Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series

of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence its course.

The most infinitesimal of our decisions can influence

the future of humanity.

To know the past is to foresee the future.

(bombs exploding)

May 10th, 1940.

Hitler triggers Case Yellow,

the invasion and conquest of France.

May 24th,

Divisional General Heinz Guderian

received the order to halt his land offensive

at the gates of Dunkirk.

May 27th,

General Gort, Commander of the British Expeditionary Force

announces the withdrawal of his troops to England.

These three intimately connected events

are major incidents of the Battle of Dunkirk

and will determine the course of the Second World War.

(gentle music)

December 31st, 1939.

Ardennes Forest.

It's minus four degrees Fahrenheit.

The winter is exceptionally harsh.

The soldiers of the French Ninth Army

are celebrating New Years' Eve in their way.

But their hearts aren't in it.

Since the 3rd of September, they are at war with Germany.

Mobilized and then sent to the front,

millions of men stand on guard, arms at the ready,

alongside the British Expeditionary Force.

But this war is nothing like what some of them experienced

25 years earlier during the First World War.

Nothing happens.

The enemy is invisible.

This war of waiting is weird.

It's a phoney war.

And yet, they are ready to fight.

In 1939, the French Army is acknowledged as being

the best in the world.

2,240,000 soldiers

divided into 94 infantry divisions.

That is four times greater than Napoleon's Grand Army

during the Russian campaign.

Well equipped and armed with numbers of machine guns

and good rifles, the foot soldiers advance under

the protection of the best armored vehicles of the period.

The S35 is a redoubtable destroyer of tanks.

It is designed to advance at the same pace as the infantry,

withstand heavy enemy fire, and destroy enemy defenses.

Staff HQ has learned all the lessons of the Great War.

This time, the French Army is ready to endure

years of hard fighting.

It will win this war just as it won the previous one.

The Germany Army will be shattered on its defenses,

defenses that, incidentally,

have been considerably reinforced.

Constructed at great expense, the Maginot Line

is a vast network of fortifications, bunkers, and tunnels.

It presents a formidable obstacle to any army

wishing to invade the national territory.

It represents the entire French strategy,

protect the peace by wagering on defense

and not on attack,

because nobody in France in 1939 wants war.

The last one cost 1,300,000 men their lives.

There is not a single village that does not have

a memorial commemorating the dead.

(intense music)

- [Woman] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time, analyze, and compare

billions of events and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

All the events in our history, however minute they may be,

are memorized and interconnected.

It only requires one to be changed for all the others

to be shaken to the core.

For example, let's take a look at the Maginot Line.

400 kilometers long and armed

with the most modern of guns,

it is designed to protect the country.

It is said to be impossible.

In the 17th century, the engineer Vauban

created the concept of the pre carre, square meadow,

a double line of fortified towns to consolidate

the frontiers of the kingdom.

Perfectly suited to counter the progress of artillery,

these fortifications are formidable.

Frontal attack is highly risky, even suicidal.

Cannonballs ricochet off the inclined walls.

Assailants are caught in a deadly crossfire.

Vauban's works were a real success.

During that period, France was never invaded.

In 1940, will the Maginot Line be up to the standard

of Vauban's pre carre?

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] Ardennes, May 10th, 1940.

The German Army attacks.

(intense music)

Although France does not want war,

the Nazi regime has been hoping for it for years.

Leaning toward the offensive, the strategy

of the German High Command is based on speed and aggression.

Find a weak point in the adversary's defenses,

force a path through, go around the enemy,

strike him there and then, before he has time

to understand what's happening.

It's a huge gamble.

If the attack slows down, the enemy can recover,

counterattack on the flanks, and reverse the situation.

But by attacking the most powerful army in the world,

Germany knows that they don't have the resources

to become bogged down in a long battle.

They have to finish it quickly.

Germany risks everything.

(intense music)

The Panzers, the German assault tanks,

are organized in autonomous mechanized divisions

and commanded by young and audacious leaders.

Their mission is to charge through the Ardennes range

and create a breach.

In perfect coordination with their numerous

and modern air forces, the Panzer unit generals

have considerable independence in decision-making

and can react quickly.

The Maginot Line is impassable.

The Germans won't even try to force their way through

and prefer to go around it.

At the point of attack, divisional general Heinz Guderian.

On May 13th, just three days after the start

of the fighting, his tanks break through

the front at Sedan.

Nobody can stop them.

The French tanks are divided between each

infantry division while the German tanks

attack in a group.

Handfuls of S35s manage to hold out against

the Panzer battalions, taking shell after shell,

returning shot after shot.

But the survivors finally succumb to the horrific attacks

from the dive bombers.

French staff HQ is stunned.

As veterans of the First World War, the generals

don't understand how the enemy was able

to move so fast.

Everything is done to stop the avalanche of steel.

But on May 20th, the first Panzers reach the Channel

and cut the front in two.

A million French, British, and Belgian soldiers

are cut off from their bases and in a critical situation.

Guderian is on the point of delivering the death blow.

But suddenly, on May 24th,

the German High Command orders a halt to the offensive.

