Dunkirk (TV series)

Dunkirk is a 2004 BBC television docudrama about the Battle of Dunkirk and the Dunkirk evacuation in World War II.

Background

Dunkirk used archive film footage, eyewitness accounts and original dramatised sequences to describe the events of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. The BBC also included an interactive 'red button' facility to allow television viewers reach further information. The documentary has been described as helping the BBC build 'Digital Britain' and fulfill its public service remit.

Episodes

Episode one: Retreat

Day 1: Captain Bill Tennant, RN, at the Admiralty receives reports of the British Expeditionary Force's retreat and prepares to oversee Operation Dynamo. Private Alf Tombs and his decimated company rest at Wormhoudt on the western end of the corridor to Dunkirk. New Prime Minister Winston Churchill chairs a briefing of the War Cabinet where Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax presses for peace negotiations. Adolf Hitler has halted the Blitzkrieg, giving Tombs’s company time to consolidate their position and Signalmen Clive Tonry and Wilf Saunders return to offer support.

Dunkirk

Dunkirk (French: Dunkerque, pronounced: [dœ̃kɛʁk]; Dutch: Duinkerke(n) [ˈdœynkɛrkə(n)]; Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdyŋkarkə], German: Dünkirchen) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the Belgian border. The population of the city (commune) at the 2012 census was 90,995 inhabitants.

Etymology and language use

The name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish "dun(e)" (dune or dun) and "kerke" (church), which together means "church on a dune." Until the middle of the 20th century the city was situated in the French Flemish area; today the local Flemish variety of the Dutch language can still be heard, but has largely been supplanted by French.

Nowadays, Dunkirk is the world's northernmost Francophone city (not counting minor Canadian settlements such as Fermont, which does have French as a majority language, but is not classified as a city).

History

Middle Ages

A fishing village in the originally flooded coastal area of the English Channel south of the Western Scheldt arose late in the tenth century, when the area was held by the Counts of Flanders, vassals of the French Crown. About 960AD Count Baldwin III had a town wall erected, in order to protect the settlement against Viking raids. The surrounding wetlands were drained and cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues Abbey. The name Dunkirk (Dutch for 'Church in the dunes') was first mentioned in a tithe privilege of 27 May 1067, issued by Count Baldwin V of Flanders. Count Philip I (1157–1191) brought further large tracts of marshland under cultivation, laid out first plans to build a Canal from Dunkirk to Bergues and vested the Dunkirkers with market rights.

Dunkirk (film)

Dunkirk is a 1958 British war film directed by Leslie Norman and starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee. It was based on two novels: Elleston Trevor's The Big Pick-Up and Lt. Col. Ewan Hunter and Maj. J. S. Bradford's Dunkirk.

Plot

The film relates the story of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of surrounded British and French troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. It does so principally from the viewpoints of two people: a newspaper reporter and a soldier.

Corporal "Tubby" Binns (John Mills), Lieutenant Lumpkin and their platoon return to their camp after blowing up a bridge, only to discover that their company has left during the night, leaving them alone in France. One man and a truck have been left to wait for them, but he and Lumpkin are killed in a bomber attack, leaving Tubby in charge with no idea what the situation is. It is up to Tubby to keep his increasingly demoralised men on the move. Unsure of where to go, they dodge the advancing Germans and reach a Royal Artillery battery camp. They receive some food, before being ordered to go to Dunkirk, where the rest of the British Expeditionary Force and tens of thousands of French soldiers are gathering, hoping to be evacuated. Eventually, they get a lift in an RAF lorry and reach the beaches.

Dunkirk (American horse)

Dunkirk is an American Thoroughbred Racehorse born in 2006. He is the son of graded stakes winner and major sire Unbridled's Song and multiple Grade 1 winner Secret Status. He is owned by a syndicate composed of John Magnier, Derrick Smith, and Michael Tabor and trained by Todd Pletcher during his short racing career. Dunkirk acquired a measure of celebrity during the 2007 Keeneland Yearling Auction, where he sold for $3.7million.

Unraced at 2, he broke his maiden at age 3 in 2009 at first asking at Gulfstream Park. He followed that win with an Allowance victory, also at Gulfstream Park. He then placed second in the Florida Derby, a race in which victorious Quality Road set a new track record.

In the 2009 Kentucky Derby, Dunkirk finished 11th after stumbling badly at the beginning. This was the first time he had failed to finish in the top two. He then skipped the mid-May Preakness Stakes and aimed for the Belmont Stakes in early June at Belmont Park.

After setting a fast pace for the first 6 furlongs, Dunkirk was overtaken in the stretch but fought back to finish 2nd behind eventual 3-year old champion Summer Bird, beating the Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird. After the race, it was discovered that Dunkirk had suffered a condylar fracture in his left hind cannon bone. After a successful surgery, Dunkirk was expected to return to racing in 2010 at age 4, but he instead was retired to stand stud at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.