Dr. Joseph Goebbels, diary, 28 February 1945

With France defeated, the war in Europe effectively came to a close. Further hostilities were pointless and unjustified. The British, having been literally driven into the sea (and not for the last time, either), stood alone in a hopeless position. Their only potential ally of any military value was the United States. But the overwhelming majority of the American people and members of Congress were steadfastly opposed to intervention, despite all the blandishments of Roosevelt. No, the Yanks would not be coming any time soon. And a 20th Century repeat of William the Conqueror’s successful invasion of England seemed imminent. Adolf Hitler had something entirely different in mind, however.

Since his composition of Mein Kampf, back in 1924, he was determined to reach an accord with the British. He believed their Empire was essential to world stability, and that its racially related Aryan people were Germany’s natural allies. The New World Order he envisioned was a United States of Europe led by the Reich on the Continent as far as the Ukraine, after the destruction of Soviet Communism. The rest of the globe would be divided between Japan in the Far East; the U.S.A. throughout all the Americas, with Great Britain the dominant colonial power on the seas, and in Africa and India.

In the private diary of Henry Wallace, F.D.R.’s openly Communist vice president, we read of a May 1942, Cabinet meeting, in which the U.S. Secretary of State recorded that "the destruction of the British Empire is the President’s aim, beginning with India." Compare F.D.R.’s intentions, stated during the war, when the British people looked most of all to America for help, with the Fuehrer’s desire to preserve their Empire. Roosevelt knew that Churchill made money as an art forger, faking the paintings of an obscure, safely dead, post-impressionist French artist (Charles Mauren), and used the scandal to intimidate the British Prime Minister. In sharp contrast, Hitler once joked that after the war he would allow Churchill to continue painting. All the 1930s and half of the Second World War were to pass before the Fuehrer gave up his dream of Anglo-German friendship.

But in the summer of 1940, with his armies triumphant on the Continent, he was anxious to forge a permanent peace, if not an alliance with the British. "I can see no further use for the continuation of this conflict," he told them in a public radio address. "Let us think of the unbearable hardships our women and children in both lands will have to endure, if we allow this senseless war to go on. I am speaking now, not as a beaten man begging for peace, but as the leader of a victorious armed forces asking for reason." He made no claims whatsoever on the Empire; he demanded no terms of surrender, because England’s defeat did not fit into his vision of a United States of Europe, of which Britain was a part. Instead, he presented the most generous offers of cooperation ever made by a conqueror to enemies humiliated on the field of battle.

In addition to renouncing military operations against Great Britain, the Fuehrer offered to immediately withdraw his armies from all occupied territories, except for the German city of Danzig, and presented 25 Wehrmacht divisions at England’s disposal against all her enemies. Hitler was joined by the King of neutral Sweden, Pope Pius XII and Britain’s own Queen Elizabeth in calling upon Churchill to end the war. Average citizens were allowed to learn virtually nothing of Hitler’s unprecedented offer, however. Even so, after the fall of France, newspaper polls revealed that more than 50% of the British people did not want their leaders to continue the war. Their pro-peace stance was virtually reflected by half of the cabinet members, who urged acceptance of Hitler’s offer. Churchill succeeded in keeping all the details of this magnanimous proposal from both the masses and his own government. Had those details been made known, he realized, the majority would have weighed against him.

He was also having trouble plugging public leaks of Hitler’s peace-plans. On July 20, 1940, a prominent member of the British aristocracy, Lord Lothian, asked the Germans directly for a copy of their terms. Through wiretaps, Churchill learned of Lord Lothian’s inquiry, and ordered him to cease all communication with the Reich authorities at once. He subsequently informed the British ambassador that he was to suspend any dialogue with Berlin representatives, who were then desperately trying to make Hitler’s proposals known and understood by the government in London. Through his powers as Prime Minister, only Churchill and his immediate entourage knew the extent of the Fuehrer’s magnanimous offer, and they were not about to make that generosity public.

