Bite-Size History: Did the Battle of Dunkirk stop the Axis winning World War 2?
Examining the theories and counter-theories from May-June 1940
The “Conventional” Wisdom about the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo
The successful, relentless advance by German Army Group A under the direction of Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, under operation Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), left over 400,000 Allied troops trapped at Dunkirk, their backs to the sea, forced to abandon all their equipment.
With victory over “perfidious Albion” in his grasp, the Führer inexplicably stopped his troops advancing on Dunkirk on 24 May 1940. This blunder gave the retreating Allies enough time to create a defensive line.
This indecision on dealing the coup de grâce allowed 338,000 British and French troops to escape. Churchill and his battered British Expeditionary Force (BEF) returned to fight another day. Hitler lost his best chance to defeat the last remaining resistance in Europe. And the rest, as they say, is history.
But was it that straightforward? Let’s take a step back from this simplistic assessment. Let’s explore what was taking place in the cauldron of war and the arguments about the Battle of Dunkirk, and the Wehrmacht’s strategy that still exists until…
