Posted on 08/25/2017 11:27:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dunkirk, the movie, is a big box office hit even with its somewhat inaccurate historical perspective. It only partially tells of the real heroes of this incident and never explains the impact it had on World War II or the British population.
On May 10th 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. A huge rescue, Operation 'Dynamo', was organized by the Royal Navy to get the troops off the beaches and back to Britain. The fierce Nazi bombing demolished the Dunkirk Harbor making it impossible for the large Royal Navy ships to dock. The evacuation occurred from May 26th to June 4th, 1940. Although these events were realistically portrayed in the movie, never once was it pointed out that if the BEF had been captured, it would have meant the loss of Britain's only trained troops and the probable collapse of the Allied cause.
The film did show the bravery of the RAF pilots; yet, the dogfight looked like the Peanut’s character Snoopy versus the Red Baron. No one is diminishing the role played by the air pilots, but they were only part of a component that changed the tide from a military disaster, in which British generals predicted an overwhelming defeat. In fact, the film implied that the British Royal Air Force withheld reinforcements when in actuality all available aircraft was sent in to support the evacuation.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
This article further explains what was missing from Dunkirk the movie:
https://garydemar.com/see-dunkirk-watch-film-see-missing/
From that article:
When Britain was close to defeat during the 2nd World War, and the entire British Army was trapped at Dunkirk, in desperation George 6th called for a National Day of Prayer to be held on 26th May 1940. In a national broadcast he instructed the people of the UK to turn back to God in a spirit of repentance and plead for Divine help. Millions of people across the British Isles flocked into churches praying for deliverance and this photograph [see below] shows the extraordinary scene outside Westminster Abbey as people queued for prayer.
Two events immediately followed.
Firstly, a violent storm arose over the Dunkirk region grounding the Luftwaffe which had been killing thousands on the beaches.
And then secondly, a great calm descended on the Channel, the like of which hadn’t been seen for a generation, which allowed hundreds of tiny boats to sail across and rescue 335,000 soldiers, rather than the estimated 20-30,000. From then on people referred to what happened as “the miracle of Dunkirk.” Sunday June 9th was officially appointed as a Day of National Thanksgiving.
The real “hero” indirectly responsible for “The Miracle of Dunkirk” was - head of the Luftwaffe, Herman Goering.
It was Goering who convinced Hitler to halt his panzer divisions, which were poised to take the beachhead at Dunkirk and destroy the BEF, so as to allow his Luftwaffe to finish them off.
This monumental tactical blunder, borne out of both Goering’s ego and his overestimation of the capabilities of air power against ground forces, gave time for the ‘Miracle’ of the evacuation to succees.
Air power’s success against ground troops had been systematically overestimated practically since the beginning of the airplane. Even today, with all of our smart bombs and killer drones, which have taken our aerial war capability to a new level, there still is no aerial substitute for holding the ground.
Thank you for posting this!
Must have used the same Chaplain that Patton did during the Relief of Bastogne.
Little Known Fact:
When Germany invaded France and the Low Countries the Allied forces shot down approx 1000 German pilots and airmen.
When collapse was evident, Britain offered to take the prisoners so that they could be sent to Canada and permanently out of the theater.
The French refused so when the collapse of the friendly forces abandoned the continent, the 1000 prisoners were freed.
These experienced aircrews went on to man and significantly impacted the coming Battle of Britain.
I still think it’s fair to question if Hitler really wanted to destroy the BEF at the time.
I still believe he held out hope after the defeat of France, that he could have made a deal with Britain. Destroying the BEF, probably would have ruined any chance that the Brits would be accommodating towards such a deal, in Hitler’s mind.
One of the survivors in England said that the movie was accurate. I’ll take his word over the reviewer’s take.
I’ve never in my life gone into a “movie” thinking it was a documentary and vice versa.
Of course stuff was missing. All movies have missing stuff, and all movies tell the story of thousands of guys through the adventures of one man.
They got the important facts right from a British soldier’s perspective and if someone wants to do it differently they are free to do so. Critics are a dime a dozen. I wouldn’t trade one critic for anyone who fought in WWII.
I was not that impressed with the story, but I was expecting a little more action. It was a fair account, but not a definitive account.
I’ll stick with my 1958 DVD version. Richard Attenborough, John Mills, Bernard Lee.
Thanks for the link. The scene is very moving.
I learn new things here all the time.
It's obvious rulers make poor generals and combine that with a lack of discernment and logical plotting with generals let the idea of the invasion of Britain slip away.
No, but that wasn't the operational goal. Destroying the BEF was. That means drop a lot of bombs and execute a lot of strafing runs which means a lot of sorties which means a lot of aircraft given the number of BEF Soldiers and the limited number of munitions the aircraft could carry.
It was like “Enemy at the Gates”.
No, you weren’t going to learn everything there was to know about the Battle of Stalingrad from it, it just focused on one aspect of it of many, the sniper duel between Zaitsev and König.
I feel compelled to comment here. Dunkirk is not a historical movie, nor was it intended to be. It’s an art film, a brilliant one, that strongly resembles the silent films of the 1920’s that the director took his inspiration from. One can get important WWII facts from The History Channel.
“Even though large tracts...have fallen or may fall into the grip of the...odious apparatus of Nazi [Lying Leftist] rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight...on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air...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.”
Words to live by today that the Right needs embrace and to take to heart.
That’s what I have read, studied, and believe. Hess flew his one-way mission for a reason and he and schnicklegruber were probably butt boys.
Exactly. Hess didn't take a dump without Hitler's permission, and he was loyal enough that he would have done it, despite knowing that if he failed, Hitler would disavow it.
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