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.

"In 1940, the Allies had been beaten back by the Nazis 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. Joshua Levine, the film's official historian, 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. Joshua Levine's book On a Wing and a Prayer, his history of the pilots of the First World War, was turned into a British television documentary. In a previous life, he was a criminal barrister."--Provided by publisher.