OT: just watched Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan

[kondi754]

He 111 from German naval air forces often flyed individually without fighter assists.
I'm not convinced by your arguments about the Spitfire range. You don't know what route and how many miles Hardy traveled before his meeting with He 111. It was a patrol over the channel according to me, not the troops protection over Dunkirk.
Not only the British under Dunkirk but most Allied soldiers in 1940 didn't saw single German soldier before being disarmed at the end.

The movie is outstanding but it is not a war movie and please do not criticize it in this way.

[DrSher]

I agree that Spitfires have much better operational range, but I am not sure how significant an advantage it was.

*Brit bases were still far away and having to be in a defensive mode, would need to hang around longer. Therefore they may very well go low on fuel.

*Also, everything around Dunkirk is low-altitude, which would actually save a lot of fuel compared to being bomber escort over Germany later on.

The low altitude also eliminated any superior maneuvering skills by the ME109’s at high altitude vs. the Spitfires.


I think this shows how hard it is to impede evacuation by sea. The allies didn’t do particularly well in 1943 either, when trying to stop evacuations from Sicily and the Baltic has evacuation vessels all-around until total capitulation.

[Jonesy1760]

NOT IMPRESSED...it was a "feelings" movie...

[dragos]

The Dunkirk beach scene from Atonement is much more impressing than Nolan's movie

[turn4441]

I wasn't terribly impressed. Apparently, RAF pilots knew nothing of deflection as they continually waited to shoot until their reticle was on, or going behind, the target so the bullets would also go behind the target. I was yelling 'SHOOT!!!' the whole time (I was at home). Maybe they were just trying to scare the Germans away. The eternal glide was just a tad far fetched. Especially as he turned around, while maintaining speed and altitude without power (a really neat trick that defies physics), then hit a diving plane that would have passed through his forward firing arc for only a brief instant when he couldn't hit one right in front of him for most of the movie. If he can do that kind miraculous turn, why not do it again and land behind the departing troops and leave with them or simply bailout near them instead of gliding way down the beach to the Germans where you burn your plane which doesn't have an engine in it (maybe he jettisoned it so he could glide longer). Maybe they hadn't gotten to the part of training that covered the use of flaps either.

[hugh2711]

I have just watched the dunkirk movie and I thought it very beautifully filmed rubbish. Dumbed down to a ridiculous level, no plot, no dialogue, no characters, no detail etc. I was also quite annoyed at the ammunition boxes laid out in neat rows on the beach specially to make them a better visible target for the luftwaffe amongst the troops. If anyone wants a good and informative version of dunkirk the relatively recent BBC 3 part docu-drama is very good, informative and an enjoyable watch (i am not one to normally praise the bbc).

[huckc]

I'm still amazed they couldn't be arsed to create a set of the bombed out town that was 1940 Dunkirk.

Instead they showed the perfectly intact 2016 French touristy town of Dunkirk

Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers were able to do that over a decade ago, but those involved were a cut of above Nolan et al.