In 2017, the famous American director Christopher Nolan directed a war movie "Dunkirk", investing $100 million and earning nearly $400 million at the global box office.
Dunkirk is based on the historical event of World War II, the Dunkirk Evacuation.
Movie "Dunkirk"
The Dunkirk evacuation refers to a evacuation that took place in 1940. In that year, the German mechanized forces launched a blitzkrieg, defeating millions of French troops with lightning speed and forcing France to surrender. Not only that, but the Germans also tore through the Anglo-French defenses and forced more than 400,000 Anglo-French troops (including more than 30,000 Belgian troops) to Dunkirk in northern France.
Dunkirk is a small French port town, bordering the United Kingdom and Belgium. The British and French allies were chased here, which was equivalent to facing the desperate situation of "backwater war". However, Dunkirk had no strong fortifications, and hundreds of thousands of Anglo-French troops gathered here had little effect except to be the target of German bombers and artillery bombardment. Therefore, the best way to do this is to quickly retreat to the British mainland across the English Channel.
Dunkirk evacuation
At nearly 7 p.m. on May 26, the British launched a retreat code-named "Generator". Under the full command of Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay, commander of the Port of Dover, England, 1 cruiser, 8 destroyers and 26 other ships were mobilized, and with the cooperation of a large number of civilian ships recruited, they braved the bombardment of German bombers to transport the Anglo-French coalition from Dunkirk back to England day and night. After nine days and nine nights of retreat, a total of 338226 people were withdrawn. Among them, the British army was about 215,000 people, the French army was about 90,000 people, and the Belgian army was about 33,000 people.
According to Britain's original plan, it was enough to withdraw 30,000 people. Now, more than 330,000 people have been withdrawn, which is a miracle. Although the Anglo-French coalition army discarded a large number of heavy weapons and equipment, including cannons, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, cars, and motorcycles, because it maintained 330,000 living forces, it reserved the fire for the world anti-fascist war. Four years later, many of the fighters who had retreated from Dunkirk to England landed from Normandy and returned to mainland France to participate in the final battle against the Germans.
So, after the Dunkirk evacuation, many people called the military operation a "victory." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calmly said that this was not a victory. On the day of the end of the Dunkirk evacuation, Churchill came to the British House of Commons and gave an enthusiastic speech. Churchill said: "We must be extremely careful not to overshadow this retreat as victory, and war is not won by retreat." ...... The Germans desperately tried to sink thousands of ships full of warriors on the sea, but they were repulsed, they were defeated, and we withdrew from the expeditionary force! ”
Churchill was not modest, for the Anglo-French forces also paid a considerable price in the Dunkirk evacuation.
Churchill
During the retreat, 28,000 people were killed due to German air raids and artillery bombardment. In addition, the British Air Force flew 2739 fighters to cover the retreat. Of these, 106 fighters were destroyed by the Germans.
At 9:00 a.m. on 4 June, as some 40,000 French troops on the beach of Dunkirk were about to retreat, the armored units of the German 18th Army had rushed over and surrounded them. These 40,000 French soldiers were taken prisoner.
During the Dunkirk evacuation, various civilian vessels played an important role and made an important contribution to the evacuation mission. According to the data, Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands recruited a total of 861 civilian vessels to transport the Anglo-French coalition forces, including fishing boats, passenger ships, yachts and lifeboats and other small vessels. These civilian ships were not equipped with anti-aircraft guns like warships, and there was little room for resistance in the face of German air raids, and they could only be slaughtered. Eventually, 226 British civilian ships and 17 French civilian ships were sunk by German artillery fire.
Among them, a luxury cruise ship called Lancastria suffered particularly heavy casualties.
Lancastria is a luxury Royal Cruise ship owned by a British shipping company that runs between the United Kingdom and the United States. After the Dunkirk evacuation, there were still many British engineers, RAF ground personnel, transport personnel and radio operators stranded in the french ports of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, about 30,000. The Lancastria was officially requisitioned by the British to pick up and drop off the above-mentioned persons at the port of loire estuary in saint-Nazaire.
On 17 June, lancastria, loaded with around 6,000 British soldiers and civilians, departed from the port of St. Nazaire for Britain. Around 4 p.m., several Luftwaffe bombers appeared in the sky and bombed the Lancastria with bombs. Just 20 minutes later, the Lancastria sank to the bottom of the ocean. In addition to a small number of passengers being rescued, about 4,000 British soldiers and civilians were buried in the belly of the fish.
With these heavy episodes, the Dunkirk evacuation is indeed difficult to call "victory".