Why did the Germans release 340,000 allied troops in Dunkirk?

When World War II broke out, the Germans took advantage of it and the Allies were unable to fight back. Allied forces retreated in Dunkirk, with a total of 340 thousand soldiers. However, there is a mystery that people can't figure out, that is, after Dunkirk forced 340,000 allied troops to the beach, the Germans really stopped attacking. If we continue to advance and attack directly, these retreats may be wiped out in one fell swoop and future troubles may be avoided. So why did the Germans stop attacking? And gave the allies enough time to retreat. Now let's take a look.

On May 1940, 10, the Germans who just conquered Poland surprised Britain and France. Instead of attacking the Soviet Union, they made a "yellow plan", attacking Holland and Belgium to the west, and then attacking France. Later, the German Marshal manstein was added, and the "manstein Plan" was formulated to attack the French army through the Ardennes forest, preparing for a large-scale annihilation of the French army. The manstein Plan did not give up the Yellow Action, but continued to use the Yellow Action to contain the Allies to the side near the English Channel, and the forces crossing the Ardennes Forest completely cut off the main forces of the Allies.

On May 20th, the Germans pushed the 400,000 Belgian, French and British allied forces, which were cornered, to Dunkirk. They are surrounded by the sea on three sides. Although tens of thousands of French troops were divided to contain the Germans, it had no effect at all. If the Germans want, they can drive tanks to defeat the remaining 340,000 allied forces on the beaches of Dunkirk in a few hours. However, on May 24, the German high command suddenly issued an order that annoyed the frontline soldiers: the tanks stopped moving. Then Britain mobilized 850 ships all over the country, and withdrew 340,000 allied troops from Dunkirk on June 4, 1940. This is regarded by the British today as the most brilliant and great victory in the history of this country.

German commanders at the front were very dissatisfied with this because the honor they got slipped away. If these 340,000 people are wiped out, almost every German officer who takes part in the war will be promoted. However, in addition, almost no one in Germany has any objection to such a major strategic and tactical mistake. Up to the head of state, down to the Nazi party, and the German army with party relations with the Nazi party, and so on. Some people didn't say anything when they wrote books after the war except throwing pots and pans. During the execution of the order, no one objected. In this regard, we must first analyze why the Germans released 340,000 allies from Dunkirk. The author consulted the information, and historians usually divide the reasons into three categories from the aspects of military, political and strategic influence:

1, Churchill once analyzed the war logs of castle wolfenstein captured after the war, and this stop order was issued by Marshal von Lund Stedt, who was the immediate superior of the famous Marshal Manstein. Marshal Lund Stedt, from the military point of view at that time, thought it necessary to wait for the infantry behind him to follow up before launching the charge. Some people think that Lundstedt doesn't understand armored combat, but in fact, the pure armored corps really beat the pure infantry, lost the protection of the infantry, and the armored vehicles were approached by enemy infantry, so it was easy to be eliminated. The beach terrain is not easy for tanks to maneuver, and the German pure armored forces are not sure to win this battle.

Marshal Goering of the German Empire was originally an air marshal. He has been begging Hitler to ask the German Air Force to complete the annihilation of these 340,000 people alone. He also asked the Germans to keep a certain distance to prevent accidental bombing. After the fall of Kaiser Wilhelm, von Hindenburg, who came from a noble family, was in charge of Germany for many years. The German army was mostly composed of nobles with the word "Feng" in their names. Goering, as the second person in Germany, was an important means of Hitler's political balance, so he supported Goering to complete this figure. There is no doubt that Goering's success is the main reason for letting the allied forces go!

But in fact, Goering is so boastful that the German Air Force simply has no ability to kill these 340,000 people. He once assured Hitler that there would be no enemy planes over Berlin, and Hitler wanted to build the largest art museum in human history. However, Goering proved to be a joke. In the middle of the war, he began to advocate surrender to the allies. In the last few days of the war, he voluntarily surrendered to the Soviet Union. Just as Marshal Paulus said when he surrendered at the Battle of Stalingrad, "I won't die for that corporal (Hitler was a corporal in World War I, and the Germans generally thought that he didn't get rid of the military vision of an infantry)", Goering, as a one-stop air force soldier, had extremely limited vision.

Once these 340,000 people are wiped out, Germany will never retreat, and there will be great hatred between Britain, France and Germany in the future. In fact, these 340 thousand people did not have much influence on the war situation throughout World War II. On the contrary, after World War II, they played a great role in defending the Soviet Union from completely occupying Germany. Manstein, guderian, Lund Stedt and others who surrendered to Britain at the same time did not kill many British and French troops, so although they all killed hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops, they were given a light sentence after the war.

In the middle of World War II, including Rommel, Manstein and others, we heard that Goering and others in the Nazi Party advocated surrendering to the British. From this analysis, the Dunkirk retreat must have a certain layout. From this inference, some people say that it is not completely impossible for the Allies to release Hitler. From this point of view, it is no wonder that 340,000 allies were released, and the Germans were quite satisfied.