Gold Remi winner – Worldfest Houston International Film Festival
Two veterans sail across the English Channel on the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk with the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. As they approach Dunkirk they remember what they had fled in June 1940. Winston Churchill narrates the build up of the Nazi War Machine through the end of 1939/1940 as well as the war preparations of Great Britain and France – and often the lack thereof.
The last officer to escape the Titanic was Charles Herbert Lightoller. We see Lightoller and his wife Sylvia off the coast of Germany in 1939. A seemingly elderly couple out for a sail, they are actually working for the British government. On their voyage, they take pictures of the German fleet off the coast of Wilhelmshaven that will be used to assess German sea strength.
Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay realizes in August, 1939 that the British Expeditionary Force will have to be evacuated from the French coast and prepares to get them. Though Neville Chamberlain continues his policy of appeasement, Winston Churchill, throughout the fall/winter of 1939, plans for the inevitable.
Up to the moment the “quiet war” comes to an end on May 10th 1940, we see the men who will pilot the Little Ships across the channel and help rescue over 338,000 soldiers from the hell of war in Europe. Besides Lightoller, we meet 62-year-old Jim Proctor, a ship’s engineer; Able-Seaman Samuel Palmer and Lieutenant Mason. The London Fire Brigade was represented with their fire boat Massy Shaw as well as some of the finest yachts in London, such as the Countess Onslow’s Bluebird being turned into gun-boats.
Several obstacles created a fine line between success and failure; the French and British were often at odds as were the British Army, Navy and Air Force. French incompetence combined with Churchill’s desire to not abandon his friends led to misunderstandings that threatened to undermine the entire operation.
General Heinz Guderian brings his Panzer Divisions ever closer as Churchill, Ramsay, Admiral Wake Walker, Captain Tennant and the captains of 1000 vessels fight to bring the British and French soldiers to England. The stories of the Little Ships, as well as the Royal Navy vessels are told day by day as they fight the elements, and the Germans, until the end of Operation Dynamo on June 3/4 1940. Through the eyes of the British and the Germans, the audience sees how close to failure the British came, and how one fateful decision on the part of the Fuhrer guaranteed the British success.
This screenplay has the support of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships; David Ramsay (son of Admiral Bertram Ramsay); until his death, the support of Winston Spencer Churchill – grandson of the Prime Minister. We are now seeking the support from other members of the Churchill family; Allan Packwood, Director of the Churchill and Ramsey archives at the Churchill Archive Center in Cambridge, England.
