Why did Hitler not massacre the 400 thousand allied soldiers stuck at Dunkirk?

[Takes Two To Tango]

I never saw the film Dunkirk by Nolan, but i was watching my favorite documentary on WWII and it made me wonder why Hitler held back in mowing these soldiers down. They were sitting ducks.

I believe it's one of his biggest mistakes in the war among other things he did wrong.

Why do you think he spared them?

Here's a timestamp of this event on the documentary.

Check it out.

Click it on the YouTube link in one of these two videos.

 

[Spounman]

Dunkirk had some bad reviews but I liked the movie. I don't know why Hitler spared them, maybe it all was happening too fast.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Several factors, but he was fighting wars on several fronts and was stretching himself thin.

 

[Zer]

General Hans Jeschonnek overheard Hitler explaining his halt before Dunkirk: "The Führer wants to spare the British a humiliating defeat." Hitler later explained to a close friend, "The blood of every single Englishman is too valuable to shed. Our two peoples belong together racially and traditionally. That is and always has been my aim, even if our generals can't grasp it."

Battle of Dunkirk - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Good guy Hitler taking care of his British brös

 

[William Huggins]

Run out of Meth (joke) more likely men and panzers needed a rest... Too much meth...

Didn't want to humiliate the British anymore than had already happened.... Hoping to use this a bargaining for peace talks.

Goring said the Luftwaffe could do it on its own....

There's many possibilities..... nobody really knows...

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

He was half cocked on meth 24/7, so anytime he wasn't busy screaming at crowds or goose stepping in front of the mirror was probably painfully bland.
Like, if you caught him on a regular Tuesday morning, hair not combed in his bathrobe, he would probably go on and on about being vegan, or how he wanted to get back into painting full time once all this blitzkrieg work stuff calmed down, and you'd likely leave feeling a bit unimpressed.

 

[Adamant]

Dunkirk the movie was pretty boring.

 

[William Huggins]

Several factors, but he was fighting wars on several fronts and was stretching himself thin.

Dunkirk May 26 and June 4, 1940

Operation Barbarossa June 22, 1941

That wasn't till a year later......

Even if you take the war of north Africa, that didn't kick off till 6 days after the evacuation of Dunkirk had completed......

 

[Tone C]

Unrelated but I used to live alongside one of the Dunkirk Little Ships that were used to evacuate the soldiers.

 

[mozfonky]

Good guy Hitler taking care of his British brös

if that's true, odd. No one was sparing them when they were down. The soviets particularly were said to have raped everything from 8-80 when germany fell. Probably our guys and the brits did things similar but I hadn't heard.

 

[William Huggins]

Good guy Hitler taking care of his British brös

Probably the closest..... I think he was hoping to use it as peace negotiations.......

 

[mozfonky]

He was half cocked on meth 24/7, so anytime he wasn't busy screaming at crowds or goose stepping in front of the mirror was probably painfully bland.
Like, if you caught him on a regular Tuesday morning, hair not combed in his bathrobe, he would probably go on and on about being vegan, or how he wanted to get back into painting full time once all this blitzkrieg work stuff calmed down, and you'd likely leave feeling a bit unimpressed.

One thing for sure, drugs always makes the insane even more insane. Jim Jones had some good points too but the drugs drove him off the deep end. Drugs just makes crazy, crazier.

 

[William Huggins]

He was half cocked on meth 24/7, so anytime he wasn't busy screaming at crowds or goose stepping in front of the mirror was probably painfully bland.
Like, if you caught him on a regular Tuesday morning, hair not combed in his bathrobe, he would probably go on and on about being vegan, or how he wanted to get back into painting full time once all this blitzkrieg work stuff calmed down, and you'd likely leave feeling a bit unimpressed.

It wasn't till 1941 onwards that he was the full on party crack mode Hitler.... It's all pretty well documented by his "doctor"...... He was definitely on stuff like meth before but it wasn't till after the penny dropped in late 1941 that Germany had fucked up and couldn't win this war that he went all out....

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

I find it weird a guy who gave orders to the final solution and ruthless killing of millions of Jews in a brutal way, would all of a sudden have mercy for these soldiers. Doesn't match up with this MO, his character.

