Originally Posted by
Danny42C
typerated (#27),
I've read somewhere that Hitler ordered Guderian to halt his armour for 72 hours on the dash to the coast, simply to enable the evacuation from Dunkirk to take place.
That way Britain would have to feed and house the 300,000 + returning troops, who would otherwise have been his problem as POWs. We (he thought) were finished anyway, and had no option but to sue for peace. It was on the cards in those few days, till Churchill took over power, and the rest is history.
As I understand it, Goering asked Hitler to halt the armoured advance so that his Luftwaffe could finish the job.