Yet without the initial German decision to hold back from launching an armored assault on the beachhead, the Second World War might have taken a very different course. The battered British and French troops would have been hard-pressed to turn back any such attack. read more
The British army was in full retreat, but suddenly German tanks were halted—twice. Hitler later said he gave Churchill ‘a sporting chance’ of survival. Churchill wasn’t interested. read more
Hitler's refusal to finish off the Allies at Dunkirk was catastrophic. Getty. On 20 May 1940 Hitler's tanks reached the Channel coast near Noyelles-sur-Mer. Within less than two weeks they had thus achieved what the German army had failed to do in four years in 1914-18. read more