The guy just simply had a brain fart and fucked up and that probably one of the major factors that cost him of winning the war and also invading a vast country like Soviet Union/Russia. There is no way you can occupy it even if you won.

 

[europe1]

One simple point would be that he never expected the British to be able to evacuate so quickly.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

One thing for sure, drugs always makes the insane even more insane. Jim Jones had some good points too but the drugs drove him off the deep end. Drugs just makes crazy, crazier.

For sure, but with Jim Jones he at least knew how to play to his gimmick to give it a degree of believability, like the ric flair of the mass suicide circuit.
Hitler was the ultimate warrior of genocide, just absolutely embraced the insanity without a hint of restraint.
"everybahdy get on ze bus, yah!?!? ve vil all need 2 pairs of bootz, if you are vith me, everyone on 3, when I say sig, you say Heil! Sig! (Heil) Sig! (Heil!)

I'll never get how he got as far as he did, maybe he was saying some epic shit but when you hear or watch him he seemed like an edgelord with a grating voice and that shitty fucking mustache

 

[William Huggins]

if that's true, odd. No one was sparing them when they were down. The soviets particularly were said to have raped everything from 8-80 when germany fell. Probably our guys and the brits did things similar but I hadn't heard.

Soviets got there first.... Basically, vast majority of killing was done on the Eastern front..... Just look at the casualty rates in the European theatre........ It was a blood bath 2 Soviet soldiers per 1 German soldier.

 

[avenue94]

Several factors, but he was fighting wars on several fronts and was stretching himself thin.

He was fighting a war on one main front at this time.

Why do you think he spared them?

The Germans were at the edge of their supply ranges, urban conflict sucks for attackers, and Germany's performance against the Royal Navy was terrible at this point in the war (aka dealing wih naval support for the expeditionary force)

Goring said the Luftwaffe could do it on its own....

Goring said a lot of things. Their performance during the Dunkirk evacuation was abysmal, and they had no ability to deal with capital ships.

I find it weird a guy who gave orders to the final solution and ruthless killing of millions of Jews in a brutal way, would all of a sudden have mercy for these soldiers. Doesn't match up with this MO, his character.

It wasn't this but Hitler had a soft spot of sorts for he UK. Bit of an Anglophile

The guy just simply had a brain fart and fucked up and that probably one of the major factors that cost him of winning the war and also invading a vast country like Soviet Union/Russia. There is no way you can occupy it even if you won.

The more likely explanation is that the guy with no government experience and no military leadership experience was pretty bad at both jobs and well in over his head.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Dunkirk the movie was pretty boring.

Nolan peaked with TDK and Prestige, imo. Everything since has been either utterly forgettable (dunkirk) or had such a complex concept (tenet was so fucking dumb) that he can't convey it with visuals or even simple dialogue, there will have to be a 20 min segment with characters explaining to each other how everything works so the audience won't be completely lost.
It's like the opposite of "Show, don't tell"

 

[mozfonky]

For sure, but with Jim Jones he at least knew how to play to his gimmick to give it a degree of believability, like the ric flair of the mass suicide circuit.
Hitler was the ultimate warrior of genocide, just absolutely embraced the insanity without a hint of restraint.
"everybahdy get on ze bus, yah!?!? ve vil all need 2 pairs of bootz, if you are vith me, everyone on 3, when I say sig, you say Heil! Sig! (Heil) Sig! (Heil!)

I'll never get how he got as far as he did, maybe he was saying some epic shit but when you hear or watch him he seemed like an edgelord with a grating voice and that shitty fucking mustache

People under duress of some sort or with some real sort of lack can be easy to manipulate. It's no coincidence that Jim Jones' followers were mostly black and marginalized. It's sad that he took advantage fo that but he did. Still, it's just crazy the lengths they followed that crazy fucker. People say we can all be brainwashed and we probably could but I never understood the way people just follow things the way they do.

As far as Hitler/Germany, they were in bad shape after the WW1 humiliation and he gave them what they wanted to hear. Also, German culture is pretty rule bound in the same way the Japanese culture is/was. Both are by the book types of cultures to an extreme so that's one reason they followed him. I've also read odd theories that Jung predicted WW2 based off analysis with young german patients and suggested the their old God, Odin was reawakening, interesting stuff. He even said something akin to Hitler being possessed.