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Hitlers order to stop the Panzers


Kenny Andrew

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Finally got a spare moment to read some of my Panzer Leader book by General Guderian.Excellent book and have now got up to the point of Hitler's order to stop the tanks out side the channel ports.

 

Guderian was mystified by the order and his tanks could easily of taken the ports.He recons the order to stop was so Goering could take the credit with his Luftwaffe (or did Hitler want to let the British escape?)

 

If Guderian is correct, it makes you wonder.Goering messed up destroying the British Army at the channel ports, he also messed up destroying the RAF when we were almost beaten and he messed up resupplying Stalingrad.Three key events in the war.

 

When they ask why Hitler lost the war ,Hermann Goering must be up there in the top ten. :D

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I am in the middle of reading a book about Hess and the alleged cover up called "Double Standards" this delay in the advance and the allies escape is covered by the way of Hitler allowing the escape to happen as he did not want war with Britain and was still of the opinion of reaching a peace agreement of course these are only opinions of the authors but it makes for a good read.

As for Goering he would be for sure in the top ten.

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I would agree with Mr B. Hitler did not want a war with the british and so called a halt to the advance on Dunkirk.

As for the Battle of Britain yet again Hitler was the one who ordered the changed in tacticts with the RAF on the brink

of defeat. And again with Stalingrad Hitler again was the one to blame for rejecting Von Paulus,s appeal to withdraw

from the city. In doing so Hitler sealed the fate of the 6th army, allowing the Russian army to launched a massive

encircling attack on the 6th army trapped in Stalingrad. And in spite of Hitlers instructions to fight to the death von

Paulus surrenderd on January 31 1943.

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I think Goering convinced Hitler certainly about Stalingrad that his Luftwaffe could supply the city.The reason Hitler gave for stopping the tanks was that the ground in Flanders with it's many ditches and canals was not suited to tanks,Guderian felt this was a poor excuse.

 

In Churchill's memoirs he says he was told by several German Generals that the tanks were stopped to increase the chance of Germany negotiating a settlement with the British.

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Just started reading France at War by W.Somerset Maugham published in March1940. The book covers a 6 week

survey by him of the activities of France, and his visits to the front visits also to Naval bases and factories and

talks with hundreds of people, from Generals in command to humble priests of country parishes and refugees

evacuated from Alsace and Lorraine. looks interesting.

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Panzer Leader" is a good book. Read it last year. Interseting insights to the decisions made by Hitler. I was most interested in Hitlers decision to turn south away from Moscow which Guderian claims was made quite early in Barbarossa and before the counterattack by the Siberian divisions.

You have to remember that all "Leaders" memoirs reflect their opinions and they can be selective to save face.

 

My personal opinion on the order to stop the tanks before the Channel ports was that Hitler was saving them for his planned campaign against the Soviet Union.

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  • 1 year later...

sorry ajax, not read that one still working my way through Panzer leader , got way layed with a Keith Moon book and working my way through both ,very confusing not sure whither Keith Moon has blown up a drum kit or Stalingrad has fallen :D

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sorry ajax, not read that one still working my way through Panzer leader , got way layed with a Keith Moon book and working my way through both ,very confusing not sure whither Keith Moon has blown up a drum kit or Stalingrad has fallen :D

 

Read Moon's book a couple of years ago, a quality read.

 

Have started reading this Budapest book, although not a big book per se, it does wet your appetite to find out more about this battle. The 8th SS Cavalry Division "Florian Geyer" fought magnificently. Once I'm finished this book I'll be searching for other accounts on this battle.

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  • 11 months later...

Just finished reading 3 books that covers the battle for France in 1940, they are Blitzkrieg ( from the rise of Hitler to the

fall of Dunkirk ), Dunkirk ( the British Evacuation,1940), and Rommel as Military Commander.

Three factors which stick out for me why Hitler gave the order to stop the Panzers were in the higher echelons of the

German Command there was a mixture of doubt a lack of confidence and fear. No one at the top had any certainty after

The battle at Arras against the British ad hoc group Frankforce. It was by far the most determined opposition the Germans

had encountered, and quite apart from the material losses inflicted on Rommel's forces the German High Command received

a strong psychological shock, Rundstedt in fact was so alarmed by the Arras operation that he ordered a temporary halt

towards Calais and instructed the 6th and 8th Pz Divs to swing back towards Arras. Hitler's anxiety about the exposure of his

armour korps was also increased and energetic steps were taken to push the laggard infantry forward in support.

Without doubt the abortive counter-attack at Arras paid dividends in its effect on the mind of the German High Command and

made its strong contribution to halt the tanks outside Dunkirk.

 

Rommel learned at Arras and never forgot that tanks are not expendable cavalry to be used in Balaclava charges against a

gun line but that a modern general should lure his enemy's armour on to his own gun lines.

 

And Goring advice to Hitler about the capacity of the Luftwaffe to demolish the British before they crossed the Channel was

also a main factor which made Dunkirk's evacuation possible.

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