build barricades with cardboard boxes to block the charge of German tanks; the three tank brigades from the French army, or because of fuel When it was exhausted, it could not find supplies and was abandoned, or was devoured by the German army because of dispersion; King Leopold III of Belgium completely lost his confidence in resistance and raised the white flag to Hitler. The cessation of resistance in Belgium opened a huge gap in the Allied defense line, and the undertrained British troops were thrown into chaos in an instant, and the soldiers of the logistics unit could not even find their officers. The 4th Infantry Division Ammunition Supply Company, the 1st Transport Company and the 573rd Engineer Company all inexplicably received almost the same order: "Go to Dunkirk and seek your own blessings!" In this chaotic situation, The retreat quickly turned into a disorderly rout. As a French girl married to a soldier of the British Expeditionary Force, Jeanne Michel lived with her husband Gordon Stanley for only 3 months, and was evacuated all the way to Dunkirk under the pursuit of German bombers. Her husband is a soldier, and he has to perform his duty as a soldier, so he cannot take her away. Stanley promised her that he would come back to pick her up in two months. However, she waited for this promise, which was four years in the first place.
As long as the German tanks continue to advance and capture the port of Dunkirk, the 400,000-strong Allied army can only be captured. On May 24, the German armored forward received an order to "suspend the offensive". The wording of the order issued by Hitler was so strong that General Guderian, the commander of the German 19th Panzer Corps, known as the "father of the blitzkrieg", did not dare to act rashly. The Allies took advantage of the three days when the Germans stopped advancing to gather up the defeated forces and build a solid line of defense. When the Germans resumed operations on May 27, it was found that the offensive had not been so smooth. At a critical moment, the fatal mistakes made by the Germans themselves made it possible for the Allies to retreat across the sea.
For a long time, in order to make history full of drama and mystery, the media are often keen to render the reason why the German army suspended the attack on Dunkirk as an "unsolved mystery". Actually, this question is not without an answer. In the Arras area in the encirclement, the British "Matilda" 2 infantry tank launched a violent counterattack against the German army. The German army urgently called the Flak 18/36 type 88mm anti-aircraft gun to fire flat, and the British army was repelled. The fierce resistance of the British and French forces made the Germans quite afraid. Since the start of the war, the Germans have lost a lot of tanks. Hitler was reluctant to let the Panzer Division act alone and suffer too many losses when the infantry divisions had not caught up. He hopes to save tanks for future military operations. At the same time, Marshal Goering of the Luftwaffe boasted to Hitler that the German bombers were enough to wipe out the Allied forces in the encirclement without having to bother with tanks. In this case, Hitler gave the Army an order to suspend the offensive and only asked the Air Force to continue its air strikes on Dunkirk. From a deeper perspective, Germany is a typical land-power country, and Britain is a typical sea-power country. The German army lacked the tradition of sea power and lacked sufficient understanding of Britain's maritime transport capabilities, so they blindly believed that the British army could not withdraw such a large-scale army from the sea.
The propaganda leaflets spread by the German army to the Dunkirk encirclement are collected in the Dunkirk Museum in France. The leaflets read in French and English: "British soldiers! Look at this map: this is your real situation! You are completely surrounded - give up resistance! Lay down your weapons!" However, for the Germans, this was The leaflet also had a lot of counterproductive effects. At that time, the British army was already in chaos, and many officers and soldiers did not know the situation of the front and the location of Dunkirk. It was with the maps on these leaflets that they figured out the situation on the front and retreated all the way to Dunkirk.
"Generator" for sea and air assistance
On May 20, 1940, when the German tanks had just arrived on the shores of the English Channel in France, British Prime Minister Churchill decided to withdraw the British Expeditionary Force from France to the British mainland. He ordered Lieutenant Admiral Ramsay of the Royal Navy to develop a "dynamo" operation plan to mobilize a large number of ships to go to Dunkirk to "pick the children home". The British Army could not withstand the impact of the German armored group, but the Royal Navy was enough to control the sea surface of the Atlantic Ocean, and the German Navy could not stop the British fleet from moving. However, the large warships that the Royal Navy is proud of, such as aircraft carriers, battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers, as well as large transports capable of carrying large quantities of equipment and personnel, are not suitable for this task. In the narrow English Channel, these large ships were clearly targeted and were bound to be indiscriminately bombed by the Luftwaffe. In order to avoid unnecessary losses, the Royal Navy only called one light air defense cruiser from the large warships, and the rest of the ships were small and medium-sized ships such as destroyers, frigates, light frigates, minesweepers, torpedo boats, submarine hunting, and gunboats. When the Royal Navy's ships were insufficient, the British people actively responded to the call and dispatched a large number of civilian boats to support them, including various types of hospital ships, fishing boats, tugboats and yachts. The navies and people of France, the Netherlands, and Belgium also mobilized ships for support. In the end, the Allies dispatched 861 ships of various types, including 693 British ships.
