The reasons Hitler gave this “Halt Order” have never been fully agreed on, either by those living through the battle or historians after the fact. On the surface, it seemed like a halfway logical concept. The German troops had been fighting for two weeks straight without a break, something that an old Great War soldier like Hitler knew all too well. They needed time to rest, replace their losses and reorganize their forces, which had taken heavy losses in France. The German armor had outrun their infantry and supplies, having advanced much faster than expected, and were running out of fuel and ammunition. Also, the ground around the Dunkirk area wasn’t ideal for tank operations, full of the marshes and canals that had bogged down German soldiers in the First World War. The pause made sense to Hitler for another reason: Luftwaffe head Herman Goring had assured him that air power could wipe out the British on the beaches, and Hitler was all too happy to give him a chance
Finally, the idea that Hitler ordered a grand stand down of his troops is deflated by one simple fact: the pause order didn’t actually originate with Hitler. It was first given by General Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group A, which was the large force fighting in western France. In turn, the pause was requested by von Rundstedt’s tank unit commander, who had lost 50% of his armored forces and needed time to regroup.
Aye, also makes sense. Can understand why it isn't agreed upon, will never find out for sure like, never going to get it from the horse's mouth as so to speak.
Exactly right as shown in von Rundstedt's diaries, logistics and resupply is the lifeblood of war as the American's proved later with their bigger clout. Hitler mainly failed in the east because his front line troops advance so far so quickly that they outstripped the support columns so they dug in during October waiting for them to catch. Then came the worst winter in living Russian history and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. All events that are the ingredients that contributed to WW2 which can only be defined by battles and mistakes rather people error.
The starving badly clothed German troops received air drops of condoms and fountain pens .......... or was it flip-flops & Brylcreem?
An informative and clever video showing the fluidity of troop movement during ww2 This video shows the changing front lines of the European Theatre of World War II every day from the German invasion of Poland to the surrender of Germany. DETAILED KEY: Maroon: Axis Power members, their dependencies/colonies, and annexed lands. Burgundy: Areas militarily occupied by the Axis Powers. Red: Axis puppet states. Pink: Axis gains during that day. Blue: Allied powers and areas occupied by the allies. Light blue: Allied gains for that day. Purple colors (left to right): Finland, occupied by Finland, and Finnish gains that day. Dark Green: The USSR before it joined the allies and annexed lands. Green: Areas militarily occupied by the USSR before it joined the allies. Light Green: Soviet gains for that day
reminds me of the start of dads army with the arrow prodding over the channel ,if you think we are on the run
From what I know about the matter it's the fact that Germany were over ambitious and under prepared when they went into Russia. We were strong, resilient and lucky.
Thanks for posting that Diddles. You get a real sense of how Russia took the war to Germany while they waited for the second front to open.
Am peeved how quickly Germany and Japan became richer countries then us, they lost and we paid for a war they started
In Germany's case it was the Marshall Plan devised by Gen George Marshall with the goal of avoiding a repeat of the punitive punishment following the first war. Nobody asked Germany for the reparations they had against them but Hitler used it as a propaganda tool in his rise to power and of course blamed the Jews for the collapse of 1929 which was also untrue. In fact, the whole of Europe was rebuilt under the Marshall Plan except us because we were the providers of raw material in the '40s and '50s by which time the new stuff had made ours redundant so we fell behind. Japan just had to agree that the Emperor was not a god on earth and accept democracy which was soon done.
they attacked over a 1800 mile front with much success stopping outside three key cities ,instead of pressing home they faltered allowing the cruel weather to do much of what the enemy troops couldnt,the germans started this assault in august and were equipped as such never planning for the winter at all
