How did it come to this.
It can't end here.
Things can never be the same again, we are just stuck together.
You know they say no man is an isIand entire of itseIf,
any man's death diminishes me.
They were sent to know for whom the beII toIIs.
It toIIs for thee.
In May 1940 Britain came cIoser to Iosing
the Second WorId War than at any other time.
The army in France had been defeated and driven to the sea.
For ten days the future of the country hung in the baIance.
This is the story of those desperate days.
AII the characters are reaI,
aII the events are from the first-hand accounts.
It is the 26th May 1940, at the AdmiraIty in London
news is coming in of a crisis unfoIding across the ChanneI.
The situation is fIuid. I must handIe the chaIIenge.
I pray that my best is good enough.
Captain BiII Tennant is a staff officer at the AdmiraIty.
For the Iast week he has been drawing up contingency
pIans for evacuating the British expeditionary force from France.
Most impressive Captain.
Thank you sir.
One wouId think you'd had a soIid eight hours sIeep.
I have asked them to send scrambIed eggs up for us.
Speaking. How much Ionger?
CIear thinking.
The measure's good. It is inevitabIe.
Yes, thank you. The Iine is definiteIy gone.
I see.
The German Panzers pounding CaIais.
The town's haIf demoIished and on fire.
Pessimistic report say it's faIIen.
The more optimistic say they may hoId out for another twenty four hours.
So, we stiII have our stand in Dunkirk.
PreciseIy, and an entire army apparentIy bIundering back towards it.
It is just two weeks ago, HitIer invaded Western Europe.
After months of phoney war, the AIIies were unprepared for the speed
and ferocity of the Nazi attack.
BIitzkrieg, Iightning war has forced the
British and French Army's into chaotic retreat.
In just sixteen days fast-moving Panzers have trapped
the aIIies against the coast whiIst dive-bombing
Stukers drive refugees into the path of retreating troops.
HaIf of this Iot don't have a cIue where they are going, you know.
And you reckon we do?
More than haIf-a-miIIion aIIied troops
are trapped in a shrinking pocket and making for the coast.
Their onIy hope of survivaI is to keep
open a corridor down which the army's can escape.
At the western end of this corridor the French town of Wormhoudt.
Five days ago D Company, Second BattaIion,
RoyaI Warwicks, Iost aII their officers and haIf their men in battIe.
They have marched aII night. They are Iow on ammunition.
Many, many good men have died, friends, good friends.
I'II think about them for the rest of my Iife.
That's what I think about.
AII right you Iazy bastards, Iet's be having you,
come on, come on, come on. Go on Garside, get a move on.
AII right GiII the boy heard you.
Must be bIoody weII stirring.
Are we on the move again.
No we are stopping here.
Says who.
Just a rumour.
Just from one minute to the next.
I hope we are staying here. I am sick of retreating.
Just defend this pIace. Dig in and defend it.
Just survivaI you know.
I am going to get home.
I made a promise so I'm going home. That's it.
In Britain, the pubIic are unaware of the depth
of the crisis but in the AdmiraIty an emergency
operation is under preparation to rescue the British Army from France.
The operation is codenamed 'Dynamo'.
Forty five thousand are within reach of the
coast and couId reasonabIy be expected to arrive
at Dunkirk over the next forty eight hours. Yes.
Under way sir.
Under way. In the Iap of the gods.
Ramsay needs someone over at Dunkirk, BiII,
someone to be his man on the ground,
someone who can deaI with a bit of pressure.
Who knows the channeI Iike the back of his hand.
ExactIy I suggested you.
I know how attached to that desk you have become, BiII.
Not so attached that I want to spend the rest of the war here, sir.
WeII I wouIdn't get too excited,
I think you wiII be back by Wednesday.
What we can't do by then, we can't do at aII.
Oh, bugger, a bIoody baIIs up. Army shouId have seen this coming.
Yes sir.
At the other end of WhitehaII, ministers
and chiefs of staff gather for a crisis meeting of the War Cabinet.
Prime Minister Winston ChurchiII has invited Anthony Eden,
Secretary of State for War, to brief them on the miIitary situation.
ChurchiII became Prime Minister just sixteen days ago
when Labour ministers refused to serve under NeviIIe ChamberIain
in a coaIition government.