The Allied fleet sailed across the English Channel from England to Dunkirk, with only three routes each called "X", "Y" and "Z". The X route is within the range of the German coastal defense artillery and cannot be used; in order to block the German ships, the British army placed a large number of mines on the Z route, making it unusable; the Y route is the farthest, with a voyage of 120 kilometers. Arriving at Dunkirk, the only available route, meant that the fleet would be exposed to the threat of German bombers for a long time. At this time, the French Air Force was caught in a fierce battle in the airspace south of the Somme, and could only send a small number of aircraft to support Dunkirk, and the responsibility of covering the retreat could only be left to the British Royal Air Force. Admiral Dawding of the RAF Fighter Command strictly limited the number of British fighter jets, especially the advanced and prized Spitfires, that could go to Dunkirk. He must retain enough fighters to defend the British Isles in future battles. Nevertheless, the limited number of "Hurricane" and "Spitfire" fighters also drove the German bombers to pieces, which greatly shocked the Luftwaffe. The emergence of the "Spitfire" fighter made the German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter, which ran rampant over Europe, finally encountered an evenly matched opponent. Colonel Falk of the German 26th Fighter Squadron flew a Messerschmitt Bf-110 fighter to engage with British fighter jets and returned to the base. Lieutenant Ryan of the 19th Fighter Squadron of the British Army had a fierce fight with two German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter jets, and drove a wounded Spitfire fighter to forced landing on the beach on the British coast. . He climbed out of the cockpit with blood and oil stains all over his body, and staggered past under the astonished eyes of many tourists, reminding the people who didn't know the danger was coming, that 32 kilometers away was already a world of killing.
Compared with Lieutenant Ryan, the experience of New Zealand pilot Alan Deere in the British 74th fighter jet is far more thrilling. On May 26, when the Dunkirk retreat began, he was already the ace pilot who had shot down six German fighter jets. On May 28, when he was driving a Spitfire fighter to hunt down a German Dornier-17 bomber, the rear-firing machine gun of the German bomber damaged the cooling system of his plane. Deere struggled to lower the landing gear and forcibly landed in shallow water off the Belgian coast, crashing headfirst into the sand. Fortunately, passing British infantry rescued him from a coma and bandaged his wounded head. On their way to Dunkirk on foot, they encountered British trucks that were also evacuating to Dunkirk. In the truck, he had to suffer aggrievedly to endure criticism from other British soldiers that the RAF cover was unfavorable. Eventually, he returned to England in the rescue boat and continued to fight the Germans as a fighter pilot. By the end of World War II, the deadly pilot had shot down 22 German aircraft, with 10 more likely to be shot down. The engine was also damaged by the rear-firing machine gun of the German Dornier-17 bomber. Peter Kazenov, the pilot of the British 92nd Fighter Squadron, was not so lucky. His comrades watched as he crashed his damaged Spitfire towards the beach in Calais. On the radio, Cazenov also said to his comrades: "Tell my mother, I'll be back for tea in a few days." However, after landing on the beach, the Germans captured him. Fortunately, he survived until the end of World War II.
However, the "Hurricane" and "Spitfire" fighter jets had limited time in the air, and the Germans could always take advantage of them. The German Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bomber descended from the sky with a shriek of death. Wherever the bombs threw, flames and flesh flew into the sky. The British anti-aircraft guns fired desperately, but they could not stop these raging air demons. The British infantry used rifles and light machine guns in vain to shoot at the German bombers, and some even threw grenades at the German planes passing by at a low altitude. After the retreat, Lieutenant General Ramsay wrote anxiously: "Unless God manifests, there will be tragedies, and I can't imagine what is about to happen..."
The Luftwaffe apparently did not hesitate. On May 26, German bombers dropped 4,000 bombs on Dunkirk in one go. On May 27, 40 of the British ships assembled overseas in Dunkirk sank in the loud noise of the bomb explosion. On May 29, German bombers, submarines and torpedo boats launched a joint attack. The British destroyers "Grafton", "Grenade" and "Sleepless" fell victim to German bombs and torpedoes. On May 30, the French destroyer Tornado was sunk by German mines. On May 31, German bombers and two torpedo boats sank the French destroyer "Hot Breeze". On June 1, the German Air Force attacked overwhelmingly and sank the British destroyers "Monster", "Keith" and the French "Thunder" in one breath. The British destroyer "Ivanhoe" was also damaged by the German bomber. The destroyer "Havant" had just transferred the wounded and the officers and soldiers from the destroyer "Ivanhoe", and unfortunately became a German bomber. live prey. Three bombs dropped by Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bombers killed 32 people on board and injured 25 others. The British minesweeper HMS Saltash tried to tow it back to the UK, but the battered destroyer Havant was unable to sail. The minesweeper HMS Saltash had to scuttle it, watching helplessly as H32, the hull number of the destroyer Havant, slowly sank into the icy English Channel.
On the day the British destroyer HMS Grenade was attacked, the Germans dispatched 400 aircraft to bomb Dunkirk. Two German Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bombers dropped two bombs that hit the bridge and stern of the "Grenade" destroyer respectively, detonating its fuel tanks. The destroyer "Grenade" docked near the breakwater and burned for several hours before causing a violent explosion and drown in the rising mushroom cloud. Second-class sailor Kavanagh had just escaped from the destroyer HMS Grenade to the breakwater when he was strafed by German fighter jets. An unknown soldier pushes him out of the hunt of death, but he sacrifices his life for his comrade-in-arms. Kavanagh then escaped onto a wooden steamer, which was sunk by German bombers; he escaped onto a trawler, which was sunk again by German bombers; and finally settled on another trawler . In just 45 minutes, he has survived four thrilling near misses.
