Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "The Dunkirk Halt Order: An Alternative Hypothesis" video.
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The Germans had advanced beyond their widest dreams. The panzers were supplied by slow horses behind, unable to keep up supplies. They had overstretched their supply lines. Rommel's Panzer column had been stopped by the British at Arras, using the new Matilda 2 tank, which the German standard anti-tank guns could not knock out. Rommel stated that he thought he had been hit by a force three times the size.
German crews were tired. The truck drivers supporting the tanks were put on speed pills to keep them awake. They lacked sleep, fuel, ammunition, water, food, and maintenance of the vehicles (vehicles then were not like they are today).
In front of them were the British, and French, consolidating at Dunkirk, with the new small, nibble and heavily armoured Matilda 2 tank, which could knock out any German tank, but they could not knock it out unless they levelled an AA gun firing a solid shell. A gun useless in Dunkirk's streets. Added to this, the terrain south of Dunkirk was soft and marshy, not tank country. The fast moving panzers, now pretty well static, were now ineffective in a war of attrition. A form of fighting the Germans were not used to. Faced with this situation they had no option but to stop, consolidate, or be mauled. They stopped for only 24 hours.
Hitler issued Directive 13, which stated, to annihilate the forces inside the Dunkirk pocket. Aided by the Luftwaffe, the German troops and tanks continued the fight. A battle ensued called the Battle of Dunkirk. The British won the battle in the air and on the ground.
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