The Real Story behind Dunkirk

Dunkirk, the movie, is a big box office hit even with its somewhat inaccurate historical perspective. It only partially tells of the real heroes of this incident and never explains the impact it had on World War II or the British population.

On May 10th 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, pushing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with French and Belgian troops, back to the French port of Dunkirk. A huge rescue, Operation 'Dynamo', was organized by the Royal Navy to get the troops off the beaches and back to Britain. The fierce Nazi bombing demolished the Dunkirk Harbor making it impossible for the large Royal Navy ships to dock. The evacuation occurred from May 26th to June 4th, 1940. Although these events were realistically portrayed in the movie, never once was it pointed out that if the BEF had been captured, it would have meant the loss of Britain's only trained troops and the probable collapse of the Allied cause.

The film did show the bravery of the RAF pilots; yet, the dogfight looked like the Peanut’s character Snoopy versus the Red Baron. No one is diminishing the role played by the air pilots, but they were only part of a component that changed the tide from a military disaster, in which British generals predicted an overwhelming defeat. In fact, the film implied that the British Royal Air Force withheld reinforcements when in actuality all available aircraft was sent in to support the evacuation.

Both of us are partly correct. ;>)

Here’s a summary from a history website:

“On the day before the evacuation began, Hitler ordered his army, which was on the verge of a breakthrough, to halt its drive to the coast and stand down for 48 hours in order to rest, refuel and repair their tanks. This pause, which was loudly protested by German generals, gave the Allies precious time to dig in and organize a defense of the evacuation beaches. It also left German troops, some who were just ten miles from the beach, watching as their enemy slipped away. By June 3rd, the last British soldier was off the beach, and less than a day later, Dunkirk was in German hands. But Hitler had missed a stunning opportunity to deliver a crippling blow to the British, a moment which changed the course of the war and gave hope to the beleaguered Allies.

The reasons Hitler gave this “Halt Order” have never been fully agreed on, either by those living through the battle or historians after the fact. On the surface, it seemed like a halfway logical concept. The German troops had been fighting for two weeks straight without a break, something that an old Great War soldier like Hitler knew all too well. They needed time to rest, replace their losses and reorganize their forces, which had taken heavy losses in France. The German armor had outrun their infantry and supplies, having advanced much faster than expected, and were running out of fuel and ammunition. Also, the ground around the Dunkirk area wasn’t ideal for tank operations, full of the marshes and canals that had bogged down German soldiers in the First World War. The pause made sense to Hitler for another reason: Luftwaffe head Herman Goring had assured him that air power could wipe out the British on the beaches, and Hitler was all too happy to give him a chance.”

Opinions were divided among their top generals, but many ground commanders felt their forces were overextended. One must remember that the Wehrmacht’s rapid advance through France surprised the Germans as much as it did the Allies.

Speaking of those generals one historian said “...many of them wrote their memoirs or sat for interviews in which they blamed Hitler for the whole thing. Rundstedt and Kleist were particularly egregious in their revisionism. Yet at the time, both men thought their depleted Panzer forces needed rest and replenishment. Hitler was ultimately responsible, of course, but not solely.”

Another factor was Hitler trying to retake control from the generals who were issuing orders without consulting their commander in chief. Thus the pause forced the field commanders to toe the line. By the time ground assaults resumed it was too late.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-24/why-the-germans-blew-it-at-dunkirk

>>The real “hero” indirectly responsible for “The Miracle of Dunkirk” was - head of the Luftwaffe, Herman Goering.

The nasty secret of Dunkirk, a secret the British aristocracy has tried to sweep under the rug for almost 80 years, was the Nazi sympathizer British aristocrat the Duke of Hamilton. Hamilton was representative of those aristocrats such as the Duke of Windsor, who had no problem with a grand strategy of capitulating to Hitler and then having Britain join him on a march against bolshevism. Hitler saw the British as fellow Aryans with a common racial heritage, Britain having been nearly overrun in the past by Scandanavian Vikings and their spawn, the Normans. So Hitler halted his panzers while Hess made overtures to Hamilton & Co. The timing of the events alone is beyond coincidence.

Uuuuh ... not so much I’m afraid ... The “Miracle of Dunkirk” was in May 1940 ... Rudolph Hess’ flight to Scotland was in May 1941, a full year later ...

... while ugly facts about Nazi sympathizers in the UK may well still be in the files that the UK sealed for 75 or maybe 100 years following the war, Hess’s star had been in decline for a while by the time he mentally cracked and fancied himself capable of negotiating a peace with the UK ...

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