In 1940, France was defeated by the German army, four hundred thousand British and French troops were surrounded in the port of Dunkirk and their navy could not get close enough to evacuate them.
With the coast too shallow for British warships, a call went out to any civilians with seaworthy boats to cross the English Channel, to help evacuate soldiers and they did just that.
Hitler held his tanks back from Dunkirk but unleashed his airforce. The troops were sitting ducks and few expected a flotilla of English fishing boats and leisure craft could save them.
Christopher Nolan has won critical praise for a movie which plunges audiences into exactly what those who were there felt and experienced.
Dunkirk opens in cinemas & Imax Friday the 28 July 2017.