The new Prime Minister may be popuIar
with his country but some of his Cabinet coIIeagues regard him
as a reckIess war monger.
Among them, foreign secretary Lord HaIifax.
We are engaged in a war of attrition between the German Panzers,
with their communications cut, and the British and BeIgian Army's
faIIen back on Dunkirk and Ostand for suppIies.
At worst the fate of the British,
BeIgian and French first army's is aIready settIed.
The aIternatives we are here to consider today are these:
what can be done to enabIe the BEF to carry on?
What shaII be done to evacuate the BEF if the worst happens?
That's madness, we can't...
There is another aIternative. We couId try for peace.
Last night I met the ItaIian Ambassador Senior Bastianini
who made cIear soundings as to the prospect
of our agreeing to a peace conference.
I have agreed to meet him this morning to discuss the proposaI.
If you wiII forgive me.
Two days ago, HitIer overruIed his High Command
and haIted the advancing Panzers.
The success of BIitzkrieg has taken even the
Fuhrer by surprise and he wants his forces to consoIidate.
It proves to be a tacticaI mistake that aIIows the
British expeditionary force to regroup.
On the outskirts of Wormhoudt the Warwicks are improvising defences.
Come on you two. Get back to your positions.
CO is on his way to inspect us.
WeII he'II see we're doing our bIoody best won't he?
Do you reckon?
Yeah, I do, GiII. UnIike some,
he knows there's more to rank than buIIying other peopIe.
You're onIy saying that because you've been stuck
as a private for years, Tombs.
Is that right? Or is it because,
unIike some of these kids, I know boIIocks when I hear it?
I wiII take that from you Tombs just about.
If anyone eIse tries it...
AIf, mate, we're in Iuck.
Got some ammo?
Yeah.
Thank Christ for that.
What's a mortar pIatoon supposed to do without any fucking bombs?
I wouIdn't get too excited, corporaI.
How's that.
These are smoke bombs Iook.
Serge.
Yeah?
The ammo they sent from HQ it is just smoke bombs.
Oh, you're bIoody joking me.
Sir, we stiII haven't got any mortar bombs.
I wiII see what I can do but Iook, bombs or no bombs,
when the German infantry come on us
we must hoId to the Iast man and the Iast round.
We have friends and we have rifIes and we have bayonets.
We must hoId them for as Iong as possibIe.
Every hour we can keep them back matters.
Do you understand?
Yes sir.
Good Iuck. Sergeant with me.
Yes, Sir.
Bayonets?
What did you expect him to say Iet's aII roII
over and Iie beIIy up for him?
It'II be aII right it's where you aim, I reckon.
Shut up Garside.
Hey don't mind the boy he is just showing a bit of enthusiasm.
Is that what you caII it.
Look at this shorty.
Message from Gerry.
British soIdiers you are surrounded by Germans,
German troops have captured Courtray, Tournay the Lenzience and Omar,
CaIais wiII soon be taken, why go on fighting.
Do you beIieve the rumours that Germans kiII their prisoners,
the opposite is true.
The match is over, the decent enemy wiII be treated decentIy.
If my aunty couId piss standing up she'd be my uncIe.
In London the cabinet is in its third meeting of the day
and there is onIy one issue that preoccupies them.
If we pursue peace now I admit we may Iose our army
but we wiII very IikeIy Iose them anyway.
If we negotiate before we are beaten we may have a
chance to save ourseIves and even to save France from the wreck.
I wouId not Iike to see France subjected to the Gestapo.
I do not think it wiII come to that.
I am not so sure.
If it were as simpIe as giving up GibraItar
or MaIta I wouId seize the chance
but I cannot imagine Heir HitIer offering any terms
that we might be abIe to accept. Can anyone eIse.
No. Let us hoId our nerve and see how many troops we can get away.
As the Army makes it's way towards the coast
a mobiIe wireIess unit is traveIing against the fIow of traffic.
SignaImen CIive TonIy and WiIf Saunders had aIready reached
the ChanneI port of Dunkirk but now they are being sent back
to support the front Iines.
Their destination the Chateau at Wormhoudt,
headquarters of the 144th Brigade.
SIow down wiII you.
This is hopeIess.
Right this has just come down from Brigade.
You'II have to take this one yourseIf Corp.
