Hitler’s Panzer divisions moved almost at will against the allies. The fire power of the allies, their communications, their coordination, and their will to fight, were slowly being dissipated with each new thrust of the Germans. The roar of tanks, the sickening scream of Stukas, and above all, the smell of death on the field of Flanders, brought disaster to the minds of every man in the allied forces. Disaster in the minds of the fighting men meant disaster to the army and to the allied cause.
In England, in what was left of France, in every part of the allied world, word came of the impending disaster. Over a million men, the cream of the allied forces in Europe, were being smashed into bits in the fields of Flanders, and not a thing in the allied arsenal could prevent it.
The Royal Navy, mightiest in the world, was powerless to give aid. The RAF was practically non-existent, battered to pieces by the Luftwaffe. Reinforcements, if they existed, could only wade into the water of the channel and look toward France. Never had a nation, never had a cause, found a greater challenge than this. In two days there would be no allied army in Europe. In two days the allied cause would be but a chapter in history.
The Commander of the German armies watched the allies start to fold and gave the order, “Seize Dunkirk, destroy the enemy forces and prepare to invade England!”
General Guderian, Commander of the German armor, gave the order, and the Panzer division rolled toward Dunkirk. These were the same Panzer divisions that had annihilated the Polish armies in less than six weeks. Now Seip Dietrich and his Adolph Hitler division led the lunge for the coast. Two days and the ring of steel would be closed. The allied army would be no more. The great German victories in Poland would be repeated and increased in magnitude, but now in France.
The orders were given, the Wehramacht was rolling. The allied army was counting its last hours and there was no help. In all the world there was no help.
Adolph Hitler, at his headquarters, stalked back and forth and rubbed his hands, shouting with glee. He alternately smirked or shook with laughter. Victory was his. England, hated England, was bending her knee, bending her knee to Adolph Hitler. Adolph Hitler was “God!”
Guderian’s Corps roared west. Seip Dietrich’s division tore through the wavering defense line of the allies. General Rundsted, commander of all the German armies, subordinate only to Hitler, felt the joy of victory well won. Rundsted watched his dictator and thought his dictator was “God.”
One moment Hitler’s face was flushed with victory. The next moment, it was suddenly, unexplainably, contorted, either with fear or unbridled ecstasy. Runsted saw the Fuhrer’s eyes glaze over. He heard his shrill shriek of hysteria, and his unbelievable words, though barely discernible, “Stop the army! Stop the army! Leave Dunkirk to the Luffwaffe!”
Runsted jumped to Hitler’s side. “But my Fuhrer, Dunkirk is yours in only a few hours.” He pleaded, “Let us go on.”
“Stop the army. Leave Dunkirk to the Luftwaffe,” was the only answer.
The order came to Guderian, “Cease your advance at the Aa Canal. Reorganize and prepare to advance on order.”
Seip Dietrich read the order and like Rommel, later in Africa, tore up the paper and moved across the Aa. But his was only one division. Later, almost without opposition, the advance units of his division reached the coast above Dunkirk. There, Seip Dietrich watched as the Luftwaffe failed to destroy the allied army or even to stop the armada of small boats from England from rescuing the remnants of the allied army from the shores of France. With tears of frustration in his eye, he ordered his tanks to fire on destroyers of the British Navy.
Germany, not England, lost the battle of Dunkirk. The battles for France and Flanders were the great victories for Germany. But the battle for Dunkirk was lost, and with it, a war. And, the Germans lost the great battle of the war, not on the battlefields of Dunkirk, but rather on the banks of the As Canal where no shots were fired and in the mind of Das Fuhrer, hundreds of miles from the battle, at the German supreme headquarters in Berlin.
600,000 British soldiers escaped from Dunkirk. Those 600,000 soldiers could and would have been cut off at Dunkirk, but for two days of respite. Those men escaped to form a British defense army, and later the backbone of the allied invasions force because Hitler, for no earthly reason, ordered the German army to stop on the Aa Canal.
Against the pleading of Rundsted and against the better judgment of every officer of any rank in the Garman army, Adolph Hitler ordered the halt. He had no reason to issue such an order, but – he did. He alone could prevent the destruction of the British Army, yet he, who hated England most, spared England.
To me, perhaps to many, the halting of the German armies on the Aa Canal is a greater miracle than the destruction of the city of Ai by Joshua in Biblical times. Even the names are similar. God told Joshua what to do. Joshua did as he was told. God forced Hitler to do as God willed, and gave victory to those who fought for God. The difference in time of a few thousand years is not a barrier to God.
In the Old Testament, Nebuchadnezzar thought of himself as “God.” In the language of King James perhaps, no, not perhaps, but in fact, Hitler thought he was “God.”
O Hitler, thy kingdom will depart from thee, and they armies shall not gain victory; And great fear entered the heart of Hitler and he knew not which way to turn; his countenance was like unto a golden idol, half formed by ist maker; His hands shook, and his reason parted, and when he spoke, his voice was shrill like the voice of a small child; and his orders were without reason.
The language bridges the gap of time and leaves the believer with sure knowledge that God still influences decisions and actions in favor of the righteous as He did in the days of Joshua and Nebuchadnezzar.
Even the historical reader with little faith can see the influence of an “Outside Force” in this, the Great Battle, the Decisive Battle of World War II.
Harold Dye
June 1958
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