(suspenseful music)

- [Woman] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event, a crossroads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

The Panzer divisions have just received the order

confirmed by Hitler himself

to halt and stop the battle.

If the German tanks had continued on their

implacable advance, they would very certainly

have destroyed the entire Allied forces

in the Dunkirk pocket.

Today, this choice is considered to be one of Hitler's

greatest strategic errors.

If the Fuhrer had allowed his Panzers to attack,

the outcome of World War II would've been

radically different.

Stripped of its professional army and its finest generals,

England would not have been able to carry on the fight.

It would almost certainly have been forced

into peace negotiations.

The United States would not have been able to assemble

their troops in Great Britain.

The Normandy landings would never have taken place.

Without enemies in Europe, Hitler would've concentrated

all his forces on the East against the USSR

and would most probably have been victorious there, too.

The Third Reich would've won the war

and today would be sole master of Europe.

Let's continue.

(fire roaring)

- [Narrator] Hundreds of thousands of soldiers,

including the entire British Expeditionary Force,

are encircled in a giant pocket of resistance.

The situation is critical,

but not desperate.

Inexplicably, the Panzer divisions seemed to have stopped.

This respite is jumped on.

From all sides, units pull back to form

a new line of defense.

Troops still fit to fight are hastily assembled.

At all costs, they must break the circle

and go on fighting until victory or death.

French HQ plans the counteroffensive.

It intends to engage all available Allied resources

to force a way out.

But for General Gort, head of the British

Expeditionary Force, there remains another option.

Proportionately, England has not committed as many men

to the battle, but they are the elite of its infantry.

To lose these soldiers is to be left without

any defense against the Germans.

On May 20th, Gort no longer believes in victory,

so he decides to save what he can and has secretly

prepared the evacuation of his fighting force.

Strategically, the only possible escape route is by sea.

And on May 26th, the only port still free

is that of the city of Dunkirk.

In the following days, the British carry out

a series of withdrawals to get close to it.

Saving the Expeditionary Force becomes

the British government's top priority.

The Royal Navy and the Air Force fighters are mobilized.

Code name, Operation Dynamo.

The French don't know it yet,

but their Ally is preparing to leave the front.

On May 27th at dawn, Gort meets the French generals

and announces the evacuation.

The French are stunned.

Without British support, the counteroffensive

cannot take place.

The battle is lost.

But in order to evacuate their soldiers,

the British need help.

They ask France to defend the Dunkirk pocket

where they have withdrawn to the last.

In return, they promise to evacuate as many

French troops as possible.

The elite of the French Army is defeated.

The German offensive can no longer be broken.

With nothing left to lose, French HQ decides

to provide the defense and orders all available units

to hold the line, whatever the cost.

General Fagalde is charged with the dangerous mission

of commanding the defense of Dunkirk.

If England survives, the struggle will go on.

On the morning of the 27th, the Panzer division

resumes their offensive.

The Battle of Dunkirk begins.

- [Woman] Gaining time.

France, first among the military powers,

has just been hit as if by lightning from the German Army.

Hitler himself is more surprised than anyone.

The Nazi propaganda machine even creates a term

for lightning war, Blitzkrieg, to boast of its superiority.

And yet, this audacious strategy costs the German forces

half their tanks and almost 2/3 of their combat aircraft

because far from giving way, the French Army

fought ferociously.

The confrontations of a rare violence

decimated the armies on both sides.

It's what is called a Pyrrhic victory.

2,000 years ago, King Pyrrhus faced a Roman army.

He won the battle, but with losses so great,

that he finally lost the war.

The horrific losses of May 1940 most probably

alarmed the German headquarters, still concerned

over a possible counteroffensive.

To preserve the remainder of his precious Panzers,

Hitler preferred to pause before attacking Dunkirk.

The Germans had run out of steam.

(intense music)

(airplane engine roaring)

- [Narrator] At dawn on May 27th,

the Luftwaffe planes rained bombs down

on the port of Dunkirk.

By that very evening, it is entirely destroyed.

The evacuation takes place to the howl of the Stuka sirens,

those terrifying dive bombers.

Firefighters struggled with massive blazes.

Civilians die in their hundreds.

Off the shore, the British and French warships

have difficulty reaching the port,

now blocked by the hulks of burning ships.

Rapidly, soldiers crowd onto the beaches,

more accessible than the port.

Small boats ply to and fro in a shuttle service

to the fleet's destroyers.

Belgium warns its allies, backed into a corner,

it can't hold out for much longer.

On the evening of the first day,

only 7,600 men have been evacuated.

They need to go faster and gain time.

On May 28th, Belgium surrenders.

The situation seems disastrous, but at Lille,

the remnants of the French Army are holding out

against 130,000 German soldiers

and 800 armored vehicles.

For four days, smashed by the bombs,

the French troops engage in a heroic combat.

For four days, they prevent the enemy

from falling upon Dunkirk.

For four days, they salvage Operation Dynamo.

In the air, other heroes throw themselves into the battle.

British fighter pilots struggle to contain

the German bombers.