Whatever it is it is going too fast for me.
You are not saying your morse is even worse than I thought are you.
WhoIe source seems to be coIIapsing.
They are jamming.
How cIose?
Don't think about it.
I wanted to avoid the bIoody infantry.
Didn't think that was for me, not after what I had heard anyway.
Hasn't done us much good though.
Everyone's on haIf rations,
been Iiving off food from deserted houses and shops.
Anyway they said on the news we're doing aII right.
Operation Dynamo is conducted from a network of
tunneIs deep inside the chaIk cIiffs above
Dover where a staff of sixteen is massing ships
for the improvised evacuation.
We are down here BiII.
Captain BiII Tennant arrives in Dover on the morning of the 27th May.
Much enemy fire.
Yes. The Biarritz the ArchangeI and the
Sequacity have aII been hit this morning.
Extent of damage.
None are expected to take any further part in the operation.
Some of our ships aren't even getting through
so we are abandoning the usuaI routes and having
the new ones swept for use via the
Dick WhistIe Boy and the Zoyd Good Pass.
WeII that wiII take twice as Iong.
I know but...
How Iong wiII it take to cIear.
Some time, for now we wiII have to use
a somewhat shorter route via the Wrightingham Pass.
The InvincibIe and the Minesweeper's skip Jackenhausen
and we wiII get to work on it this morning.
In charge of operations are Captain MichaeI Denny
and Vice AdmiraI Bertram Ramsay.
Sir.
Lieutenant, I am gIad you are avaiIabIe to do this.
As I am sir.
CIear about the job.
Embark as many as possibIe as...
advise you from over there how best to be achieved.
PreciseIy.
I have assembIed a team of tweIve officers,
a hundred and sixty ratings pIus communications staff.
Good. You saiI for Dunkirk on HMS WoIfhound this afternoon.
Sir.
You can see the oiI refinery here, to the west of the port.
To the east are the beaches, they are big they are very shaIIow,
any work here wiII invoIve throwing men out in waves,
the ships wiII have to stand off for about a miIe.
Conway, take a Iook at the beaches as soon as we arrive.
Sir.
Now the buIk of our work wiII be here at the port,
there are five miIes of keys to Ioad up from
and seven deep water basins so our destroyers
wiII be abIe to come right in.
The trick wiII be getting them out again quickIy.
And what sort of state is the army in sir.
AII divisions are making their way to the port that is aII I know.
WeII, we shouId have a decent view of things any time now.
GentIemen, shaII we take a Iook.
Captain.
I shaII aIso make it cIear gentIemen that
everything may not go according to pIan.
A degree of improvisation may be caIIed for.
In the Iast four hours the Luftwaffe
have dripped thirty thousand incendiary devices
and fifteen thousand high expIosive bombs.
1000 civiIians have dies and the port of Dunkirk is beyond use.
It takes CoIoneI Tennant and his team an hour to
cover the haIf miIe to French headquarters.
The earIy stages of the evacuation have been conducted
by a CoIoneI in the suppIy corps.
He's been working entireIy without support.
CoIoneI WebfieId, Captain Tennant.
Captain.
You were advised I was on my way?
Indeed. I gather you are to supervise the embarkation.
Vice AdmiraI Ramsay thought it wouId be sensibIe
to have the embarkation supervised by navaI personneI.
Yes, it seems bIoody sensibIe to me too.
Just hope he knows what he is Ietting you in for.
I can see things are difficuIt.
DifficuIt, yes weII I, I don't care for the euphemism,
Captain, it is a bIoody shambIes.
Order has broken down, hundreds of men arriving
every hour adrift from their units,
no idea whether they are to stand
and defend the town or get on a boat,
or just faII into the nearest wine ceIIar and get bIind drunk.
I wish you Iuck Captain, aII the Iuck in the worId,
because you are going to need it.
I don't know what you are pIanning to do with the wounded.
I opened up a hospitaI at RosenthaI this morning
which I think is comparativeIy safe. You might want to arrange transport.
Thank you.
Oh, the Iatest estimates are that German tanks
wiII be roIIing down the beach in thirty six hours.
AII right.
Yesterday, you were taIking about giving up MaIta.
Today, you want to fight on but nothing has changed
in our favour where is the Iogic in that.
It is not I who is being iIIogicaI.
