WI Germany did not pause the two days, before assaulting Dunkerque in 1940?

Something amazing in the OTL: The German Wehrmacht paused two day's for rest and supply, at the gates of Dunkerque, before rolling up the Alied forces in the town in summer 1940. This delay resulted in the evacuation of some 400,000 troops of mainly British and French in Operation Dynamo, who otherwise would likely have been captured, or killed.

WI the Germans did not pause these crucial two day's and what would have happened than in the following WW2 period?
 
Hm... the British would lose manpower for later operations, perhaps affecting the outcome of skirmishes in the Pacific and north Africa. By 1945 though, America's population reserves would have made up a good number of that. Normandy, or wherever it may be TTL, would have even more American boots and control.

This however, also frees up food and long-term supply reserves.
 
Well with no Dunkirk Evacuation there's no Dunkirk Spirit, the British morale is kicked in the head by the Germans, and with tens of thousands more prisoners in German hands, the British government is going to very seriously consider peace overtures, even if it just sees them as being like another Amiens

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I do not think a German immediate victory is absolutely certain even if they do press on. The Panzer divisions performed badly in the soft and muddy ground around Dunkirk, they had advanced all over northern France, been in non-stop combat for two weeks and were very low on supplies. Could they break through the British and Belgian lines over all those canals, on the soft ground?
 
First, there was no halt by the Wehrmacht at Dunkirk. There was a delay once they had reached the sea, to decide the next priority of advance.

Second, the evacuation took place over more than 2 days so, even ignoring the likelihood of the defenders holding for part of those two days all this does is reduce the number evacuated and most on the last two days, especially the last, were not British.
 

Cook

Banned
A British negotiated armistice at the same time or shortly after France would be my bet. Terms would be better than France had, but the War of 1939 – 1940 would be over.

Hitler would then be free to restructure Europe and begin contemplating things in the east.

What this would mean in the Pacific is anyone’s guess. Hitler may want a stronger Japan to threaten Russia with, in which case Japanese access to British ports and Japanese control of Dutch East Indies Oil fields would end the embargo and strengthen their position against the Chinese, and end any immediate reason to attack the United States.

Then again, WC certainly expected things to go a lot worse then they did;

“When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history. I thought-and some good judges agreed with me-that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked.”
- Winston Churchill
June 4, 1940

So maybe expecting an Armistice is being pessimistic.


 
Something I have read lately suggests, that the British Army was more or less without arms, after the Operation Dynamo. When the soldiers too were gone to captivity, how would the UK have ventured in a possible invasion scenario, which was looming over the horizon?
 
Armistice? Sealion??

When you start making suggestions about Winston making peace proposals

to THAT MAN:mad: or Sealion suddenly becoming plausible:rolleyes: I

would say THOSE ideas are on the softest ground of all:D I didn't see

anything in this thread touching on the RN or RAF:cool:
 

Commissar

Banned
Something amazing in the OTL: The German Wehrmacht paused two day's for rest and supply, at the gates of Dunkerque, before rolling up the Alied forces in the town in summer 1940. This delay resulted in the evacuation of some 400,000 troops of mainly British and French in Operation Dynamo, who otherwise would likely have been captured, or killed.

WI the Germans did not pause these crucial two day's and what would have happened than in the following WW2 period?

How pray tell, will they get across the AA Canal which the French flooded?

Not too mention surge against a beach that had 8", 12", 14", 15", and 16" Naval Guns trained on it.

Even Guderian wrote in his unit diary that pushing forward would be suicide, which he conveniently forgot post war in his covering of his own ass.
 
If Britain was to make peace then Mr Churchill would have had to receive a vote of no confidence. He was not the type of person to cave in and would fight on. If the bulf ogf the BEF was lost in France then there os the possibility that Halifax might end up replacing Churchill. But never would Winston consider making peace with Hitler.
 
Churchill has just come to power; his removal would not happen when the situation could be blamed on Chamberlain.

I recall that the Dunkirk Evacuation expected to retrieve only 1/3rd of the forces left in the pocket. Given two less days, that might be what happens. Some of the BEF will return home; it won't be worse than this pessimistic view of events.

This still turns Dunkirk from a miraculous escape to another great victory for the Germans, even if 1/3rd of the forces in the pocket are withdrawn. This won't cause Churchill to sue for terms, but the butterfly of reducing the numbers of trained soldiers available to Britain could have far reaching consequences.

The UK is still in the fight, Sealion is all but impossible and Germany is still run by a moron. But I do wonder if this means that UK forces in North Africa or South East Asia will be lighter as a result, which means that instead of victories, the UK suffers more losses and defeats.

The course of the war is not in doubt, but we could see variations--Egypt may fall and Churchill removed from office, Japan marching into Calcutta and attempting to create a "Free India" with the support of Chandra Bose leading to a far larger fight in that smallish theater. That's about as far as it goes.
 
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