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Hundreds of soldiers waiting for boats on

the "mole", a long jetty. They were afraid of attacks

from German planes.

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In May 1940, Western Europe was at war. Germany attacked Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France (see map). Britain sent its army to help its allies oppose the Germans. But the German army was too numerous and too powerful. By the end of May, the British forces, with French and Belgian divisions, had to retreat to the north French coast. About 400,000 men were trapped in Dunkirk. The men on the beaches were at the mercy of the German Luftwaffe planes bombing them.

The British wanted to evacuate them, and get them back to Britain. But big warships could not reach the beaches at Dunkirk.

The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, ordered "Operation Dynamo" to evacuate the men. His commanders thought they could evacuate 20-30,000 men. Far too small a number for Britain's army to participate in a war.

A new film tells the story of the evacuation of Dunkirk, one of the most extraordinary events of the Second World War. It was the biggest military evacuation ever.

Austria

FranceLuxembourg

Netherlands

Czech Republic

Slovenia

Croatia

Denmark

Norway

Great-Britain

Ireland

Italy

Switzerland

Germany

Spain

BelgiumDunkirk

Helpjetty (n) a long structure that projects into the water, where boats can arrivetrapped (adj) blocked, imprisonedretreat (n) go backwards because you are losing a battlereach (n) arrive at/onfar too… (exp) much too "100 people want to eat hamburgers for lunch, but we only have 10 hamburgers. That's far too small a number of hamburgers."

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Transforming a Defeat into a VictoryTo solve the problem of approaching the beaches, BBC radio asked for help from civilians on England's south coast who had any type of small boat. Hundreds of boats were offered. Naval officers piloted some boats. In other cases, the boats' owners participated in the operation.

Some of the soldiers waited an entire week on the beaches, cold, tired, hungry and afraid, before they finally got onto a boat.

But, between 26 May and 4 June, 338,000 British, French and Belgian soldiers were transported back to Britain — ten times more than expected. However, most of the military equipment was abandoned in France.

Winston Churchill called it a miracle. This was a force big enough to continue fighting. On 4 June, he made one of his most famous speeches to Parliament: "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!"

Helpow ner (n) the per son w ho possesses something. "This is my boat. I am the owner."expect (v) If you expect something to happen, you think it will happen.shall (modal) used like "will" to

form the future tense, particularly, like here, when you want to express a strong intention.field (n) part of a farm: where farmers grow plants for foodhill (n) a small mountain

Danger in the air, on the sea and on the beach.

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A Suspense FilmFilm director and writer Christopher Nolan has made very popular films like The Dark Knight tr ilogy, and Interstellar set in fictional worlds. In Dunkirk, he was inspired by a true story. He explains, "Dunkirk is a survival story and a suspense film." Of course, film viewers know that "Operation Dynamo" was a success. But the suspense comes from the characters we are watching. Nolan says, "The only question I was interested in was: 'Will they get out of it? Will they be killed by the next bomb?"

"When 400,000 men couldn't get home, home came for them."The film follows soldiers trapped on the beaches, naval officers and civilians on the boats coming to save them, and pilots in RAF planes trying to protect them. The central character is a teenage soldier played by English

actor Fionn Whitehead in his first film. Dunkirk also stars Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy, who also worked with Nolan in the The Dark Knight films and Inception.n

Helpstar (n/v) A star of a film has one of the principal roles. Daniel Radcliffe starred in the Harry Potter films.

Look out for One Direction singer Harry Styles in his first film role, below left.

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Fionn Whitehead, in his first film, plays a soldier trapped on the beach

with thousands of men in a long queue waiting to get onto boats.