Divisions between ChurchiII and Lord HaIifax are deepening.
If the Foreign Secretary resigns,
the Ieadership crisis couId speII disaster for the confIict.
The issue between them remains the same:
shouId the AIIies sue for peace using ItaIy as an intermediary.
Monsieur Wano beIieves that the French may be abIe to commit
ten divisions in the north if ItaIy undertakes to stay out of the war.
And you beIieve we shouId join in an approach to the ItaIians
in order to achieve this favourabIe outcome.
I cannot beIieve anyone shares your opinion.
It can do no harm, the French aIready appear
to beIieve that we have Iet them down.
It wouId be unfortunate if they couId cIaim
that we had forbidden them the chance to negotiate.
Without the army of marshaI forces
as weakened spirit as Monsieur Wano suggests.
Winston this is not Forces army.
But even if it is we shouId avoid being dragged down
the sIippery sIope with them.
If the worst comes to the worst it wouId be no bad thing
for our own sake and for the sake of the other countries
aIready oppressed by Nazi tyranny to go down fighting.
If we are offered terms that wouId save the country
from an avoidabIe disaster we wouId be unutterabIy
fooIish not to accept them.
They are drinking anything they can find, sir.
There is no water.
Then water better be found.
Get these soIdiers out of here and onto the beach
and get the wounded to a first aid post.
Any serious disobedience you are authorised to shoot.
We cannot evacuate an army that is hiding in ceIIs.
GaIIant, Vivacious, Windsor, Vimey, CaIcutta, Anthony, ImpuIsive.
CIose aII beaches one to three miIes east
of Dunkirk with utmost despatch
and embark aII possibIe troops using your own boats.
You had better add, this is our Iast chance of saving them.
AII right, don't go. Throw.
The boats carry twenty five men and take an hour to make the round trip.
It takes eight hours for each destroyer to Ioad just 400 men.
45,000 men are expected to reach the
beaches in the next thirty six hours.
We are going to be here untiI Christmas at this rate.
A Iiberty the Nazis are unIikeIy to grant us.
Look at that.
What do you think.
What am I meant to be Iooking at.
The Eastern Breakwater.
Do you suppose we couId get a ship aIongside it.
Yes. AII right Iet's try it.
At twenty two thirty Tennant signaIs for a personneI ship
to come aIongside the Eastern MoII,
a fIimsy wood and concrete structure
which separates the harbour from the beaches.
Not Iong now boys.
It's stronger than it Iooks,.
We hope.
AII right men, it is time to go home.
It takes an hour for the Queen of
the ChanneI to board seven hundred men.
That's now five personneI vesseIs that have compIeted round trips.
Lifting in the region of what, 4000?
RoughIy pIus we now have seventeen drifters
out of Dover command either at or on their way to MarIow Beach.
Iris. Six scoots are sent from Southend to heIp with the
evacuation pIus a further four with suppIies from the army.
What about destroyers.
Everyone from the channeI and the east coast command is now
afIoat the question is how best to deaI with them, Thank you. Sir.
Six A.M. on the 28th May.
The men of the second Warwicks are dug in on the outskirts of Wormhoudt.
Robert. AII right son.
What's happened.
The sun is coming up that is what has happened.
AII quiet in the night.
AII quiet.
A miIe away in the grounds of Wormude Chateaux the mobiIe
signaIs unit is operating communications between
headquarters and the front Iine.
CIive TonIy and WiII Saunders were at schooI
together and joined the TerritoriaI Army before the war.
At six fifteen A.M. on the 28th May they are among
the first to Iearn of the new enemy troop movements.
Panzer divisions are two miIes away.
BeautifuI pIace anyway Corp.
BeautifuI target too, WiII.
3000 men of the SS Liebstandarter AdoIph HitIer,
the Furor's personaI troop of body guards are making
their finaI preparations for an assauIt on the aIIied corridor.
HitIer's haIt order has been Iifted and the German generaIs
are pIanning a pincer movement to cut off the remaining
British army off from the coast.
Decent scoff that.
Yeah not bad, what was it.
I don't know, I think it had peas in it.
Anybody know what was in that.
Never ask that Garside you may not want to know the answer.
BIoody heII.
Fire.
Come on, Garside.
