8. How Self-Serving Spin by German Generals Gave Birth to a False Narrative
There is no historic support for the false notion that Hitler had intentionally allowed the British to escape from Dunkirk. Even for a figure as notoriously irrational as Hitler, deliberately letting the British escape would have been too irrational. For somebody who wanted to bring Britain to the peace table, holding hundreds of thousands of British soldiers as POWs in Europe – which would have happened if the Germans overran the British at Dunkirk – would have been quite a bargaining chip. More so than if those soldiers were back in Britain, armed and defiant.
Additionally, the fatal halt order to halt the German panzer divisions 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 himself – pinned the blame on Hitler instead of on themselves for ruining the opportunity to win the war in 1940.
