Who Truly Won the Battle of Dunkirk?
Who could have imagined Adolf Hitler actually stopping the Wehrmacht, the German Army, from completely destroying a French city? The Battle of Dunkirk was one of the best examples of Hitler re-thinking his strategies during World War II. The real question is though, was the battle a victory for a defeat, and for which Army, the Wehrmacht or the British Expeditionary Force (B. E. F.) and France? Nobody is quite sure what the answer is, but everybody has their own ideas. The Wehrmacht advancing on British soldiers in Dunkirk highlights Hitler’s more successful battles, but also one of his least successful battles, which very well could have resulted in the British and French never recovering. On May 10, 1940,
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Although the Allies never truly collapsed during the war, it was believed that they were done for and that Hitler had won. If Hitler never stopped the invasion on Dunkirk, the Panzers and other infantry would have completely obliterated Dunkirk. Soldiers were furious at the R. A. F. and Royal Navy for leaving them stranded on the beaches, despite orders from Churchill. Although the R. A. F. was too weak to stop the Luftwaffe, they still had enough power to at least slow down the invasion. At least 40,000 soldiers became P. O. W.’s to the Wehrmacht, and roughly more than 338,000 escaped the invasion (Peck; …show more content…
If Dunkirk never happened, World War II may not have had the same outcome. If Dunkirk never happened, Germany wcould have attacked an even bigger, more important city and ended up winning the war. When one thinks about it, the Battle of Dunkirk was actually a huge win for both sides. The British were never defeated, and Hitler technically did not lose the battle. In reality, Germany and the British both consider this neither a win, nor defeat, which made the British army mentally stronger from surviving the evacuation, causing them to believe in themselves and eventually gain enough strength over several months after the battle to eventually defeat Hitler and the other Axis powers.
Works Cited
Farley, Robert. “The Battle of Dunkirk: The Real Turning Point of World War II?”
NationalInterest.org. The National Interest, 2017. Web. 18 Oct. 2017.
Hanson, Victor. “Miracle At Dunkirk.” HooverInstitution.org. Board of Trustees of Leeland
Stanford Junior University, 2017. Web. 19 Oct. 2017.
Peck, Michael. “The Real Reason You Should See Dunkirk: Hitler Lost World War II There.”
NationalInterest.org. The National Interest, 2017. Web. 20 Oct. 2017.
Ricks, Thomas. “The Dunkirk Evacuation, and Why It Was A Near-Miracle for England and
Churchill.” ForeignPolicy.com. Penguin Press, 2017. Web. 25 Oct.
“In Stalingrad, in addition to its heavy losses, the German army also lost its formidable image of being invincible,” Document 8 reveals.” In fact, with the loss of Stalingrad, the German army began to lose battles all across the Eastern Front and in North Africa”(Document 8: Graphics). The men did not lose their lives in the Battle of Stalingrad did lose the image that had been built for themselves. The following loses after that battle prove that the German army was weakened and could no longer keep all of their word and the image Hitler had built up for them. Without pushing the soldiers to stay at Stalingrad, Hitler and the Germans could have salvaged the war and their reputations. Although the end of World War II was 2 ½ years after the Battle of Stalingrad, the result of the battle influence who won the war. Because the Germans lost at Stalingrad, they began to lose other battles and suffered questioning and disbelief of their previous reputation of being invisible. The biggest mistake Adolf Hitler made was how he conducted the Battle of
The Battle of Britain as a Turning Point in the Defeat of German in World War Two
In this essay I will explain the battle between Germany and Britain, discuss how important winning this battle was, what Britain had that the Germans did not have, and what could have happened if Britain would have lost. It is known cleverly as “the Battle of Britain”.
... control under allied empower, Hitler appeared to look nervous from the actions that had taken place. Hitler’s force couldn’t resist the cold of Russia of which they had pushed too far into for further enhancements. Hitler would soon learn an enduring lesson since the push he had made in Russia would eventually backfire on him. The deceptive strategy by the Soviets would work perfectly on the German force. For example, Stalin let Hitler’s force into Russia but for the better of the Allied union. He knew that Hitler’s army would suffer and die from the extensive cold and lack of nourishment in Russia. He would then play an offensive move by counter-attacking and pushing all the way back into Germany. The devious tactics played by the allied force surely was a significant lesson learned from the raid, which in the end made Hitler surrender to its “Fortress Europe.”