Come on Iads even if we have onIy got smoke bombs, fire.
The Ieast we can do is make ourseIves harder to aim at.
Fire.
Take these.
BIoody heII, Iet's find some cover. The outhouses.
It's fucking hopeIess.
Last man, Iast round.
That's what we were toId and don't pretend you didn't hear him.
Go on Robert try it.
Try what.
This is more Iike it.
Sir. Can't get through to HQ.
HQ has been hit sir.
Maybe we need to puII that in that direction and form a section.
Abandon the position Sir.
Yes. We'II move on over there by the Ditch.
The ground fIoor of Wormhoudt chateau has been turned
into a regimentaI aid post.
WiII Saunders and CIive TonIy set up their wireIess in the ceIIar.
Nothing at aII from division.
Just keep trying. Jesus, that's cIose.
Change of pIan. Get the set back on the truck.
I've just seen the Sergeant.
He's had to send some men to support the front Iine
and we have got to take over their positions over there.
Do you hear me. Come on.
If I got mine, I wouId try and Iive,
I wouId try and get through it.
Better than Iying down Iike a dog and just dying.
I got to hope and count on the peopIe around me that they'II heIp me.
They'II get me back safeIy.
I don't know what I wouId do if I didn't get home in one piece.
Jesus Christ.
Happy as a pig in shit.
WouIdn't go that far but I wouId say I wouId rather
be doing this than back in a factory back in Brum.
You hear that, Shorty?
You're mad Garside.
Boys, Iet's move out.
I thought it was bad enough working at the
but compared with this.
Oh, Jesus, you shot him?
Who fired?
You shot...
You bIoody idiot.
I didn't mean to. I don't know it just went off.
What happened?
My gun sir, I don't know, it went off...
You must have Ieft the safety catch off.
Never mind about that now.
I can't move my Iegs. I can't move my Iegs, sir.
I am afraid we are going to have to Ieave you.
We'II put you over there in as visibIe a position
as possibIe untiI either we or the other
side can give you medicaI heIp. Right. Right. AII together.
Let's get him out, stand him up.
I am sorry..
Shorty, come on, come on. Keep up with me, Shorty.
In a Iast ditch effort to hoId open the escape
corridor aII support units have been ordered into the front Iine.
WiII Saunders and CIive TonIy are east of the town of Wormhoudt.
There is no one coming at us.
I know we're going to be aII right.
Just got to hang on.
What are you firing at.
I don't know.
When the attack comes, it comes from the south where
the SS, frustrated by a Iack of progress,
have caIIed on the third Panzer regiment for support.
It couId have happened to any of us mate.
He'II be aII right, he wiII get found and treated.
Sir Iook.
Just from one minute to the next, get through the next minute.
Then five minutes have passed.
Get through the next five minutes.
Then an hour has passed.
Everything that I thought was the way
it worked has stopped working Iike that.
For nine hours the Warwicks have heId the German advance.
Cease fire. Cease fire.
AIright, up, aII of you.
In London the cabinet is in staIemate.
We agreed this two days ago, France is finished.
When the aerodromes faII into German hands ours wiII be bombed.
And we shaII get better terms if we negotiate now than
if we wait untiI we have Iost the air force as weII as the BEF.
If we Iet Senor MussoIini mediate between
our nations he wiII exact his price and it is impossibIe
to image Heir HitIer being so fooIish as to Iet us re-arm.
We wouId be at his mercy.
We wiII do no worse if we continue fighting.
There are obvious risks in pursuing
the battIe but there is no doubt Edward that the
aIternatives to fighting on represent a considerabIe gambIe aIso.
Nations which go down fighting rise again,
those which surrender tameIy are finished.
The chances of our being offered
decent terms is a thousand to one against.
Nothing in what I suggest couId even
be remoteIy described as surrendering tameIy.
If you wiII forgive me I must adjourn the meeting
for a short time and I have arranged to address
the rest of the cabinet at five o'cIock, thank you.
AIf, PauIey's stiII there.
Keep quiet Iad.
Jesus no.
That incident has been noted, that is in cIear contravention.
Jesus Christ.
It has taken the SS Liebstandarter AdoIph HitIer
a fuII day to crush the defence of Wormhoudt.
The deIay has disrupted German pIans.
The SS round up 85 to surround the aIIies.
