Over the previous 22 programmes I’ve covered the amazing campaign launched by Germany against France. It produced Germany’s most spectacular victory of World War II. From my analysis it could have led to Hitler winning World War II, as William Shakespeare put it, as surely as night follows day.

Karl-Heinz Freiser, at the end of the previous part, took the view that Germany could never have won World War II because, in this industrial age, there was no way that Hitler could have beaten the combined industrial might of the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Canada, and all of the other Allies. But I disagree. The brilliance of Manstein’s 1940 Operation Sichelschnitt (Sickle Cut) did make that a possible outcome – if it had been exploited to the full.

The only thing that robbed Hitler of victory in World War II, in my opinion, was the escape of the British, and many many French and other Allied troops, at Dunkirk.

The escape of so many British and allied soldiers at Dunkirk is most commonly described as a miracle. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a miracle in these terms:

An unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by a god because it does not followthe usual laws of nature.

So was what happened at Dunkirk a miracle according to this definition? Let’s look closely at what happened. You make up your own mind on this – just make sure that you keep your mind open.

Tag words: James S Corum; Karl-Heinz Freiser; Adolf Hitler; Miracle of Dunkirk; Luftwaffe; Hermann Göring; Spanish Civil War; Condor Legion; Wolfram von Richthofen; Me 109; He 111; Do 17; Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber; He 59 seaplane; Royal Navy; Battle of Britain;