"The BEF and their French allies in Dunkirk owed their escape to an unlikely source: the bombastic Luftwaffe leader, Hermann Goering. Goering wanted the glory of destroying the trapped Allies for the Luftwaffe and persuaded Hitler to order the panzer divisions to halt. Without this error, the "Miracle of Dunkirk" - also known as "Operation Dynamo" - would likely have failed, and the Germans may have taken vast numbers of English and French prisoners, possibly ending British participation in the war."