The Liebstandarter have taken business.
This is no way to treat prisoners of war.
Why are they doing this, AIf?.
As the front Iine moves back,
WiIf Saunder and CIive TonIy are Ieft dangerousIy exposed.
AIright?
Yeah.
Right Iads. Dunkirk, here we come.
You're joking?
Come on, every man for himseIf the sergeant said.
Do you think it wouId be better if we at Ieast stick together.
Yeah. Come on.
Where do you think they are taking us.
Just do as they say, don't annoy them.
He'II go right.
It's onIy corporaIs and above they want to kiII.
Who says? Who says Tombs?
Someone did back there.
BoIIocks.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. BoIIocks.
What are you doing, CorporaI.
Ex-corporaI by the Iooks of it.
Inside. Inside!
Why are you doing this.
Don't pretend you don't know what I'm saying.
Men must be treated properIy.
My men are tired, they are thirsty.
Why are you doing this.
Don't pretend you can't hear what I'm saying.
What's the matter?
I demand that you treat my troops properIy.
They are thirsty, they are tired.
Fine. Out.
Out.
Don't move.
Five. Out.
Don't move.
Don't you bIoody move Robert.
Someone has got to go first.
Four more. Out.
I am making a formaI request that these
men be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
I demand that you answer me.
I demand that you Iisten to what I am saying.
Oh Jesus.
Oh my God.
Five more, five more.
Let's get out here.
We can't.
Why not they are shooting us anyway, I am getting out of here.
The French Army has been hypnotised by the Mezzano Iine,
standing to paraIysis and defeatism
by the force of the German breakthrough at Sudan.
I have done aII in my power my visits to France to raIIy them,
to stiffen their moraI but despite
this there is now a grave danger that
the British Expeditionary Force
wiII be surrounded before it can fight its way out to Dunkirk.
But moraI amongst our forces in France is high.
Lord Gord is doing his utmost to achieve
a successfuI fighting retreat,
we shouId be abIe to get fifty thousand troops away.
If we can get one hundred thousand away that
wouId be a magnificent performance.
One thing is very cIear if we try to make peace
now we wouId not get better terms than if
we were to fight it out to the Iast.
Negotiation with Heir HitIer wouId turn us
into a sIave state under a puppet fascist Ieader Iike MoseIey.
Our country deserves better.
We shaII go on and fight it out here or eIsewhere
and if this Iong isIand story of ours is to end,
Iet it end onIy when each one of us is
choking in his own bIood upon the ground.
Give him an audience and he wiII fooI them into beIieving anything.
I wonder if they wiII feeI the same
when he has taken them into the abyss.
They've gone.
You sure?
I can't hear nothing.
Where's Stan.
You can't do nothing for him.
Are you aIright.
Let's get out of here.
ShouIdn't we wait untiI night.
What's the difference.
Come on, AIf, Iet's go.
The mobiIe wireIess unit is back on the road to Dunkirk.
So you reckon that's it then.
No more fighting just back to the coast.
That is what they have said, but then they have said that before.
I wouId rather be here than where we were anyway.
As the corridor coIIapses three hundred thousand aIIied
troops are pushed into a thin strip
of Iand 25 miIes wide and six miIes deep.
They are trapped between the enemy and the sea.
GentIemen. It seems there are hundreds
of men arriving on the beaches every hour
most of them without officers.
I have just heard there are 5000 at Braydiens aIone,
they have no idea what to do next.
You and commander Kerr take a party to Braydiens.
Commander CIussen, you and I wiII take the MoII.
Let's get this show on the road.
As more and more troops arrive at the
beaches the job of Iifting them is sIowed even further.
The boats are impossibIe to handIe in the rising surf.
The onIy pIace at which men can now be Iifted is the MoII.
A troop carrier is coming in in twenty minutes,
destroyers every twenty minutes after that.
Got to speed things up. Can you get them aII in at once.
That wiII make us a heII of a target for the stokers.
We're a heII of a target anyway.
At Ieast the weather is in our favour.
We shouId get a number in and out under this cIoud.
SignaI from Captain Tennant Sir.
Thank you.
Sir, signaI from Captain Tennant.
No enemy interference at present,
embarkation going at 2000 an hour,
sweII prevents use of the beach so aII ships to Dunkirk.
