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Subject:
Panzer Halt, English Channel
CJH
3/11/2005 12:57:46 PM
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| I have read a few descriptions of the Germans halting short of Dunquerk instead of gooing in for the kill on the beaches.
The most widely accepted explanation is that they had arrived at bogs or swamps and therefore the panzer unit commanders ordered halt.
But I read "Panzer Leader" by Heinz Guderian who was the father of the German blitzkrieg technique and commanded tanks in that campaign and he wrote the order to halt the panzers at the channel coast came from army headquarters in Berlin and not from the scene.
What with Ruldolf Hess' flying to England, his "suicide" while in the custody of the allies, the open admiration of the Duke of Windsor for Hitler and the fashionable admiration of the Nazis by the pre-war British upper class one has cause to wonder.
I read in "Der Fuhrer" by Conrad Heiden that Hitler had given a 1930(I believe) speech on radio on the occasion of the London Naval Treaty. Hitler related how the United States which had a two ocean navy had been left on par by the treaty with Great Britain which had a seven ocean navy and he expressed his opinion that the British had gotten the short end and therefore should look away from America and toward Europe for its future.
Despite the importance of the British naval blockade of 1914-1918, Hitler did not plan on having a dominating navy. We know the importance he placed on land block power and know he was counting on controlling Russian resources but he must have known he was leaving a back door open if he neglected a surface navy presence on the Atlantic.
Maybe Hitler had been convinced by someone who had connections high up in Britain that he had friends on the inside who could deliver Britain. Maybe halting the tanks was with that in mind.
Any comments? |
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