Dunkirk viewers slam movie on BBC One after it ignores Birmingham history
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Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk movie will air on BBC One tonight – at 9.05pm – in a Boxing Day historical thriller.
But the movie – which features Redditch pop star Harry Styles – has generated controversy before its showing on the Beeb tonight.
The 2017 film, which was directed by Christopher Nolan, will air tonight – just one day after Christmas.
It tells the story of allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France, who are surrounded by the German Army.
They face a tense wait for evacuation, during a fierce battle in northern France during the Second World War.
The film stars Kenneth Branagh, Peaky Blinders star Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Fionn Whitehead.
The film was slammed in 2017 after it emerged it had left out the vital role played by brave Birmingham soldiers who remained behind to fight while the rest of the Army retreated.
And it doesn’t mention the Massacre of Wormhout, where dozens of prisoners were killed in cold blood.
Author Hugh Sebag-Montefiore has thoroughly researched the period for his book Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, and told BirminghamLive: “It’s a romantic myth to give the Navy and the little ships all the credit for the evacuation. Although they played a crucial role, it is now clear that the evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for those who remained behind to fight on.
“This rearguard included the men serving with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, many of whom lived in the Birmingham area before going off to war.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the 2nd Royal Warwicks were sacrificed so that the road to Dunkirk could be protected, but their contribution has been totally ignored by the film.
“The retreat could only be achieved if some British troops were to line the two sides of a secure corridor up which the bulk of the British Army could reach the coast.
“The Royal Warwicks were ordered to hold Wormhout, one of the strong points on the southern side of the corridor, and were attacked by German tanks and infantry on May 28.
“It was an uneven contest. The bullets from the British rifles bounced off the tanks as if they were peas thrown at a brick wall.
“And although the men from Birmingham repulsed some of the tanks by rushing out in front of them and lighting the petrol they had poured onto the tracks, others eventually broke through the thin British line and took the British prisoner.
“It was what happened afterwards which was to make the events at Wormhout a byword for German brutality.
“The first sign that the prisoners were not going to be treated kindly by their captors from the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Regiment came when a German soldier approached a wounded British soldier and shot him in cold blood.
“Another survivor saw 15 to 20 men being lined up outside a factory building and mowed down by machine guns.
“A handful of British prisoners were also executed in Wormhout’s central square.”
He says: “When six British soldiers walk down the deserted but pristine Dunkirk street in the very first scene, it is immediately clear that melodrama is to hold sway over inconvenient facts.
“Just about every window pane in every street had been smashed by the time the evacuation was underway and the streets were full of bombed and burned out houses.
“There are many other anomalies, and yet this wonderful film is full of touches which echo the true dramas I unearthed when writing my Dunkirk book.”