Hooray for the movies! Our August outing was at the Roadhouse Cinemas in Tucson. Our hostess, Judy, picked out Dunkirk for our movie. Ten Women Who Wine were able to attend our movie outing. Roadhouse Cinemas is the best spot to watch a movie, replete with a full menu, assigned reclining seats and attentive waitstaff at the press of a button. Judy brought each one of us the cutest Tiffany blue box filled with Lindor chocolates as treats. Yum-o!
After watching the movie, this author couldn't help but explore the facts of Dunkirk. While not based on any one particular person, the movie is quite accurate in depicting the broad events.
Interesting facts regarding Dunkirk:
- The evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, took place on the beaches around Dunkirk, France from May 27 to June 4, 1940.
- There were close to 400,000 men pinned down at Dunkirk with nowhere to go. Of those men, an estimated 338,000 Allied soldiers were rescued during the evacuation. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and government officials had at first predicted that it would only be possible to rescue around 45,000 men before German forces blocked further evacuations. British citizens helped to shatter that estimate by offering their own boats to help assist in the Dunkirk rescue. It also helped that Hitler made the mistake of holding off a ground attack.
- In all, a total of about 700 private vessels assisted in the evacuation. They became known as the Little Ships of Dunkirk and were largely used to ferry soldiers out to the bigger boats that could not get close to the beach.
- RAF pilots like the fictional character Farrier (Tom Hardy) flew Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and attacked approaching German fighter planes in an effort to protect the Allied soldiers on the beaches until they could be rescued.
- Approximately 11,000 British soldiers lost their lives during the evacuation from Dunkirk, also known as Operation Dynamo. An additional 40,000 soldiers were captured or imprisoned. In all, around 90,000 Allied soldiers were either wounded, killed or taken prisoner.
- The Germans destroyed 177 Allied aircraft and sunk more than 200 ships, including six British and three French destroyers. Still, the British managed to rescue approximately 338,000 soldiers from the beaches around Dunkirk, and Allied planes shot down 240 German aircraft.
- Had the approximate 338,000 rescued Allied soldiers been instead killed or taken prisoner by Germany, there would be that many less soldiers to return to Britain and continue fighting in Europe. So it's not hard to imagine the outcome of the war shifting in Germany's favor. At the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, the United States had not yet entered the war, and without the military might of Britain still in place, success on the European front would have been far less likely.
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described Dunkirk as "a miracle of deliverance," inspiring him to declare to the House of Commons of Parliament on June 4, 1940, "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!"
Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture - https://goo.gl/39PP1d
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| Is Pam giving us all instructions on how to behave? Notice Judy and Cathy, in the background, blithely ignoring "the talk". |
How did those Romans ever do it?! This author certainly enjoyed her shrimp po' boy but had to sit upright to make sure nothing dribbled!
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| RtoL Carole, Vicky, Connie, Pam, Kelly, Cathy, Judy, Ruth, Christy, Daryl Outside the theater |
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| L - Daryl, Carole, Cathy, Vicky R - Connie, Christy, Pam, Kelly and Judy seem to be doing the Conga |
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| LtoR - Carole, Cathy, Vicky, Ruth, Connie, Christy, Pam, Kelly and Judy Dunkirk movie poster in the background |
Always a fan of Mr. Hitchcock...
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”
~ Alfred Hitchcock ~
