The Dunkirk movie true story only adds to the thrilling nature of Christopher Nolan's war movie. Nolan has made a name for himself as a director of movies with grand vision and stunning visuals, But while he is best known for his sci-fi movies like Inception and blockbusters like the acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, he is also known to take on real world stories and explore them in great detail as in his war epic Dunkirk. A dramatization of the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk during World War II, Dunkirk is a war drama which aims to put the audience in the middle of one of the most legendary war stories of the 20th century.
Instead of the typical war movie about heroic battles, Dunkirk tells the story of a desperate rescue mission to save the British soldiers stranded on a French beach with the German army surrounding them. As with Nolan's Oppenheimer, the filmmaker sought realism and exact details for Dunkirk. Whenever possible, Nolan and his team went to great efforts to avoid using CGI effects, including using real military battleships and aircraft from the era. Yet the realism also includes the Dunkirk movie's true story and how Nolan captured the details of what really happened.
Background - WW2 At The Time Of Dunkirk
The Dunkirk movie true story deals with the events that took place in May and June of 1940 during World War II — well over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor led to American intervention in the war. By 1940, Nazi had occupied many neighboring nations and the German armed forces — known collectively as the Wehrmacht — were deeply entrenched in . Winston Churchill had just become Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Allied forces (, Belgium, and Britain, in this case) had one chance to repel the invaders and stop Hitler in his tracks.
The greater invasion of into (as well as Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) was known as the Battle of and took place in May and June of 1940. Over the course of those weeks, it is estimated that roughly 27,000 Wehrmacht soldiers were killed, though some estimates range as high as 49,000. On the Allied side, the death toll was much higher, and the final tally indicated that at least 85,000 French fighters lost their lives in the fighting, with an additional 120,000 wounded. Around 10,000 Britons were killed, with nearly 60,000 injured. It was by no means the bloodiest battle in the war, but it was still a crushing defeat for the Allies. The true story of Dunkirk is regarded as one of the most important military operations of WW2, especially in the UK.
The Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo
It is within the greater umbrella of the Battle of that found the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo, the main setting of the Christopher Nolan film. During the Nazi invasion of , the Wehrmacht pushed back Allied forces at virtually every turn (though not without a fight, as the casualty figures attest). By May 24th, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers had been pushed back to Dunkirk, essentially surrounded, with the unstoppable German tanks bearing down on them. For reasons which are hotly debated to this day, the Germans did not stomp out the Allies, as they almost certainly could have. Instead, a "halt order" was issued, stopping the tanks in their tracks, and giving the Allies a stay of execution.
Some theorize that the Nazis wanted to take the soldiers as prisoners of war rather than kill them all. Other historians have suggested that Hitler didn't want to waste his precious tanks, which could be used in more hotly contested battles than Dunkirk, which was already won. Whatever the reason behind it, the Allies made the most of this opportunity, organizing and putting into motion Operation Dynamo — a mass evacuation of Allied forces away from the clutches of the Nazi occupation. In the wider context of the war, this operation as chronicled in Dunkirk was perhaps one of the moments the UK in particular realized the true threat Hitler and the Nazis could be on the battlefield, and many lessons learned in Operation Dynamo were crucial to the Allied success five years later.
Practically every naval vessel possible was called in to assist, including civilian ships. The Battle of Dunkirk, as seen in Dunkirk, was the fight to protect the evacuation efforts. When the Germans caught wind of the Dynamo plan, Hitler rescinded the ill-advised halt order, but it was too late. Over the course of the next eleven days, British forces were able to safely recover about 338,000 men. In hindsight, though the Nazi invasion of was an undisputed blow to the Allied nations, much solace was taken in the successful "Miracle at Dunkirk," as it came to be known.
Despite being championed as a silver lining in a disastrous campaign for the Allies, who were in desperate need of a way to boost morale both on the front lines and at home, the evacuation was far from easy — which is what made it such a riveting true story for a movie like Dunkirk. The shores were constantly being bombarded by German artillery, and the Luftwaffe dropped massive payloads in an attempt to hinder the rescue efforts. Thousands of Allied soldiers were killed during the battle, and nearly all the British tanks and other heavy equipment were captured by the Nazis. In addition, despite the hundreds of thousands who were rescued, tens of thousands still wound up being taken prisoner, and many of them remained POWs until the end of the war — those that survived, that is.
