9. In the Context of Hitler’s Goals in 1940, a British Escape From Dunkirk Was the Last Thing That He Wanted
Credible historians give short shrift to the fanciful notion that a merciful Fuhrer had deliberately let the British go: there is zero evidence to support the assertion. However, crackpot revisionists have embraced the notion that Hitler had allowed the British to escape so he could look like a magnanimous gentleman, and thus draw Britain into peace negotiations. Even for a figure as notoriously irrational as Hitler, to deliberately let the British escape was too irrational. In the context of his aim to bring Britain to the peace table, hundreds of thousands of British POWs would have been a major bargaining chip.
More so than if those soldiers were back in Britain, armed and defiant. Moreover, the fatal halt order had not even originated with Hitler. A panzer unit commander who had lost half his armored forces and needed time to regroup, requested a halt from Army Group A’s commander, Gerd von Rundstedt. Rundstedt agreed and passed it up to Hitler, who rubber stamped the order to halt. After the war, German generals – including Rundstedt – pinned the blame on Hitler for ruining the opportunity to win the war in 1940.
