The real battle of Dunkirk, which Christopher Nolan brought to the big screen in his new film, was as dramatic as any work of fiction. Traveling to Army Group A's headquarters at Charleville on May 24, Hitler urged its commander, General Gerd von Rundstedt, to press the attack. Over Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe suffered its first serious rebuff of the war. “The Little Ships of Dunkirk” were a pivotal part in the rescue effort . The first thing to know is that Dunkirk is the name of a town in northern France, just a handful of miles from the Belgian border. Dunkirk: the soldiers left behind The little-known stories of the British troops who held off the Nazis - but were captured - are retold in a documentary for Yesterday. Dunkirk can be seen as a disaster and a triumph. Here's the true story. Without the amazing efforts of the civilian flotilla the British Army would have been decimated. As Galland has noted, the nature and style of the air battles over the beaches should have provided a warning as to the inherent weaknesses of the Luftwaffe's force structure. We have lost nearly 1,000 guns … According to the BBC (Dunkirk facts & figures), 68,111 British soldiers were killed or captured at Dunkirk. {62} Admittedly, the Germans fought at a … That number may seem high but over 300,000 were evacuated. By 1945, around 2.5 million Indians were or had served in the British Indian Army. Even in this early stage of … British solidiers lost many of their equipment and lots of people died. ‘Dunkirk’ Fact Check: How Many Civilian Boats Came to Help? Our losses in men (at Dunkirk) have been 30,000 killed, wounded and missing. Against this we might set the far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the enemy. Tens of thousands more had served in Japanese, German or even Italian regiments. ‘Dunkirk’ Fact Check: How Many Civilian Boats Came to Help? read more How many people were actually evacuated from Dunkirk? When you watch Dunkirk, remember that it’s a whitewashed version which ignores the bravery of black and Muslim soldiers . “The Little Ships of Dunkirk” were a pivotal part in the rescue effort . Some 800 to 1,200 boats, many of them leisure or fishing crafts, eventually aided in the evacuation from Dunkirk. Many British vehicles abandoned at Dunkirk ended up in Russia Although not a single British soldier was left on the Dunkirk beaches, some 70,000 troops were left behind in France, either dead, wounded, prisoner or still stuck further south.