WW2: The German invasion of France: The German Panzers were more amazing than you know…

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I was busy reading part of the memoirs of General Heinz Guderian, the father of German tank warfare. He had the nickname "Hurrying Heinz" because he was always on the move at the frontline, going and visiting his troops and observing up close what was going on.

As you know, Hitler stopped the German army from crushing the British at Dunkirk and it gave the (ungrateful) British a chance to escape.

The campaign which resulted in the defeat of France is known for it’s lightning fast speed. They defeated and crushed the French military in only 40 days despite the French being well armed and having modern tanks and even better tanks than the Germans. The French were NOT STUPID. The French actually were pretty well prepared.

I think I’ve written about what Field Marshal Keitel said about the real reason that Hitler stopped the Panzers from attacking the British at Dunkirk.

In Guderian’s memoirs he raises Dunkirk and other issues. The German tanks were stopped on multiple occasions. I don’t know exactly how many days the Wehrmacht was either slowed down or stopped outright by either OKW or by Hitler. But the German army actually was stopped for almost a week actually. At times Guderian and other commanders found ways to circumvent their orders and to still be able to fight forward.

But the point is that as lightning fast as the German Panzers and troops were, the fact is, if they had been left to themselves they might have smashed the French even faster. Furthermore, the Germans could EASILY have defeated and captured ALL THE BRITISH TROOPS in Dunkirk.

So those 40 days could have been 35 days or perhaps even less.

The Germans were chomping at the bit and the soldiers and commanders were pissed off when they were told to stop.

The bottom line is that the German army was BETTER than people realise. This is also true in Russia.

The Luftwaffe, and Goering were also responsible for slowing down the invasion of France. There were cities that the Wehrmacht could have captured quickly, which were left for the Luftwaffe, and the Luftwaffe then failed. Dunkirk was one such instance but I think there were some others.