[allendale]

Funny how things worked out. Britain was on the verge of being forced to sue for a negotiated peace after France fell and 300,000 British soldiers were on the verge of capture at Dunkirk. For whatever reason Hitler stopped the German army offensive and they eventually escaped to England. If they had been forced to surrender, England would have ceased hostilities. The rest is history. Dunkirk was the turning point of WW II.

[xkaydet65]

Had a friend tell me it wouldn’t have mattered. USSR would have defeated Hitler. I pointed out that if England fell the entirety of Nazi power would fall on Russia. No need to maintain any forces. Land or air in the West. No England, no US entry. No 15 000 aircraft. 8,000 tanks,3,500 locomotives, 750 000 transport vehicles, no 100 octane aviation gas. Remarkably he was unimpressed. Said Stalin had it figured out.

[jmacusa]

There were a number of reasons Hitler didn't finish off the Brits when he had the chance. He and his generals, the staff officer, desk bound types anyway just couldn't get their heads around the fact that the blitzkrieg had worked so well. They just too slow to understand how far and fast the panzers had moved and especially how far ahead they were of the infantry who were still miles behind the forward units.

OKW was also concerned that the supply lines and flanks were vulnerable and Hitler really thought he could negotiate with the British and perhaps even swing them over to unite against the Soviet Union. And Fatso Goering didn't help matters boasting that his Luftwaffe alone could finish off the BEF.

[sparklite2]

Dunkirk was the turning point of WW II.

---

I don’t see how. Britain was not defeated but they were out of action. The Pacific war had a turning point at Midway, but to say any one event was the turning point for the European war is difficult. Normandy? Stalingrad?

[sparklite2]

The Soviet Union defeated Germany at Stalingrad,
 marking the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe.

 The battle of Stalingrad is considered by historians
 as a decisive turning point of World War II, during
 which German forces were defeated after five months of combat.

As a German historian, an expert on the war against
 the Soviet Union, has put it: “That victory of the
Red Army [in front of Moscow] was unquestionably
 the major break [Zäsur] of the entire world war.

The major turning points of the European war seem
to be Stalingrad, Moscow, and Normandy, although
it is debatable what THE major turning point was. 

[IndispensableDestiny]

Britain was on the verge of being forced to sue for a negotiated peace after France fell and 300,000 British soldiers were on the verge of capture at Dunkirk.

By June 1940, the British Army stood at 1.65 million strong. Although it would have sucked to have lost 300,000 men as POWs or KIA, Britain would have gotten along.