Dunkirk and France

An earlier thread got me thinking about German casualties if they'd pressed with a land attack on the BEF at Dunkirk instead of letting them evacuate the bulk of their troops. If they had attacked earlier, would they still have had enough troops to march into Paris?
 
Yes. The total German dead in the campaign was only around 56,000, and over half those were inflicted in the second half, in June.

M guess is the serious losses in a dunkirk battle would be in the armored corps/divisions. A all out effort to destroy the beach head would necessarily require a early all out attack by whatever parts of the armored divisions were present. Since so few tanks were operable by that date, and the divisions artillery would have very limited ammunition the burden would have fallen on the infantry-the motorized rifle battalions. With only 3 - 4 of those per division a few hundred casualties has a severe effect on the units efficiency.

All this is a important reason why the 'Panzer Halt' order was given. Rommels 7th Pz Div reached the coast with only 24 tanks present. Out of a original total of 225. The balance were broken down along the way,or hurrying to catch up after repairs, and a few were actually lost in combat. By the start of the second phase in June the overall tank strength was back up over 50%.

Even if the German armored divisions are eliminated it does not delay the end of the campaign by much. The German infantry corps had overwhelming numerical superiority and benefitted from the loss of so many top quality French corps. Worst case the start of the BoB is pushed back a week or so.
 
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