In the wake of the official trailer release of Dunkirk, the upcoming cinematic venture of iconic film maker Christopher Nolan, we bring you a brief account of the historical event that has inspired its story.
The film is a cinematic depiction of the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940, a military evacuation operation that was significant to the Allied forces during the second World War. Code- named Operation Dynamo, its implementation began when large numbers of British, Belgian and French troops were beleaguered and surrounded by German forces on the French harbour of Dunkirk during the Battle of France.
The series of events that eventually led to the greatest military evacuation from Dunkirk can be said to have begun with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, following which France and the British Commonwealth and Empire declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of the Phoney War. Eventually, to swell the ranks of the Allied forces that fought for the defence of France, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was dispatched from the United Kingdom.
On May 10, 1940, German forces invaded Belgium and the Netherlands, while three of their Panzer corps assaulted France, driving rapidly towards the English channel. By May 21, three French armies, the BEF, and the little that remained of the Belgian army lay surrounded by German forces along the northern coast of France.
At this point, Lord Gort, commander of the BEF made an immediate decision. He had realised that the best course of action that could be taken at such hard- pressed conditions was to make a retreat towards the harbour of Dunkirk. He calculated that an evacuation across the Channel was their only chance of survival against Nazi Germany.
In an unexpected turn of events, though, the German pursuit of the retreating Allied forces came to a halt, following orders from the German High Command with the approval of Adolf Hitler. The retreating forces clinched this ray of hope peeping through the shadows that hung over their fate. With the time they now had, they set up defence works while pulling back troops to fight the Battle of Dunkirk.
Meanwhile in England, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had called the events in France "a colossal military disaster," implemented the design of the evacuation that had already been proposed. All across the ports and harbours lining the English Channel word spread out: a call to rally all that could be deemed fit to set sail to carry out the rescue operation.
May 26 of the year 1940 saw the river Thames studded with an armada that seemed incredible to the eyes. Barges, ferries, yachts, motorboats, sloops, merchant boats, fishing boats, pleasure crafts, lifeboats, in fact anything that could set sail across the Channel poured out towards Dunkirk to bring back home the stranded soldiers.
And thus the operation began. Sailing past ceaseless German attacks and negotiating routes across treacherous waters, a fleet which had been assembled in emergency advanced towards Dunkirk.
One could only imagine the sense of relief that would have run through the bodies of the men stranded on the beach at the sight of the vessels that arrived for their rescue. The only thing that broke through their shield of hope was the German attack that rained upon them through the course of the operation. The German artillery along with bombers and fighter planes struck the beleaguered forces to foil the evacuation.
But fortune, as is its nature, favoured the brave, although leaving behind many who would later be imprisoned or killed by German forces.
During the initial stage of Operation Dynamo, the British had arrived at the conclusion that they would be lucky to save at least 50, 000 soldiers. But when the operation ended, more than 300, 000 men made their way back to safety. What was calculated to be an impossible task with the least chances of success, became the largest military evacuation in world history, coming to be known as the Miracle of Dunkirk.
And as for the film, one can only hope that it does justice to an event that holds a significant position in the history of our world, bearing upon its pages a tumultuous ocean of bittersweet memories.
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