In 1940 when the BEF was being driven back accross France by the German army it seem like every thing was going well for Hitler. Then When the British and French Armies was on the beaches of Dunkirk Hitler suddenly and inexplicably told his panzers to stop. Why did he do this?
The official story is that Goering told hitler that the Luftwaffe could wipe out the BEF with out the help of the forces on the ground. If this is the case then it failed miserably with almost all the men on the beach getting off.
Another theory is this. If you capture 300,000+ men what are you going to do with them? 300,000 is alot of people and they would require feeding aswell so surely it was not economically viable to take the whole British army prisoner.
And finally (and this is the theory I like best). In 1940 Hitler still thought that he could make a negotiated peace with Britain. After all Britain had a huge Empire that Hitler greatly admired and the last thing he really wanted was to be at war with England as his main aim was to conquer Russia.
So. What do you people think?