Eagerly waiting
While the Allied navy and air force fought fiercely in the English Channel, the Allied army, shrouded in the encirclement by German air and artillery bombardment, was in serious chaos. In the outer positions, the rear guard resisted steadily, trying to delay the pursuit of the German armored group; inside the encirclement, the remnants of the British, French and Belgian troops were exhausted and retreated to Dunkirk; in the port of Dunkirk, loading and unloading The workers had already disappeared without a trace, and the pier was no longer functioning properly; on the beaches of Dunkirk, the officers and soldiers who had arrived were eagerly looking forward, staring eagerly at the English Channel, hoping that a ship would come to pick them up and "return." Family".
On the way to Dunkirk, the British engineers blasted bridges, canal locks, and power stations one by one, leaving no available resources for the Germans. The British field artillery had to destroy the howitzer that had become a burden, and some artillerymen even burst into tears when they reluctantly destroyed the breech block. Thousands of armored vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, lined up neatly, idling their engines until they were destroyed. All the supplies that could not be taken away were burned. In the port of Dunkirk, the Royal Navy is trying to replace air defense arresting balloons with air defense blocking nets dragged by kites. In the chaos, friendly forces were completely unaware of the existence of the test, and the infantrymen shot down the "suspicious flying objects" after seeing them. These bizarre equipment failed to stop the bombs dropped by the German bombers, along with the bombs, as well as propaganda bombs filled with surrender leaflets. The officers and soldiers of the 58th Field Artillery Regiment of the British Army used the flyers as toilet paper, and the lost 250th Field Engineer Company found their way to Dunkirk through the map of the Allied beachheads drawn on the flyers. On the beaches of Dunkirk, British officers and soldiers lined up in an orderly manner, waiting to board the ship. Even if the German bombers were frantically raging overhead, there was never a rush to get on the ship.
On May 27, the British army began a large-scale withdrawal of personnel. On the same day, 7,669 people were evacuated to the British mainland. On May 28, the God that Lieutenant General Ramsay prayed seemed to have "appeared"! The Dunkirk area was thick with fog, and the German pilots could not see the target at all. Under the command of Marshal Goering, the German bombers dropped the bombs blindly in a loose formation. The bombs exploded on the beach, and the soft sand suppressed the explosions and caused little damage. In the outer ring position, the Allied rearguard force desperately delayed the German attack. In Newport, armored vehicles of the British 12th Lancers blocked the German 256th Infantry Division. Near Lille, the German 7th Panzer Division commanded by Major General Rommel cut off the escape route of a motorized division and three infantry divisions of the French 1st Army. They fought on the spot for 4 days, delaying the actions of 3 German armored divisions and 1 infantry division, allowing 100,000 Allied troops to continue to withdraw to Dunkirk. Naturally, the British Army understood that the fog was a godsend, and took the time to evacuate 17,804 people.
On May 29, the British continued to withdraw personnel from the sea. At 14:00, the sun dispelled the fog of Dunkirk. Like vultures smelling meat, the German bombers quickly appeared over the heads of the Allies, and almost threw down the bombs that could not be dropped on May 28. British ships docked in the port of Dunkirk were almost devastated. Some of the officers and soldiers who boarded the ship climbed back to the breakwater from the sea in despair, waiting wetly for the opportunity to board the ship again, but watched helplessly as other ships were blown to pieces. The beach was full of half-buried corpses in the sand caused by the explosion. The officers and soldiers standing on the breakwater looked out to the sea and found many drowned comrades-in-arms drifting with the waves. Despite this, the British army still evacuated 47,310 people to the British mainland, of which more than 10,000 were French soldiers.
The water on the coast of Dunkirk was too shallow, and the British had to use small boats to transport officers and soldiers from the shore to larger ships. However, the wind and waves on the coast overturned many small boats, and the British army urgently needed a trestle where the small boats could dock. Lieutenant Dibbons of the 102nd Military Police Company of the British Army had an idea and came up with the idea of pushing the abandoned truck into the sea and processing it into a trestle. Before joining the army, Lieutenant Bennett of the British 250th Engineer Company was a professor of fine arts at the University of Cambridge. At this time, he led only 30-40 people to successfully build the trestle bridge with trucks, sandbags, wooden boards and ropes in waist-deep sea water. Exactly who was the first to invent this method is unknown. At that time, almost multiple commanders came up with the idea at the same time. In the past two days, more than a dozen trestle bridges made of abandoned vehicles and military supplies have been built on the beachhead of Dunkirk.
On May 30, the outer positions of Dunkirk began to collapse, and more and more French troops poured into Dunkirk from the west. On the same day, the British army evacuated 53,823 people to the British mainland. On May 31, Churchill flew to Paris for a military conference with France. The French government was dissatisfied that the number of British troops evacuated was significantly larger than that of the French troops. Churchill immediately stated that the British and French troops would divide the retreating ships equally, and the British army would leave three infantry divisions to perform rearguard tasks. On the same day, the German 256th Infantry Division continued to storm Newport, and the 1st and 1/6th Infantry Battalions of the British East Surrey Infantry Regiment retreated. The 2nd Infantry Battalion of the British Cold Creek Guards went to supervise the battle, shot and killed several panicked soldiers, and drove the friendly forces back to the forward position with bayonets, finally successfully repelling the German attack. On that day, 68,014 Allied troops evacuated to the British mainland, the culmination of the Dunkirk retreat.
As British soldiers and soldiers continue to withdraw to the British mainland, London's hospitals have also entered a crazy busy state. 20-year-old female nurse Dilis Hammer participated in the rescue of the wounded evacuated from Dunkirk. The hospital had no ambulances available, and had to mobilize buses to transport the wounded. At the time, she was still an intern, but she stayed on the job for 12 hours in a row. Years later, she recalled: "It was a long, long day, very tiring at work, but no one complained."