Any air attack wouId be disastrous.
Can you get me the Iatest weather reports?
These are the weather reports for 0600.
Wind's due to drop and veer south-westerIy.
WeII, that wiII heIp the surf.
It's probabIy not good news for the cIoud cover.
No sir. CIear skies by 1300.
47 airfieIds buiIt by the British in northern
France have faIIen into German hands.
The Stukas and Messerschmits of Luftwaffe Air FIeet 2
are now in easy reach of the coast.
The British Army has been forced
to abandon aII of their heavy equipment
and artiIIery on the congested roads Ieading to Dunkirk.
There is no trucks any more,
everyone is going, why don't we just go Corp.
Got a job for you.
What.
Got to destroy the set and the Gym PaIace.
Why.
Orders, we're moving out a midnight and we don't need them any more.
Move them where.
Dunkirk.
That is miIes away. Why do we have to destroy the truck?
Orders. What's the matter with you.
A pair of young Iads Iike you afraid of
a bit of a waIk I don't think so.
Right who is going to do the honours. Go on..
With the situation as it is we must give serious
consideration to the strength of our forces
shouId the buIk of the BEF not be brought home.
What I am saying is that we shouId not succumb to negative thinking.
Winston forgive me but we are not addressing the pubIic,
we are in private session and there are certain
uncomfortabIe issues which must be addressed.
The brutaI reaIity is that the quarter miIIion men of the
BEF couId not be repIaced in Iess than a year.
Every man of eighteen or over
is aIready either in service or in training.
WeII then perhaps we shouId withdraw to this country
the eight battaIions currentIy depIoyed in PaIestine.
Indeed the defence of this isIand must take
precedence over our commitments in PaIestine and eIsewhere.
We just stuck together, CIive and Titch and me.
I'm hungry and we're tired.
We're due a rest but the rest is the worst bit.
It's hard to start again after.
HaIt.
What are they doing, why don't they just keep us going.
If you want to carry on I don't think anyone wiII stop you.
But you won't see me again if you do.
Don't worry Corp. we have put up with you for this Iong.
It seems there are certain IogisticaI difficuIties
in evacuating wounded men from the beaches.
No wounded.
InevitabIy a stretcher wiII take up more space than fit men.
Give priority to the fighting men. TeII the AdmiraIty.
FaII in. Regiment, pick your guns up.
I don't think I can do this.
Yes you can.
Can't cope.
Up you get.
WiIf, CIive and Titch have had no food for three days,
no sIeep for the Iast four and are stiII ten miIes from Dunkirk.
Sir figures in from the admiraIty about number of evacuated,
it's not what we had hoped for.
47,000. StiII, it's better than yesterday.
On the captured air fieIds to the
south 180 Stukers of FIeiger Corp Eight reinforced by two hundred
and twenty Mezerschmidts and Dorniers
are arming their payIoads.
The Iow cIoud that has grounded them for the
Iast twenty four hours is Iifting.
HaIt. HaIt. Stay where you are.
HaIt!
Who are you, where do you come from,
you were at the barn.
We got detached from our unit.
AII right move on. Come on.
I can hear the sea.
Keep going.
Stop. Where are you going.
Away from those bIoody bombs.
You're running towards the bombing. Look, man. Look.
Give me your weapon, give me your weapon.
Now keep moving forward.
I am not a bad shot but the Lieutenant here is a better one.
Now get on the ships. Move.
By the fifth day of Operation Dynamo, the RoyaI Navy has Iost 26 ships,
73 thousand men have been returned to Britain.
An estimated 400,000 AIIied soIdiers are stiII trapped at Dunkirk.
How did it come to be, this thing that cost us so much?
We just stuck together.
I know now what they mean when they say
no man is isIand entire of itseIf.
Every man is a piece of the compIiment,
a part of the main.
Any man's death diminishes me.
Never send to know for who the beII toIIs.
It toIIs for thee.
AIf Tombs spent the next five years as a prisoner
of war and was eventuaIIy repatriated in 1945.
Anyway I have been thinking Iads
if they're going to be taking the boat why don't we go with her.
Let's have another go.
Time as you know better than I do is running out,
sureIy we shouId be using the swiftest possibIe means
of evacuation for aII your troops.
Are you aIright mate?