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I am sure that the film company initially had plans to use one of the (then) recently retired Type 42 destroyers, I am sure I read somewhere that they wanted to use either York or Edinburgh, I probably read it in a Forum thread on SN though - so should really give up hope of finding it again!
I agree with most on here that using a foreign minesweeper was a poor choice of ship (particularly for us maritime pedants!), it certainly spoilt the movie for me.
I was also quite annoyed at the portrayal throughout the movie that there were not that many RN/MN ships available, and that it was all over in a day or so, when in fact evacuations took part between 27 May and 4 June, involving some 693 British ships, of which 226 were sunk in the operation, just looking at some of the numbers of bigger RN ships in isolation is quite daunting (at a time when we were desperate for escorts):
1 Cruiser (Damaged)
39 Destroyers (6 sunk, 19 damaged)
9 Corvettes/Sloops (1 sunk, 1 damaged)
36 Sweepers (5 sunk, 7 damaged)
113 Trawlers (17 sunk, 2 damaged)
Some of these ships repeated the ordeal many times over - making repeated crossings and saving many thousands of men, for example:
MV Royal Daffodil - 9 crossings, saving 7,461 men
SS Maid of Orleans - 5 crossings saving 5,503 men
HMS Sabre - 9 crossings, saving 3,900 men
HMS Codrington - 8 Crossings, saving 5,450 men
It must have taken extreme bravery by the crews, particularly in the case of the the lightly armed (or unarmed) MN ships - to go back there day after day - with almost no sleep and most of the time under the threat of attack.
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