On June 1, the Luftwaffe continued to launch indiscriminate bombing of Dunkirk. At the critical moment of the air battle, the British army put clumsy "Dreadnought" fighters, old "Swordfish" biplane torpedo bombers, and American "Hudson" bombers used for air strikes on ground targets. The Hurricane and Spitfire did their best to stop the German air attack. After the wing painted with the iron cross swept over, 31 British ships sank and 11 ships were severely damaged, which was the heaviest loss in the evacuation of Dunkirk. However, the British miraculously evacuated 64,429 people that day. Among them, Major General Bernard Montgomery, the then commander of the British 3rd Infantry Division, later served as the commander of the British 8th Army in North Africa and became the "Viscount El Alamein" who defeated the German "Desert Fox" Marshal Rommel. There is also Private Bill Hersey of the 1st East Surrey Infantry Regiment of the British Army, who not only returned to England alive, but also took along the French girl Augusta whom he married during the garrison in France. He put a British military uniform on her, and "deceived the sky and crossed the sea" to pass the border.
In the early hours of the same day, the British 51st Scottish Highland Infantry Division withdrew to Rapane, on the outskirts of Dunkirk. In addition to the ubiquitous German bombers, German heavy howitzers were constantly shelling them. Private Farley, of the 1/7th Machine Gun Battalion, Middlesex Infantry Regiment, ran on the beach with four comrades, dodging the approaching shells. After a loud bang, Farley miraculously escaped unscathed, but the three comrades fell to the ground motionless. Another comrade-in-arms propped up his body with one hand and begged him, "Save me, save me." Farley glanced at it, but didn't stop running at all. When life and death were at stake, it was the survival instinct that controlled his brain and his legs. However, in the following 40 years, this cry for help has been lingering in his mind, torturing his restless conscience every silent late night.
On June 2, after suffering heavy losses, the British had to stop their daytime retreat and retreat only at night. The Luftwaffe could not find a target and had to bomb Paris instead. On the same day, the British withdrew 26,256 people. On June 3, the British withdrew 26,746 people, mainly French troops, including the last British troops. On June 4, the British evacuated 26,175 French troops to Britain.
boat making waves
In the evacuation of Dunkirk, the civilian boats driven by the people of the Allied countries played an indelible role. Of the 693 ships dispatched by the UK, more than 60% were civilian vessels.
On May 26, in the port of Ramsgart in the United Kingdom, Captain Lightoller of the yacht "Sandnar" was visited by two second lieutenants of the Royal Navy. After they indicated that they needed to requisition the yacht to go to Dunkirk to participate in the rescue operation, Lightoller readily agreed to their request. They didn't know that the 66-year-old yacht captain was once the second mate of the famous "Titanic" passenger ship. When the "Titanic" hit an iceberg and sank, he was in charge of directing the passengers to escape, and always shouted "women and children first". During World War I, he captained the destroyer USS Gary, which sank the German submarine UB-110. Now, this legendary captain will go into battle and "participate" in history again.
On the evening of May 30, the destroyer HMS Malcolm of the British Royal Navy was carrying officers and soldiers rescued from Dunkirk to Dover in the British mainland. The British officers and soldiers standing on the deck vaguely found that a large "small black spot" appeared at the sea level. They were surprised to see that these "small black spots" became more and more and bigger, and turned into various civilian boats. Except for a few large ships, most of them are small and medium-sized boats. This large-scale "fleet" sailed forward and fearlessly to the war-torn Dunkirk, which made the British officers and soldiers on the way back to feel awe. For the Luftwaffe, the sky was once again unpleasant, and the thick fog forced the German bombers to return, unable to harm these fragile boats.
Only a very small number of these temporarily recruited boats were issued with the old "Lewis" 7.7mm machine guns. Some boats were not only unarmed, they didn't even have navigational instruments, and could only follow the piloting boats. The volunteers who work on the boats, some are sailors with extensive sailing experience, some are students of the Ocean Race Club, have never been on land before. When they saw the mast of the sunken ship protruding from the sea, they even took it as a periscope for a German submarine, and sounded the alarm in horror. The compass of some boats was not calibrated, and after reaching the French coast, it took several repetitions to find the correct contact point. Some ships did not even have charts. The crews were full of British officers and soldiers, and they sailed confidently in the direction they thought was the British mainland. As a result, they broke into Calais, which had been occupied by the German army, and were attacked by German artillery. After the bombardment, it turned back to England.
On June 1, Lightoller was driving the yacht "Sandnar", with his eldest son and an 18-year-old Navy boy scout, risking the boat capsize and forcibly pulling 130 British officers and soldiers aboard. on his yacht "Sandnar". From deck to cabin, these desperate soldiers huddled together like sardines in a can. The yacht "Sundernall" sailed crookedly towards England, but was repeatedly strafed and bombed by the Luftwaffe. Lightoller's youngest son, an RAF bomber pilot, was bleeding in the skies early in the war. When the youngest son was still around, he often discussed with his father the technique of evading air raids. The experience that the younger son taught Lightoller came into play at this time. He nimbly evaded the pursuit of the Luftwaffe and returned 130 officers and men to England unscathed.
