During and immediately after the Dunkirk evacuation, the cry of ‘Where was the RAF?’ seemed to indicate that Britain’s Air Force did little or nothing to help the famous escape by British troops from the beaches around the French coastal town of Dunkirk. But as Norman Franks explains, the RAF were very much there!
WORLD WAR II | THE RAF AT DUNKIRK
For the retreating soldiers on the Dunkirk beaches, tired, hungry, and waiting patiently for some sign of rescue, being constantly bombed and strafed by German aeroplanes, seemingly without interference, naturally led to the question asked by one of the actors in Christopher Nolan’s new Dunkirk film: “Where’s the bloody Air Force?” Today, we certainly know that the RAF were there, although they were not always seen. There are many reasons why this was the case.
Over my writing life I have come to realise that, as time passes, another generation of people become interested in historical events and the event which can be encapsulated in that single word Dunkirk, while bringing the episode to mind, does not answer why the RAF’s presence was questioned or relatively unknown at the time. In about 1956 I had a girlfriend whose father had been a soldier on the beac…
