Dunkirk - May-June 1940

 

I doubt that there are many people who haven’t seen Chris Nolan’s 2017 blockbuster Dunkirk, the star-studded film which portrays the epic retreat of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from France in the early summer of 1940. The German forces had overwhelmed mainland Europe so swiftly that the 390,000 British soldiers of the BEF were forced to retreat into the bottle-neck that was the port of Dunkirk on the northern coast of France.

 

The production were fortunate to have a number of Spitfires for the flight sequences which were filmed on the south coast of the UK during the summer of 2016. The aircraft used were Mk1a AR213, Mk1a X2650 and Mk.Vb EP122, marked as R9632, and R9649 respectively. Wearing squadron codes LC, neither the tail numbers or those squadron codes are correct for Spitfires or any fighter squadron. I was on the Isle of Wight for some of the early summer and regularly saw the three, in loose formation, purring east past Southampton and Portsmouth. Working on the production I was well-aware of the reason for their flights and it was inspiring to see them almost daily.

 

You may be wondering why the different variants of  Spitfire above have been numbered Mk1a and MkVc, mixing up the Arabic and Roman numerals. From the MkII onwards Vickers Supermarine adopted the Roman numbering system, so it is correct to call the first versions Mk1s rather than MkIs.

 

I became involved in the production, then code-named Bodega Bay, in June 2016. The art department were looking for lots of detail parts to furnish their hero cockpit which was going to be filmed back in the States. I sourced a number of lovely original parts, including some instruments, early morse key, switches, all period-correct for 1940. I also commissioned a specialist to make up a new Sutton harness with again 1940-correct release safety pin. It was a truly beautiful item when received. Aside from those original parts there were several items whose original versions were just too costly for the production to use, so I stepped in and made them. One was a throttle box. Now this was the one item that was not correct, but the production had already done some filming using an old cockpit rig and they needed me to match up the throttle they already had. Continuity is more important than authenticity in this instance, and actually it wasn’t awful. 

 

I also built what probably remains my best-selling item to this day; the Spade Grip. This was going to feature prominently with lots of close-ups of Tom Hardy at the controls. The minor deviation from authenticity, again due to continuity, was their requirement for the gun button to be brass rather than what it would have been on a Mk1a which is a red anodised aluminium firing ring.

 

Tom Hardy’s character, landing his Spitfire on the beaches of Dunkirk mirrors the fate of true-life pilot Sqn Ldr Geoffrey Stephenson who, whilst flying N3200 actually did land his stricken Spitfire on the beaches of Dunkirk and was subsequently taken prisoner.

 

Quite by chance I was recently contacted by a relative of Sqn Ldr Geoffrey Stephenson who has commissioned me to make a Spade Grip for him. As a result of our discussions I am incorporating the grip into a wooden base with an original RAF lamp from the period and wiring the gun button up to switch an LED on. Christened The Stephenson Lamp I will add them to my products. The sketch below will give you an indication of what it will look like when completed, although it is likely that the lamp will be raised a bit.

 

I often wonder where the things I make eventually end up. I know that some of my grips are in wonderful resurrection projects such as Sander Wooning’s amazing reconstruction of Spitfire PR IB N3069flown by Flying Officer Mervyn Wheatley. Others are being used by builder/owners of Spitfire Mk26s, which are beautiful 80-90% (depending on the mark) scale Spitfires.

 

If you are interested in having your own Spade Grip, using the same mould as the one supplied to Dunkirk, please get in touch with me, I would love to chat about your ideas and hear about your interest.