Dunkirk

The long awaited movie on one of World War Two's more heroic exploits finally arrived, to much acclaim. So much has written about the event, as well as now, the movie itself. The simple facts are that in May 1940, the German army had blitzkrieged its way through western Europe, capturing the low countries of Belgium and Holland, and was now poised to overrun the whole of France.

A tiny sliver of land and beach front separated the invaders from total victory. Some 400,000 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force and French army were now essentially trapped in that tiny strip of land. Evacuating them suddenly became the top priority of the British War Cabinet. Operation Dynamo - the rescue of the soldiers at the French port of Dunkirk, swung into action.

Read up on some of the basic facts about this amazing military and naval evacuation here.

The BBC History files have plenty of visual and audio resources in their archives.

Several other useful and quick video lessons on the evacuation on Dunkirk can be found below.

This is the famous and inspiring speech made by Winston Churchill on 4 June 1940, immediately following the Dunkirk evacuations. It is brilliantly enacted by actor Brendan Gleeson in the docu-movie, Into The Storm. It is often known as the "We shall never surrender" speech.

This is an illuminating documentary on the evacuation, titled "The other side of Dunkirk." (60 min)

Timeline of the events that occurred in that one week in late May to early June 1940.

There is much truth to the argument that the great naval operations and escape at Dunkirk could succeed because of the halt to the German advance, thereby giving the trapped soldiers time to reach the boats and ships.

The 2017 movie Dunkirk has generated a tremendous amount of interest. Many excellent articles have been written online. Check out some of them in the Guardian newspaper.