Why did the Nazis let the British escape at Dunkirk?
>>2728625
Why are you so retarded that you ask the question here instead of say, looking at the archives, a damn wikipedia article, or anything else?
>>2728628
With that logic this board might as well just be deleted.
>>2728641
>Just delete the board because why aren't people helping my shitpost along?
You don't really get logic, do you?
>>2728657
Fuck off autismo
>>2728625
The British evacuating was later seen as a great betrayal to France which is why Vichy France was full of anti anglo sentiment not just because of historical reasons.
Jews
>>2728679
How was it a betrayal? They were entirely surrounded, they had to either stay there and get captured/slaughtered or escape across the channel.
>>2728628
To be fair, the question of why exactly Hitler gave the Halt Order when he had the BEF absolutely cornered is a very interesting point of historical debate.
I'd actually be quite interested to read /his/'s views on the matter myself as I've never really understood Hitler's hesitation at that juncture (I always just saw it as an early example of his poor military command).
The BEF could well have been absolutely decimated if Hitler simply hadn't wavered at that point. Imagine British morale going into the Battle of Britain if it was the humiliating Massacre of Dunkirk instead of the Miracle that ended up playing out.
It's quite feasible that things could have played out very differently indeed over the course of the rest of the war had Hitler acted more decisively.
>>2728691
The French think the Brits should have committed suicide in a futile show of solidarity. Nevermind that this would mean Britain capitulating, which in turn means no US entry, which in turn means no possibility of France being liberated. Nevermind, also, that it was FRANCE that was curbstomped, not the UK.
>>2728730
It's simple: Goering assured him that he would destroy the BEF using airpower alone, so Hitler diverted the army to continue the conquest of France.
>>2728730
>I'd actually be quite interested to read /his/'s views on the matter myself as I've never really understood Hitler's hesitation at that juncture (I always just saw it as an early example of his poor military command).
You'd assume wrong. His local commanders, Rundstedt and Von Kleist, told him to do so because their operational strength was way down, and that pursuing the main french army was more important than closing the pocket.
>The BEF could well have been absolutely decimated if Hitler simply hadn't wavered at that point. Imagine British morale going into the Battle of Britain if it was the humiliating Massacre of Dunkirk instead of the Miracle that ended up playing out.
Morale doesn't affect total wars in any clearly perceivable fashion.
>It's quite feasible that things could have played out very differently indeed over the course of the rest of the war had Hitler acted more decisively.
No, it isn't. What is feasible are things like getting a bloody nose trying to rush largely unsupported tanks into marshy terrain, or allowing the French to reorganize to make Fall Rot something other than a cakewalk.
why is there so many old people in the picture
>>2728625
German lines were overstretched and they felt things were going too easily so far. They wanted to prevent another Miracle of the Marne, and so halted.
>>2728768
Europeans stopped having children in the 70s
>>2728748
this
>>2728625
>That old fucker on the left with his gold digger gook wife
lol
Short version, they didn't.
misinformation
layers of command interfering with eachother
like with everything in the reich, one thing was not under the leadership of one thing
this is true for the army too
hitler believing racing his subordinates will give better results
in reality this turned into a mass, and different commands from different institutions were all legit, he had the final say in everything but this made execution slow and troublesome
so in short, a fuck up happened and due to the nature of the german military chain, it caused a delay which allowed the allies to escape
not the only time it happened
a better and more professional explanation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q95__gXJ9l0&list=PLv0uEimc-uN9D_d2ZQxVmIpGNh4DUBVms&index=22
>>2728835
What are you talking about? I am the first one you quoted and asked an honest question.
>>2728625
They were good people and didn't want to shed blood unnecessarily.
>>2728862
this
everyone makes it sound like it would've been a disaster for the English, but I read there were something like 300000 British and French soldiers at Dunkirk, would it really have been that easy for the germans to defeat a force that huge?
Cause 'Merica was like let my people go
>>2728871
Weren't they entirely surrounded though?
>>2728871
No, they would have been crushed as soon as Germany got enough forces into the region. Yeah, 300,000 men sounds like a lot, but the Germans have close to 4 times that if they really want to call everyone in. More importantly though, the pocket is physically tiny. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b1vpnSXPhbM/UbcrcZ_HYYI/AAAAAAAAAA4/lPmOzL0Kw6M/s1600/Dunkirk_battle_1940_map.jpg
Pack men in that tightly, and they'll take far more damage from things like artillery and air strikes than they can react to on a more dispersed opponent. Only about a fifth of them could even fight at any given moment if they wanted to bring their arms to bear, and while you have a lot of reserves if you want to try to do that, you're going to get smothered real fast
Hitler has always been a nice guy. Why do you think that he banned vivisection and was a big supporter of animal rights? For humans, he gave ethnic minorities jobs, housing, and food with what little money he could siphon from the military budget.
>>2728625
Because Hitler had autism, thats why
>>2728763
>No, it isn't. What is feasible are things like getting a bloody nose trying to rush largely unsupported tanks into marshy terrain
No, the British front to the West of the pocket was very weakly defended, the waiting period enabled them to consolidate the front.
>allowing the French to reorganize to make Fall Rot something other than a cakewalk.
No, the remaining French forces were outnumbered and outgunned and overstretched in a way that any "reorganization" wouldn't help much. It's not clear anyway why an immediate attack at Dunkirk would've weakened the rest of the German army so much.
>>2728888
>Nigga I have literally been told by French people here that the BEF should've stayed
Since when does few people represent the opinion of a whole country?
>>2728625
They still thought they could reason with the eternal anglo
>>2728937
;_;