The battle of Stalingrad is argued to be one of the most significant strategizing battle for the Germans. If Germany had won Stalingrad there would have been no fight left for the Russians to have. Instead, Germany made a hasty decision to attack in order to prevent Russia from coming up with a strategy which put Germany at a disadvantage. By the end of Stalingrad the Russians had managed to push back the Germans and put them on the defensive. If Russia had lost in their battle against Nazi Germany the United States and Great Britain would have faced a much harsher fight against Nazi Germany. Some would even argue that it would have been next to impossible for America to win against Nazi
Evaluating the Success of Dunkirk There are many opinions on how successful Dunkirk was; one point of
World War II was one of the most important wars in history. It featured multiple countries at constant conflict with each other. There were several battles that occurred in this 12 year long war. An example of two of the battles would be the Battle of Britain in the European theater of war, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific theater of war. Only one of these wars saw victory, while the other caused great devastation to the American military.
One very basic factor in the Allies’ victory was the forming of the Allies themselves. Neither France nor Great Britain could have fought the Axis powers on their own, nor were the two nations on the best of terms at the time. However, they found a common enemy in Germany. Also, without help from the other Allied nations, it is more than likely that the USSR would not have survived the war.
The Allied powers won the war, putting an end to Hitler's dictatorship and the Holocaust. We study history to learn from it. People make mistakes and it is not only our job, but our responsibility to learn from them so no one makes those errors again. What we learn from the Holocaust is what happens when you forget your morals and blindly follow others. We learn about the horrible, tragic outcome of racism and discrimination.
Once actually forced to fight, Hitler still dominated and he could have very possibly won the war if not for that one fatal mistake he made by hesitating in his plans against the English. I think it is important that Lukacs makes sure to get this message across because some people choose to ignore this truth due to the devastating outcomes that would have resulted if Hitler succeeded. The major point presented by Lukacs concerning the difference between Hitler and Churchill has to do with nationalim versus patriotism. Lukacs describes Hitler as a nationalist and Churchill as a patriot. He describes Hitler as a man of ideas and Churchill as a of man principles, because Churchill's ideas changed throughout the war while Hitler tended to think that his ideas were principles.
Resnick p. 15. However, these events infuriated Hitler who refused to believe that the Germans had been defeated fairly on the battlefield.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Germans took an unrealistic approach in the decision making process for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943, two options were introduced. The realistic option, which was supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by fully utilizing the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and fighting, by a strategy of dynamic mobile defense that would cause great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic goal as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiast-optimistic option of having a major decisive battle against a large portion of the Russian armour in order to destroy them. He thought that the best suited place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. In fact, aerial photos taken by German airplanes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built dense and deep fortifications at the Kursk salient in order to counter an attack. Also, it was evident that many Russian tanks were moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic that was often used by the Germans would have to be changed.
Many questionable methods were used to defeat the opposing sides in the war, such as the 3-day bombing of Dresden, which resulted in numerous deaths, mass destruction, and a huge devastation amongst the citizens in the city during the attack. Details about such things are left out of textbooks, and as a result, some people believe that WWII was a flawless victory, and a thing to be celebrated. However, such is not the case. WWII was not a good war for America, and was filled with many
In the spring of 1940 Europe was enveloped in war. The German military machine had already conquered Poland, Denmark, and Norway. However, not content with northern and eastern expansion, Adolf Hitler wanted to control the western countries in Europe. Hitler had long been obsessed with attacking and controlling France. After their defeat in World War I, the German people, government, and military were humiliated by the enormous post war sanctions leveraged against them from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted to defeat and humiliate the French people in the same way that his country had to experience. For him, revenge was necessary. The German plan was to swing into France using a new tactic know as Blitzkrieg or “Lightning War”. Blitzkrieg used speed and surprise along with highly concentrated tank corps, supported by mechanized infantry and airplanes.
During the fall of 1944, the “Atlantic Wall” had diminished after the invasion of Normandy and the American and allied forces were making their way towards Germany. One of the offensives directed to counteract this; Adolf Hitler focused in on and was attacking the inadequately defended Ardennes front. Had this plan succeeded, through the capture of Antwerp, the Germans would have divided the American and British forces in the area, depriving the American Soldiers and allies of a seaport for resupply.