The Aftermath - What Happened After The Dunkirk Movie
It is often said that any given test of willpower is a "make or break moment." Dunkirk proved that the true test of mettle is how leaders react following the failure of a "make or break" plan. Simply put, the Battle of was a failure for the Allied Forces: 's invasion of had proven to be a devastating success, and the Allies were scrambling. However, the Battle of Dunkirk allowed Winston Churchill to spin utter failure into a reassurance that victory was inevitable and imminent, though it would ultimately take years for to be liberated.
Of course, the Dunkirk movie true story didn't end when the movie did, as World War II continued until 1945. On June 4th, 1940, the same day The Battle of Dunkirk ended, Churchill delivered one of his greatest speeches to Parliament, couching the hope of eventual victory in an acknowledgment of the great effort that it would take to achieve it:
"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in , we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
With regard to the Dunkirk evacuation, the press had already turned the event into a symbol of Allied fortitude and perseverance. Though the battle was lost, the war was not over. was lost to the German forces, but just four short years later the Allies, now with the US army on their side, would liberate their lost territory from the weakened Nazi war machine. The Nazi invasion of could have plunged Europe into eternal despair, but "The Miracle at Dunkirk" was the ray of light that rallied the Allies and ultimately kept them afloat for the rest of the war. As the tagline for the Dunkirk film states, Dunkirk truly is "the event that shaped our world."
What Dunkirk Got Right About The Real WW2 History
The extent of the Dunkirk movie's true story is presented well in Nolan's version and, not surprisingly, the movie seems to have taken a lot of effort in assuring the details are as accurate as possible. Smaller details about the military aspects of the period have been praised from the look of the uniforms to the ages of the young soldiers which feel more authentic than the older soldiers typically seen in World War II movies. There are also some more notable historical details that add to the movie's impact.
The air rescue portion of the movie involves three pilots flying over to Dunkirk, played by Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden, and Christopher Nolan regular Michael Cain in a voice-only cameo. Three pilots to protect the beach of survivors might seem like underplaying the reality of the situation, but the RAF was withholding many of its planes for fear that an invasion of Britain was next. The scene in which Lowden's character is insulted by the survivors for seeming not being there to help is taken from a real experience from a downed pilot (via Slate).
Another aspect of the movie that might be surprising to know is part of Dunkirk's true story is the German pamphlets seen in the opening scene. As some of the young British soldiers make their way to the beach, pamphlets begin raining from the skies which are revealed to be German-created material showing a map of the beach and the entire area the German army hold surrounding them. While it might seem like a clever bit of exposition to kick off the movie, such pamphlets were real (via BBC). The German army was known to attempt demoralizing tactics on their enemies and this was one such attempt, forcing the British soldiers to realize the hopelessness of their situation.
What Christopher Nolan Got Wrong About History In Dunkirk
While Christopher Nolan and his team did a fine job doing justice to the Dunkirk movie true story, there are a few elements that are not as accurate as others. One of them has to do with Dunkirk's confusing timeline and specifically the final rescue. The moment the small ships are seen on the horizon coming in to save the soldiers is a triumphant one, and it is easy to see why Nolan decided to take this poetic license rather than stay to the more accurate . In reality, the boats did not arrive altogether, and the rescue was stretched over a matter of days which is much less cinematic.
Another aspect of the small boats rescue that was changed to add to the dramatic nature of the movie's finale was the exaggeration of how big of the role they played. Indeed, these boats were essential to the mission and manned by brave sailors (although nearly all of them were of the British military). However, the movie depicts them as the deciding factor in pulling off the rescue whereas the reality is that those rescued on the small boats made up a small portion of the rescued. Of the 338,000 men rescued off the beaches, only about 6,000 were rescued on civilian boats (via Looper).
Amidst the rescue mission, Dunkirk also features a subplot about a French soldier disguising himself as a British soldier in the hopes of being rescued. However, among the survivors rescued from Dunkirk beach, nearly half of them were French soldiers and there was no attempt to prevent them from being rescued along with the British soldiers. It is yet another change made by Nolan to add some more dramatic elements to Dunkirk even if it separates from the reality of the story slightly.