It was the participation of a large number of civilian boats that pushed the Dunkirk retreat to its climax. The single ship that saved the largest number of Allied officers and soldiers was not a British Royal Navy warship, but a civilian ship - the "Royal Narcissus" ferry. In 6 days, it made 5 trips to and from the English Channel, sending 7,461 officers and soldiers back to the UK. On June 2, six German bombers bombed in turn, blasting holes in the hull, and it still struggled to return to the port. The paddle steamer "Queen Medway" made 7 round trips in the English Channel, saving 7,000 officers and soldiers, and won the reputation of "Heroes of Dunkirk".
"Spirit of Dunkirk" will go down in history forever
At 3:20 on June 4, 1940, after the destroyer HMS Hunter of the British Royal Navy returned, there were no large British ships in the port of Dunkirk. At dawn, a British torpedo boat reluctantly sailed towards Britain after patrolling the port. At this time, there were still many French soldiers trapped in Dunkirk. In order to cover the retreat of the main force, the French 12th Motorized Division persisted until the last moment before giving up resistance. At the same time, a small number of wounded and medical staff of the British army also stayed in Dunkirk. At 06:00, the German 18th Infantry Division entered Dunkirk. At 10 o'clock, a French army doctor and 30 soldiers found a lifeboat and rowed in the direction of the United Kingdom. It was also the last ship to escape Dunkirk. At 10:30, the last gunfire in Dunkirk stopped, where the Germans captured more than 35,000 French troops.
From May 27th to June 4th, 1940, during the 9-day evacuation of Dunkirk, the Allies were under the siege of the German army, navy, and air force and evacuated 338,226 people to the British mainland, of which 224,686 were British troops. officers and soldiers. The British Expeditionary Force discarded all heavy weapons and vehicles, including 445 tanks, 1,200 howitzers, 500 anti-tank guns, 750 anti-aircraft guns, 63,000 cars, 75,000 motorcycles, 21,000 machine guns, 6,400 anti-tank guns, 377,000 tons of military supplies.
During the battle and retreat around Dunkirk, 68,111 British troops were killed, captured or missing. German bombers sank the passenger liner Lancastria, killing more than 3,500 British troops, more than twice as many as the Titanic. Of the 861 ships of various types dispatched by the Allies, 243 were sunk. Of the 693 ships of various types dispatched by the British army, 226 were sunk, and countless ships were severely damaged or damaged. The RAF carried out 171 reconnaissance sorties, 651 bombing sorties, and 2,739 fighter air combat sorties, and lost 145 aircraft. More than 20,000 Germans were killed or wounded in the attack on Dunkirk, and 100 tanks and 156 aircraft were lost.
On the evening of June 4, Churchill came to the packed House of Commons to give a speech on the situation of the Dunkirk evacuation. Churchill once again made the whole House of Commons boil with his genius eloquence - "We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the German landing sites, we will fight on the fields and the streets - we will not surrender!" Those British officers and soldiers who returned from their near-death lives in Dunkirk were also amazed at the treatment they received. Captain John Dodd of the 58th Field Artillery Regiment of the British Army thought that as a defeated soldier, he would be met with angry eyes and contempt from the British people. However, when they landed haggard in Ramsgate, they were overwhelmed by countless cigarettes, hot tea, hot cocoa, chocolate, sandwiches, biscuits and blankets. As the trains carrying the defeated returning soldiers headed to the rehab and reorganization areas, the stations along the way were full of civilians distributing food and drink to them, children were welcoming them with Union Jacks, and sheets were hung from the windows of suburban London buildings. It says "Good job, boys," and "Well done, British Expeditionary Force." The motorboat Raigate 11, which had participated in the retreat, returned to the Thames and sailed upstream to the dock. The British people found the oil-stained motorboat, stood on the bridge of the Thames, and burst into enthusiastic cheers...
In the history of human warfare, often only forward means success, and retreat means failure. However, the Dunkirk Retreat, a seemingly lost battle, bred hope of victory. The large amount of weapons, equipment and materials lost by the British army can still be produced, but it is impossible for the soldiers to be replenished quickly. As Churchill said: "We must be very careful not to take this rescue as a sign of victory. Wars are not won by retreating." The officers and soldiers who were withdrawn from Dunkirk will be re-armed and headed to the world The anti-fascist battlefields in various places laid a solid foundation for the subsequent counter-offensive and final victory. At a critical moment, the German army missed the opportunity and returned the tiger to the mountain, failing to annihilate the British army. The Allies almost completed this retreat under the eyes of the Germans, which is a miracle in the history of human warfare. These living forces made the madness of the German invasion of the British Isles come to naught. The Germans could not eliminate Britain, and had to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build the "Atlantic Barrier" to resist the possible counter-offensive of the Allied forces. They were also unable to put more troops into the eastern front, and thus fell into the situation of fighting on the east and west fronts and eventually failed.
This great rescue and miraculous retreat further encouraged the confidence of British soldiers and civilians to fight against fascist Germany. Churchill called it the "Spirit of Dunkirk", which symbolized the bravery and unity of the British people, their composure, optimism and never-say-die belief in adversity. Chu Anping once wrote: "Even though the British are in the rain, they do not look embarrassed. Therefore, although the British are in the blood, they can still be regarded as heroes." This is the truest embodiment of the "Dunkirk Spirit".
