re: History Thread, Not WW2 Related: What is Britian's single greatest victory?

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Exactly. Two things made that possible..

1. Goering being an idiot can claiming his Luftwaffe could destroy the remnants of the BEF by itself.

and

2. Hitler thinking that by showing mercy to the BEF and ordering his forces to halt, the British would be more apt to come to the table to discuss peace terms.

Both proved to be woefully incorrect. The reality of the situation though is the Germans had three full armies (6th, 18th, and 4th) along with Panzergruppe Hoth (basically a Panzer Corps) surrounding the perimeter of Dunkirk. The British had the shattered remnants of 3 corps and the disorganized and defeated remnants of the French 1st Army. Had Hitler allowed them to attack, it would have been a slaughter.

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Hitler was not the only person in the German high command who wanted to stop the panzers. Von Rundstedt, Guderian's superior, also advocated stopping the panzers. And the reason was that despite the speed of the victory the panzer formations had taken the brunt of the German casualties, especially during the crossing of the Meuse. Von Rundstedt was therefore concerned that his panzer armies would not be ready to complete the conquest of France after the elimination of the Dunkirk pocket. Plus there were some rational geographic reasons for concerns about using the panzers, notably the presence of several canals that would have to be crossed in the face of significant enemy fire. This would have further eroded the combat power of the panzer divisions.

That's not to say that it was still the wrong decision. It probably was. But it wasn't solely based on the notion that Hitler hoped the English would surrender if shown mercy. There isn't a whole lot of documentary evidence for that argument.

Back on topic, it's the defeat of the Spanish Armada.