It would have been the decisive moment for the Panzer generals to ignore Hitler’s halt orders and to keep on thrusting forward to take Dunkirk. But that didn’t happen. Circumstances were different now to just a few days before. Then they were lost somewhere in the French countryside and fairly free to do what they wanted, but now they were close together and operating in a very combined space at the Channel, with Hitler and Runstedt nearby.

The real kicker was why Hitler halted the Panzers – only a leader like Hitler could be motivated to do what he did, and why he did. Let’s cover a bit more background first as to how the halt order, when first made, went down, before getting to Hitler’s unique motivation for ordering the halt.

Tag words: Dunkirk; Blitzkrieg; Gerd von Runstedt; Adolf Hitler; von Bock; von Brauchitsch; Franz Halder; von Kluge; von Kleist; Heinz Guderian; Gravelines; Sepp Dietrich; Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler; Erich von Manstein; Sickle Cut Plan; Alfred Jodl; Wilhelm Keitel; Karl-Heinz Frieser; Blitzkrieg Legend; Göring; David Stahel; Retreat from Moscow;