The British retreated a small step, Nolan took a giant leap
On September 1, 2017, on the 78th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, the war movie "Dunkirk" directed by the famous British director Christopher Nolan was released in mainland China. When "Dunkirk" was released in the U.S. and U.K. two months ago, it was a huge hit, grossing $414 million at the box office. Many foreign media critics believe that "Dunkirk" is the first war film directed by Nolan, but it is also Nolan's best film work so far and one of the greatest war films in the history of world cinema. . In real history, the British retreated one small step through Dunkirk; in this film, Nolan took a giant leap through Dunkirk.
There is an attitude called "serious"
To Western audiences, especially those in Britain and France, the "Evacuation of Dunkirk" is familiar. The extent to which Chinese audiences know about it is often uneven. The knowledge of military history lovers is relatively detailed; most ordinary viewers can only vaguely remember the place name that they seem to have heard in high school history class; the two girls sitting in the back row of the author in the movie theater are most of the film, and also Not understanding "who is beating whom", their boyfriends were dumbfounded.
In 1995, Nolan and his wife, Emma Thomas, crossed the English Channel by boat. During the 19-hour bump, Nolan came up with the idea of making the movie Dunkirk. Initially, Nolan was not planning to write the script, but to improvise the entire film. His wife Thomas, who later produced Dunkirk, persuaded him to change his mind. Faced with the grand background and profound historical significance of the Dunkirk retreat, Nolan did not dare to act rashly. In 2015, after successfully directing a number of well-received films, Nolan, who has "hardened a sword in ten years", completed the script of "Dunkirk". The script is only 76 pages long, which is only half the length of Nolan's other films, and is the shortest of Nolan's films.
The so-called "condensation is the essence", with a 76-page script and a 147-minute duration, "Dunkirk" is as epic as a 3-hour feature film. Nolan is good at creating suspense, and the results of the real historical events are already known and there is no suspense, thus posing a huge challenge. In order to inspire the main creative team to create an atmosphere of tension and suspense, Nolan screened 11 films for him, of which only two were war films, and the others were mostly thrillers and suspense films. In the end, Nolan transferred the suspense from historical events to the fate of the characters, successfully creating this "war suspense film".
The Dunkirk retreat has been put on the screen many times, but Nolan's reconstruction of it is still sought after by the media and audiences. From the direction to the script, from the camera to the performance, from the music to the props, it can be described as rave reviews. On the "Rotten Tomatoes" website, its freshness is as high as 93%, with an average score of 8.7; on Metacritic , it has an average score of 94 points. Despite the completely different style, media reports have frequently compared it to Saving Private Ryan, pushing it to the top of "one of the greatest war movies in the history of world cinema".
In order to make "Dunkirk" closer to the historical facts, Nolan's research on this history has almost reached the level of making a documentary, and the level of research and attention to details is almost unimaginable.
On May 23, 2016, the filming team came to Dunkirk, France, and chose the beach where the retreat was carried out that year as the filming location for the film. The film was shot to coincide with the evacuation of Dunkirk 76 years ago and was not part of Nolan's plans. Nolan also suddenly realized this. They recreated the historical scene at the same time and place 76 years later, like some kind of reincarnation. Some of the "Dunkirk Beach" footage was filmed in other areas. The producers took soil samples from Dunkirk Beach, stirred up sand with similar texture and color, and imitated the scene of Dunkirk Beach before shooting. The breakwater that appeared in the movie was rebuilt by the producer according to the construction drawings of the year, and spent 4 months to rebuild, instead of using the existing breakwater to deal with the matter.
Nolan can't accept that the British officers and soldiers in the film wear casually found costumes or military uniforms with poor research. In order to balance historical evidence and aesthetic principles as much as possible, the film's costume designers consulted numerous books, magazines and historical photographs, and studied the actual military uniforms displayed in the British Museum, the RAF Museum and the Imperial War Museum. In 1940, the British army uniform was made of rough sheep felt, and it has not been produced since. In order to accurately restore the history, the producer specially ordered more than 1,000 pieces of British military uniforms made of rough sheep felt fabrics in a garment factory in Pakistan, and ordered more than 1,000 pairs of British military boots in a shoe factory in Mexico. The film's costume department spent another 3 weeks ageing the costumes to make them look more "real". Nolan is also meticulous about the seemingly "indifferent" issue of military uniform fabrics, which is really admirable.
While striving to restore history, the production of the film also took into account environmental issues. In order to protect marine life, the French government has banned the use of pyrotechnic special effects that may pollute the environment in the filming of sea and air combat footage. To this end, the producers switched to air cannons instead of traditional pyrotechnic effects. In the movie, the "black fuel" leaked from the sunken British destroyer is also specially made by the producer and will not pollute the environment.
Move "Real Guy"
To ordinary audiences, it seems that it doesn't matter whether the "aircraft cannon" in war films is true or not. Military fans watching "Dunkirk", what weapons and equipment can see the majesty, it is an important point to watch. Nolan directed a war film for the first time, but his attention to weapons and equipment is not inferior to any director who is good at directing war films.
In the film, the British Army's weapons include the "Lee-Enfield" No.1 Mk III* 7.7mm rifle, the "Bren" Mk 1 7.7mm light machine gun and the "Bofors" 40mm anti-aircraft gun. The pilot of the forced landing ignited the fighter jet, using a "Webley Scott" No.4 Mk 1 flare gun. In World War II, France was defeated earlier, and there were not many movies reflecting the French battle in 1940, so few movies would seriously show the weapons and equipment of the French army. However, Nolan did not let go of such details, and added these rare French firearms to it - at the barricades in Dunkirk, the French infantry were equipped with M1914 "Hotchkiss" 8mm heavy machine guns and M1924 /29 "Chateello" 7.5mm light machine gun; French infantry on the beach armed with M1886 "Lebel" 8mm rifle and MAS-36 7.5mm rifle. The only firearms that the German army appeared in the movie was the K98k "Mauser" 7.92mm rifle.
