Dunkirk

[Lang]

John

I think you are correct except it was Rundstedt who stopped the advance for sound tactical reasons. At that stage of the war Hitler was still acting normally and not becoming involved in "minor" unit actions of divisional commanders.

Guderian and Rommel were a PR gift for the public with their dashing performance and I think Hitler would have looked upon them more kindly than Rundstedt their field commander.

Hitler showed sound management and did come to France to see what was going on and endorsed his expert commander Rundstedt's actions as he did for Goering's offer to fill the gap and continue the assault by air (much to the chagrin of the Luftwaffe command)

The use of the the term "Fuhrer Command" normally just indicated it came from the top level High Command not necessarily personally from Hitler (although endorsed by him). Later in the war as he became more unstable a Fuhrer Order was a personal direction of Hitler.

When the army got its act together the order went out to continue the assault but by that time the Dunkirk defenses had been organised and the fox escaped the trap.