The same day he ordered the British ambassador to refrain from all contact with the Germans, Churchill sent for the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Charles Portel, asking him how soon he could launch a large-scale terror-raid on Berlin. Portel replied that since the Luftwaffe had so far confined its attacks to military targets, the Royal Air Force could not legally bomb the enemy capital, since both England and Germany were signature-bound by international law. Shortly before their meeting, Churchill told the American ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy, that he wanted Hitler to start the bombing of British civilian centers, as a means of frustrating the peace movement gathering momentum among public and government alike.

On August 24, his wish was granted, when the pilot of a single Heinkel HE-111 overshot his target to drop two or three bombs which exploded just inside London’s eastern city limits. No deaths or injuries resulted, and property damage was extremely slight. Luftwaffe notification of the error was sent to the International Red Cross, and passed through neutral Switzerland on to the British authorities. The next day, Churchill did something meriting dismissal and even criminal prosecution by his own government. Without notifying Parliament, the Cabinet or even Bomber Command, he ordered 100 Wellington and Whitney medium-bombers to attack Berlin. Many of the intruders were shot down, but not before they had killed a few non-combatant men, women and children. No military installations suffered damage. Hitler forbade the Luftwaffe from retaliating.

Over the next ten days, the R.A.F. returned to the Reich capital in seven raids, all alike, in that residential areas were always targeted. The German civilian death toll began to rise. Still, the Fuehrer refrained from counterattacking, as his diplomatic operatives frantically strove to arrive at some kind of peaceful settlement or fundamental agreement with their British counterparts. But they had been ordered by the Prime Minister to stop their ears against all appeals to reason. Under mounting political pressure from the German people demanding revenge for the murder of innocent civilians, Hitler reluctantly ordered the first Luftwaffe raid on London.

It was no sortie by 100 or so aging medium-bombers, but the first mass-raid in history by state-of-the-art Junkers-88s, Dornier-17s, and Heinkel-111s. The British capital erupted in a fire-storm. Churchill was over-joyed, while newsreels throughout England and the outside world dramatized heaps of dead civilians for millions of movie-goers, who were never shown images of the hundreds of Berlin’s dead civilians earlier massacred by Churchill, responsible for the mutual slaughter. He had set in motion the bombing of civilians, a modern form of savagery whose legacy was the so-called "carpet-bombing" of North Viet Nam during the 1970s, and American air attacks on unarmed Serbian passenger trains filled with civilians, in 1999.

Churchill’s terror-attacks against non-combatants convinced Hitler that carrot-and-stick diplomacy was the only method left to him. Perhaps bombing would bring the British to the conference table, if not their senses. Despite plans for "Operation Sealion" drawn up by the Kriegsmarine and Army, he never seriously entertained invading England, because he did not believe that was needed to end the war. Besides, even now, he still harbored hopes of future Anglo-German reconciliation, and forced occupation would forever make such a future impossible.

Through mid-September, the Luftwaffe was at a distinct disadvantage in its attempt to wrest air supremacy over England. Ultra technicians accurately relayed the Germans’ target destinations, course, number and disposition of aircraft, hour of arrival - all the information needed far in advance to consistently deprive the enemy’s element of surprise. Moreover, the Supermarine Spitfire was at least the equal of the Messerschmitt ME-109, whose combat time was limited by fuel considerations, something that did not concern R.A.F. pilots, who could additionally parachute to safety, and do battle again in another warplane. The Luftwaffe was less fortunate; flyers bailing out over England never returned.

German losses were so high by mid-September that Hitler gladly called off all preparations for "Operation Sealion", which, in any case, never had his sympathy. But England suffered grievously in the previous weeks. Its infrastructure was shattered, factories blasted, the R.A.F. down to a few hundred surviving pilots and fewer serviceable aircraft. Although they had apparently staved off invasion of their country, the British faced starvation rationing and increasing isolation. The Fuehrer was under pressure himself. He was aware that time was rapidly running out on his non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, which was busily engaged in building up its military.

Germany had to be ready for a life-or-death confrontation in the spring. Hitler knew that the struggle against Britain, a sea power, must be entrusted to the Kriegsmarine. Accordingly, he ordered submarine production increased. He believed that England could be effectively contained by sealing her off from all outside support, something his naval forces should be able to accomplish. Thus placing his confidence in Germany’s matchless sailors and ships, the Fuehrer turned his attention to the East. But before he could begin there, another continent drew his attention.

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