Nolan is keen on live-action special effects shooting and tries to avoid the use of computer special effects lenses, so the visual effects method in panoramic shooting is quite "original". In order to film a large number of British troops waiting for rescue, he hired 6,000 extras in one go. At the same time, a lot of human-shaped cardboard is used to fill the background. The "Bedford" MWD light trucks and "Bedford" OYD trucks abandoned by the British army on the beach are also made of cardboard, but the visual effects are completely fake.
The cost of using large warships is too high, and many historical ships are difficult to reproduce, so the large warships that appear in modern war movies are often made of computer special effects. The chief artist and marine coordinator of "Dunkirk" called more than 50 ships to participate in the shooting, including 20 civilian ships and even "antiques" that participated in the Dunkirk retreat. All the British destroyers of World War II that have survived to this day have their power systems unusable and could not participate in the shooting, so they had to be replaced by other ships. The role they play can be judged by the painted hull numbers.
The French Navy's T47-class "Mayet-Blize" destroyer, retired in 1988, played the British Royal Navy's V-class "Lively" destroyer (hull number D36) and V-class "Victor" destroyer (hull number D54) . To make it look like a World War II-era destroyer, the producers modified the missile launchers and modern radar on the hull. Three decommissioned ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy also participated in the filming - the "Dockham" class "Nardwijk" minesweeper, which played the British "Kingfisher" class "Britoma" minesweeper (Hull No. J22); "Dockham" class "Sittard" minesweeper, played the British H-class "Havant" destroyer (hull No. H32) and J-class "Jaguar" destroyer (hull No. H32) No. F34); "Castor" pilot ship, played the British B-class "Monster" destroyer (hull number H11). The Norwegian "Rogaland" served as a hospital ship. When British Rear Admiral Frederick Wick-Walker boarded the breakwater, the MTB-102 torpedo boat was "playing himself". This "true character" torpedo boat did participate in the Dunkirk retreat, and it was also the smallest ship in the history of the British Navy that served as the flagship.
The "Moonstone" yacht in the movie is the prototype of the "Homeless" yacht in real history. The Moonstone was indeed built in the 1930s, but did not take part in the Dunkirk retreat. Its maximum carrying capacity is less than 10 people, but during the filming, it carried 60 people in one go. In order to avoid danger in the high winds and waves of Dunkirk, the footage of the "Moonstone" was shot in the rough waters of the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands.
The four British military planes that appeared in the movie are all "real guys" who participated in World War II, and they have been preserved to this day and have the ability to fly. They are 2 Spitfire Mk 1A fighters, 1 Spitfire Mk 5B fighter and 1 Blenheim Mk 1VT light bomber. The service time of these three "Spitfire" was after June 1940, and they did not participate in the Dunkirk retreat that year. In the movie, the three Spitfires truly reproduce the three-plane V-shaped formation of the British Royal Air Force in 1940, but the shot of the pilot's cockpit was taken with the cockpit of the Soviet-made Yak-52TW-type trainer. The "Blenheim" in the film was produced in 1943 and rebuilt in 1987 on the wreckage of the original model. The German Messerschmitt Bf-109E fighter that fights with the "Spitfire" in the movie is actually the HA-1112 "Ball Breast Pigeon" fighter produced by Spain imitating the Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 . Among these planes, a Spitfire Mk 1A and HA-1112 both starred in the 1970 film "Battle of Britain" and the latter in the 2008 film "Assassination of Hitler." The aerial combat shots in the film are very realistic and full of mechanical manipulation. In contrast, the aerial combat in the more entertaining movies often flies up and down, with large movements and full of fancy.
The Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bomber and the Henkel-111 medium bomber appearing in the film are both radio-controlled aircraft models made with 3D printing technology. The high-pitched whistling sound produced by the "Stuka" diving must impress the audience, and military fans will be excited about this "reality". In reality, "Stuka" is indeed equipped with a special whistle sound device, which will produce a screeching sound when diving, and the faster the speed and the closer it is to the ground, the more harsh the sound, so as to torture the nerves of the enemy personnel. Destroy the morale of the enemy. Initially, the producers tried to find the surviving "Stuka" whistle device, but failed. The screaming in the movie is actually a sound effect imitated by the sound effect designer.
Many characters have historical archetypes
Nolan once said that the characters in the film are all fictional, but looking back in history, you will find that there are many historical prototypes. This is true even for certain characters who flash by. For example, the British infantryman in the film who desperately unloaded his equipment, walked into the waves and drowned, came from the story Nolan heard when interviewing British veterans who had participated in the Dunkirk retreat.
Lieutenant Colonel "Burton" of the Royal Navy, played by Kenneth Branagh, has been commanding the retreat on the seawall. Its prototype is the captain of the British destroyer "Isis", Colonel James Croston. At the time, he was in charge of commanding the evacuation of Dunkirk's East Seawall, which was the "most critical" boarding point in Dunkirk. On June 3, the German plane sank the motorboat he was in, and he was only 39 years old when he died.
