In popular retellings of Dunkirk evacuation, notably in the 2017 Christopher Nolan movie, the little ships are particularly acclaimed for their role in the evacuations. It harks to an idea that private boats set out to rescue beleaguered allied soldiers, almost spontaneously and crewed by the civilian owners of those vessels in a potentially dangerous warzone. Its become a major symbol of British wartime attitudes, playing into a perception of regular people doing their duty by their own volition and British populace's general ability to soldier and pull together in times of crisis. How numerous and how important were these little ships compared to actual naval vessels in getting men off the beaches, and were many really manned by non-military personnel?