Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-354).

Preface: "I don't see it as a war film. I see it as a survival story": An interview between Joshua Levine and Director Christopher Nolan -- Survival -- Quite like us -- The long and the short and the tall -- High hopes -- Fighting back -- Halting the Panzers -- Escape to Dunkirk -- No sign of a miracle -- A miracle -- Where's the bloody RAF? -- A new Dunkirk.

The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat, yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war. Now, historian Joshua Levine explores the real lives of those soldiers, bombed and strafed on the beaches for days on end, without food or ammunition; the civilians whose boats were overloaded; the airmen who risked their lives to buy their companions on the ground precious time; and those who did not escape.