Day after day they intervene in ferocious aerial battles.

On the beach, a multitude of craft continue to evacuate

the men in their thousands.

47,000 on the 29th,

53,000 on the 30th.

Along the line of defense, the British troops

leave their positions to move to the beach.

On the 31st, Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister,

expresses anxiety over the small number of French soldiers

evacuated compared to the British.

In England, everything that floats is requisitioned

and sent to Dunkirk.

More than 800 ships of all sizes

and in all nationalities divide the German bombers and guns.

Many of them end up at the bottom of the Channel.

On this day, 68,000 men are evacuated.

The next day, out of ammunition, Lille,

now a camp cut off, falls.

On June 1st, in Dunkirk,

only French troops are still holding the line,

outnumbered 10 to one.

On the evening of June 2nd, the Expeditionary Force

has been totally evacuated.

The Admiralty announces operation complete,

we are returning to Douvres.

And yet in Dunkirk, 45,000 French defenders

are still fighting on.

One after another, the last battalions receive

the order to evacuate.

At the twilight of the battle, brave teams risk all

aboard whatever boats they can find.

The exhausted combatants pile on board.

Under enemy fire, they destroy the last bridges,

set up the last guns as a battery,

fire the final mortars.

Many choose to stay in position and cover

their comrades' retreat as they run from the beaches.

Everywhere they're fighting, smashed by the bombs.

All strength and all ammunition is gone.

France makes a final magnificent gesture.

The Germans paid dearly for every inch of ground gained.

June 4th, the Germans break into the destroyed city.

A general addresses his opposite French number,

now a prisoner, and asks him where the English have gone.

The officer replies, to England.

- [Woman] Holding out.

The French forces receive the order to hold

the evacuation perimeter to allow their allies

to get out of Dunkirk.

French headquarters could've continued with its

initial plan to counterattack.

Instead, it decided to do all it could

to protect Operation Dynamo and throw its last

operational forces into the battle.

This decision makes the evacuation of the British

Expeditionary Force possible and allows the Allies

to continue the fight.

About a century earlier, in 1836,

the 200 Texan defenders of Fort Alamo

were in the same situation.

Besieged by 1,200 Mexican soldiers,

they held out, six to one, for 13 days.

At the end of the third assault,

the Fort finally fell into the hands

of the Mexican Army.

All of the defenders, including the famous Davy Crockett,

die in the fighting.

But the time gained allowed the Texan Army

to prepare a counterattack.

A few weeks later, it carries off a decisive

victory over Mexico.

Let's continue.

- [Narrator] The Allies hoped to rescue 40,000 soldiers

at best, they will evacuate 347,000,

of which 280,000 were British.

The Germans take 40,000 prisoners.

90% of the city is destroyed.

Tactically, this is a German victory.

The city has fallen into their hands

and will remain there for five years.

But strategically, the Germans have missed

a unique opportunity to put an end to the conflict.

And the British Army is still operational,

and amongst the evacuees are important generals

such as Alexander and Montgomery,

future victor over the Africa Corps.

Many of these soldiers will land

on the Normandy beaches in 1944

and take part in the liberation of Europe.

The British retained their ability to continue the battle.

On the return to the United Kingdom,

the soldiers were greeted as heroes.

The Battle of Dunkirk was a feat of arms.

But as Winston Churchill will say,

wars are not won on evacuations.

For all that, the Battle of France is not yet over.

On the continent, more than a million soldiers

are still fighting, France needs all of its troops,

and the divisions evacuated from Dunkirk

could swing the balance.

Exhausted and decimated by weeks of fighting,

the defenders of Dunkirk will transit via England,

then land at Brest a few days later.

But the situation has changed.

In spite of opposition from the President of the Counsel

and General de Gaulle,

(mumbles) has decided to ask Hitler for an armistice.

He orders all French units to cease fighting.

He thinks he can succeed in saving what remains of France.

The heroes of Dunkirk, after having held this city

for several days, outnumbered 10 to one,

are obliged to lay down their arms

and surrender to the enemy.

For France, this is the time of the Vichy regime.

But that is another story.

(gentle music)

- [Woman] Winners write history.

During the campaign in France,

the German forces brought cameramen with them.

Today, we have many images of Panzers driving through

the flaming hulks of French tanks.

Never the opposite, and for good reason.

There was hardly a single camera on the French side.

During the Battle of Dunkirk,

the only images we have are those taken

aboard ships or on the beach.

Nobody was there to see the last 50 survivors

of the 137th Infantry Regiment charge with fixed bayonets.

Today, the universally shared view, including in France,

is that the French Army did not fight in 1940.

But the facts speak for themselves.

The Germans lost more Panzers in May 1940

than during the great Battle of Kursk,

considered to be the greatest battle ever

between tanks in history.

France, overtaken strategically, gave all it had

to contain the enemy forces.

Unlike the British, the Americans, and the Russians,

it did not have time to adapt to this new form of warfare.

Crushed by the German troops, France fought

to save its allies and give itself

the means to carry on the fight.

(intense orchestral music)