Posted on 08/05/2016 5:54:57 AM PDT by C19fan
The first trailer for Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated Dunkirk has been released. The 56-second-long preview is shot in dull tones and focuses on the bleak, raw nature of the French coastline in 1940. A score which mimics an ever-quickening heartbeat ramps up the tension, reaching a climax as a boat packed full of allied troops recoil in fear at the sound of incoming German bombers flying above them.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That one on Heidrich looks interesting too.
What an ass Hitler was ( or was there another reason?)......he had the British, French and other armies pinned down at Dunkirk and gave them, for the most part, a pass. He had the ability to destroy much of it, and didn’t.
It did come back to haunt him (thankfully)
Yes, Hitler should have been less of an ass and killed everyone. /s
The last word of my last sentence explains my feelings on Hitler. Sounds like you think I was rooting for the cretin. What I gave was strictly a military observation
Not that they’re mutually exclusive, but I can’t wait to see Hacksaw Ridge.....
When your enemy turns out to be a racist genocidal lunatic, be grateful. It will lead him to make mistakes. Be ready to take advantage ...
Had he captured them that might have worked. But he sat on his hands. Relied on Goering to destroy British air power (he was THAT CLOSE when he stopped), then gave up and decided to open up another front against Stalin. Not a military geniius. Thankfully.
Many many military screw-ups by Der Fuhrer thank God. Dunkirk for one... The first invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa, started several weeks late which came back to bite the German Army in the fall. The following summer, the second Russian offensive Case Blue also started late and that contributed to the disaster at Stalingrad. And Hitler's refusal to withdraw from Stalingrad before the trap was sprung (cost the Wehrmacht over 200K troops and God knows how much materiel. Troops that we thankfully did not have to face in France or Italy). And refusing to release tank divisions from sitting in the Calais area when the Normandy invasion was going full bore.
And declaring war on the U.S. when he didn't have to. We were SO pist at the Japanese that I'll bet that if he had stayed out, we'd of said something like "Screw Europe, we've got our own enemy to face." and concentrated on Japan.
I read where DeGaulle was in conference with some other Free French people when an aide burst in, saying that Hitler had declared war on America. DeGaulle told the assembly, "We have won the war." and many thought he was crazy. Apparently he recognized America's industrial capacity and had a glimmer of what we would do with it.
Both of these are news to me. I might just go see them. Maybe get a hold of that Dad’s Army movie too.
After our violations of neutrality and eventual entrance in WWI, I’m sure Hitler knew it was a foregone conclusion that we’d be in the war.
It is all laid out in Liddell Hart’s book “The German Generals speak”, 1948. Very illuminating section of the book, one ignored by almost every historian as it does not validate the “Battle of Britain” narrative which most of us grew up with.
The fact was Hitler did not want to fight England. By not inflicting a humiliating defeat, he thought he was paving a way for a peace treaty. He made such an offer, both in speech and by two separate intermediaries in the summer of 1940. At least that is what the officers who were there at the time were told was the reason for the halt order and allowing the UK to withdraw their men.
Looked at in that light a lot of the German decisions in the July to October 1940 time frame make a lot more sense.
Yes, the Germans basically told Britain they could keep their Empire, they merely wanted an Empire of their own. In Hitler’s mind he couldn’t understand why Britain wouldn’t agree with that deal, especially since the Brits certainly didn’t have much love for the Soviets.
But once somebody turned Hitler down, he didn’t forgive. And he let the biggest Brit-hater, von Ribbentrop, have his ear.
Yes it was just a matter of time.
In April of 1941 the US Navy was actively escorting convoys as far west as Iceland and depth charging U-boats. We occupied Iceland in May or June of 1941, replacing the British who had occupied in in 1940.
On 31 October 1941, REUBEN JAMES was torpedoed by German submarine U-562. Her magazine exploded, and she sank quickly. 44 of the crew survived, and 115 died. It came out in Congressional testimony that The US navy was actively depth charging U-boats, there as an undercard Naval war at that point.
Given that there was not way the US would not have been able to find an incident to declare war on Germany in December 1941 or January 1942.
The Flying Tigers (Americans flying American planes for Nationalist China) were already fighting the Japanese for years at that point (while our government legally blocked Americans from fighting in Spain), and we had an embargo on Japan while arming Britain; we were already in the war.
Although Hitler distanced himself from Rudolf Hesse and his peace trip via Messerschmidt to Great Britain , I believe has was probably asked by Hitler to give the ultimate sacrifice for his fuhrer, and did so willingly. By then Churchill was not going to permit any negotiations and demanded unconditional surrender.
And we were actively bombing uboats on our side of the Atlantic to protect arms convoys to England. It was only a formality that we ‘weren’t’ at war.
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