So are the French right to feel betrayed?

FRENCH critics of the film Dunkirk have complained that France’s role in the evacuation has been downplayed, writes Harry Mount. Certainly, the French played a significant part. Allied soldiers — mainly British, but also French and Belgian — were trapped by the Germans inside a shrinking corner of northern France, centred around the port of Dunkirk, and resisted bravely. The film later has French soldiers being prevented from boarding British ships — which did happen in the earlier part of the evacuation. A British officer remembers that: ‘Sometimes, one got a bit ruthless and said, “British only!” ’ In addition, one of the main characters on screen is a French soldier. The decision to evacuate the British Army had, at first, been made without informing the French authorities. This led to the feeling that the British were betraying their allies, illustrated on screen when a French soldier sarcastically bids his fleeing British counterpart ‘Bon voyage’. The result was that, by May 31, 1940, only about 15,000 out of 165,000 troops rescued by that point were French. Churchill, aware that the French were in danger of collapsing militarily, said that British and French troops must depart

‘bras dessus, bras dessous’ — arm in arm. After his order, genuine efforts were made to evacuate large numbers of French troops, and by the end of Operation Dynamo, well over 100,000 French soldiers had been brought over to Britain.