Operation Dynamo

"Operation Dynamo" is perhaps better known as the Dunkirk evacuation, the famously dramatic 1940 military operation to rescue the British Expeditionary Force from invading Germans on the northern coast of France. Filmmaker Benjamin Owen’s short documentary takes a light-handed Christian approach to telling this story of hard-won salvation for hundreds of thousands of Allied personnel, using as a framing device the separation of a married couple when the husband goes out to battle. Narrated by Stuart Burgess, the film features interviews with military historians Stephen Thurston-Keller and William Potter, who fill in the details of how the British, Belgians, and French were trapped by the Germans, and how volunteers with boats helped military vessels shuttle the Brits across the English Channel to regroup at home again. Equally powerful is the story of nightmarish uncertainty in England as to whether the Germans would invade, and the courageous, inspiring presence of Winston Churchill. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)