Return from Dunkirk

[Klaus]

I agree with Jim. If it was foolish of Hitler to let 200.000 solders escape is an other story.

[DDLDSDB]

I understand what you mean about puctuation Jim. I will try to be a little more careful in the future. England would have been in dire straights if the men at Dubkirk had been captured. (she already was) If not for America entering the war,England would have been out of the picture and Hitler could have turned his complete focus on Soviet Russia. And as I stated,I agree Germany could not have invaded England at that time.I also don't beleive it was ever a real concideration in the first place. And for all those then and now, Germany was no threat to America. Even after Pearl Harbor,most Americans were against going to war. If not for FDR pushing the US. into it, Dunkirk would have put England on ice.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by DDLDSDB

...England would have been in dire straights if the men at Dubkirk had been captured. (she already was) If not for America entering the war,England would have been out of the picture and Hitler could have turned his complete focus on Soviet Russia. And as I stated,I agree Germany could not have invaded England at that time.I also don't beleive it was ever a real concideration in the first place. And for all those then and now, Germany was no threat to America. Even after Pearl Harbor,most Americans were against going to war. If not for FDR pushing the US. into it, Dunkirk would have put England on ice.

If the US had not entered the European War, I agree that Britain and Germany would have been in a stalemate and Hitler would have had a freer hand in Russia (though that would not have changed events in the key battles in the East, nor perhaps the outcome of the war, just the speed with which it would have happened and perhaps the location of the "Iron Curtain" further to the west). Whether Hitler was a threat or not is not the point. On December 8, 1941, when FDR addressed the joint session of Congress and reported the events of the previous day, he asked only for a declaration of war with Japan. He no doubt wanted one with Germany but knew Congress and the American public (I agree with you on that) did not want it. Hitler made the decision for FDR by declaring war on the 11th of December. Even then, some people opposed responding, but the vote for reciprocation by Congress was overwhelmingly positive. And US public opinion, after Hitler declared war, became quickly in favor of entering the European conflict. Americans did not take kindly to Herr Hitler's slap in the face, as it were. At that point, threat meant nothing. After all, what threat was Japan to the US before FDR provoked her into attacking? She was the same threat as Germany was, an economic one. If Asia becomes dominated by Japan, and Europe by Germany, what's left for US? The horribly poor neighbors to her south? Not a big enough market. Virtually all wars are economic in nature with a thinly applied veneer of ideology. Add to all that is the observation of how Germany benefitted economically from the preparations for war, and the Great Depression in which the US was still mired in the early 1940's, and maybe FDR saw war as a way to speed economic recovery at home. But threat? The US had oceans on two sides and the idea that Hitler would land troops in Mexico and invade from the south, while useful as a propaganda tool, was only that, propaganda.

If anyone cares to discuss this subject further please start a new thread on that topic. This thread was simply about Dunkirk.