The old captain "Dawson" of the "Moonstone" yacht is impressive, and its prototype, Charles Lightoller, is a legendary historical figure. Lightoller was the second mate of the Titanic. When the "Titanic" hit an iceberg and sank, he was in charge of directing the passengers to escape, and always shouted "women and children first". His film image can be seen in the 1958 film "Wreck on Ice" and the 1997 film "Titanic". During the First World War, he served as a seaplane lookout, torpedo boat captain, and the destroyer "Gary", commanding the destroyer to sink the German submarine UB-110. It is not difficult to explain why Captain "Dawson" in the film can easily judge whether the plane in the air belongs to the British or the German army, or to know the performance of the plane. In the film, Captain "Dawson" and his youngest son drove the yacht "Moonstone" to Dunkirk, and said their eldest son was a pilot of a "Hurricane" fighter jet, who had died in the early days of the war. In reality, Lightoller and his eldest son sailed to Dunkirk on the yacht Sandnall. His youngest son, Brian, was an RAF bomber pilot who died in the air raid on Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on September 4, 1939. Bryan did discuss with him the technique of evading air strikes, exactly as depicted in the film, and Lightoller was able to return the 130 people on board unharmed to England.
In the movie, the roles of the two fighter pilots of the British Royal Air Force can be described as countless fans. At the time, the RAF could only limit the number of fighters it could deploy in order to save fighters for subsequent battles to defend the British mainland. As shown in the film, the Spitfire Mk 1A has a short range and only 1 hour in the air. The British Army officers and soldiers on the beach, who rarely saw the air combat outside Dunkirk or over the English Channel, mistakenly thought that the Air Force was doing nothing, and were very angry. When the pilot "Collins" played by Jack Lowden returned to the UK, he was questioned by army officers and soldiers. The pilot "Ferrer" played by Tom Hardy is based on Peter Cazenov, a pilot of the British 92nd Fighter Squadron. When his Spitfire was damaged, he radioed to his comrades: "Tell my mother, I'll be back for tea in a few days." After landing on the beach in Calais, the Germans captured him. Fortunately, he survived until the end of World War II.
There are no politicians such as Churchill or Hitler in the film, and no famous senior generals of the British or German forces at that time. Nolan's explanation for this is that he doesn't want the film to "get into a political rut." Interestingly, there are only shots of German aircraft in the film, and almost no shots of German soldiers. In the battle at the beginning of the film and the shooting of the civilian ship hiding by the British army, the image of the German army does not appear at all, and there are only gunshots and bullets. When "Ferrer" was captured, the image of the German infantry was just a black silhouette on the embankment. At close range, it became a shallow focus shot, blurring the image of the German infantry. The "symbolic" treatment of the German army aggravates the film's sense of oppression, and the "unknown threat" can create a more suspenseful atmosphere.
Exaggeration and Injury
After all, feature films are not documentaries, and when compared with historical facts, no war film seems to be flawless, and Dunkirk is no exception. Some of these flaws are artistic exaggerations, while others are minor flaws.
In the opening film, the British infantry was ambushed by the German army, and the sound of gunfire was obviously louder than other war films. British veterans who participated in the Battle of Dunkirk said that the sound of guns and explosions on the real battlefield was not as loud as in the movie. Nolan deliberately increased the volume of the sound effect to create a real sense of oppression.
After "Tommy" escaped from the German ambush, he encountered the barricades held by the French army. It seemed that he ran a short distance before arriving at Dunkirk Beach. In fact, the outer defense line of Dunkirk is still far from the city. If the Germans had gotten so close to the beach, the retreat would not have lasted 10 days. In real history, on the morning of June 4, the German forwards entered the urban area of Dunkirk. In the movie, the Dunkirk city is still neat and intact, and it does not match the historical facts. The real Dunkirk has long been bombed to ruins.
The beachhead in the movie is too "clean", and the abandoned vehicles and scattered supplies are too neat. The real Dunkirk beachhead is messier and messier than the one in the movie. In contrast, the 2007 film "Atonement" depicts the beaches of Dunkirk much more realistically than "Dunkirk." The sea conditions on some of the beaches in the movie are worse than the real Dunkirk retreat. Nolan explained that the harsher sea conditions were chosen to make the audience understand the dangers faced by civilian ships at that time.
In terms of weapons and equipment: the MTB-102 torpedo boat in the movie is equipped with a "Vickers" K-type 7.7mm machine gun. In fact, the Dunkirk retreat was armed with a "Lewis" 7.7mm machine gun. In 1942, the "Vickers" K was changed. The German Messerschmitt Bf-109E fighter jet in the movie, with yellow paint on the nose. In fact, only a month after the Dunkirk retreat ended, the German fighter jets were painted like this. In the movie, the German Henkel-111 medium bomber sank the British destroyer HMS Havant. In real history, it was the German Junkers-87 "Stuka" dive bomber that sank it.
At the end of the film, after the remaining British troops boarded the ship, Lieutenant Colonel "Burton" said that he would stay to help the French retreat. This seems to mean that the British army withdrew without a single person; after all the British troops had withdrawn, the Allied fleet began to help the French army to retreat. This illusion is clearly not in line with historical facts. In real history, at the end of the retreat, there were still very few British troops, mainly wounded, stranded in Dunkirk and captured by the Germans. The French did not wait for the British to leave before they started boarding. On May 30, when the Dunkirk retreat was halfway through, the French troops had already started boarding and evacuating.
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