Corporal Nettle
Corporal Nettle, a lorry driver in the Royal Army Service Corps, is one of two corporals who fall in with Robbie Turner during the chaotic retreat to Dunkirk. Small and sharp-featured, with a friendly, rodent-like look accentuated by his habit of resting his upper teeth on his lower lip, Nettle is a townie who dislikes the countryside and is lost without a compass. He and his friend Corporal Mace decide that to reach the coast they need Turner, whom they call "guv'nor" to settle the awkward matter of rank, since Turner is a private soldier who talks like a toff. Nettle's teasing is constant—he chants "He fucking is, he fucking is" whenever Turner is silent for too long, accusing him of thinking about "crumpet"—but it is a form of camaraderie that masks genuine dependence.
Role in the Retreat
Nettle's practical skills and earthy humor sustain the trio through the worst of the retreat. He is the one who, when the three men are starving in a barn, produces two cartons of cigarettes from his bag, explaining that when the order came to destroy stores, "we took whatever we wanted." He gives these as a gift to the French brothers Henri and Jean-Marie Bonnet, who have brought food and wine, and the gesture seals the evening's fragile hospitality. Later, when Nettle's blisters become unbearable, he sits down in the road, flings his boots into a field, and declares he hates them more than all the Germans put together. Turner retrieves the boots, and after some coaxing Nettle is persuaded to put them back on, carrying them tied around his neck only as a favor to Turner. When the trio reaches the bombed-out resort of Bray Dunes, Nettle follows Turner's lead in a bizarre quest to capture a pig for an old gypsy woman who has promised water in return. Though Nettle is frightened of the sow and protests, he helps corner it, and the woman gives them flagons of water, wine, and saucisson. Afterward, Nettle's faith in Turner's judgment is restored.
The Rescue of the RAF Man
Nettle's most decisive moment comes in the bar at Bray Dunes, where a mob of soldiers is about to lynch an RAF clerk they hold responsible for the Luftwaffe's freedom of the skies. When Mace picks up the terrified man in a bear hug and roars that he wants to drown him in the sea, Nettle and Turner exchange a look, guess what Mace is about, and move toward the door. They block the entrance, shoulder to shoulder, shouting and shaking their fists like the rest, long enough for Mace to run up a side street with his victim. The crowd explodes past them, but by the time the mistake is realized, Mace and the RAF man have vanished. Nettle and Turner melt away too, and the RAF man is forgotten.
The Final March to the Coast
As the three men approach the Bergues-Furnes canal, Nettle and Mace protect Turner from being pulled out for perimeter defense duties by making him limp between them. Nettle offers to pop his bayonet through Turner's foot to make the limp convincing. After they cross the bridge, Nettle is the one who wakes Turner from a fevered sleep in a cellar, telling him that the navy is getting organized on the beach and that they are going home. He wipes Turner's forehead with a dirty hand and soothes him with the news that a lieutenant from the Buffs is marching them down at seven. Turner, delirious, mutters that he has decided to stay on in France, and Nettle, with his worried ratty face close to Turner's own, tells him to get some sleep and stop shouting. The last image of Nettle is of him, years later, writing long letters to Briony Tallis about Dunkirk, letters she donates to the Imperial War Museum archives on her seventy-seventh birthday. His correspondence, full of the ordinary soldier's perspective, becomes part of the historical record she consults for her final novel.
