battle of Britan
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The fall of France left Britain in a very precarious spot. Her army was defeated and virtually disarmed. France, her only ally, was out of the game entirely. The apparently invincible Germans were obviously preparing to invade. If the appeasers had still been in office, Britain certainly would have listened to what Hitler had to offer as a settlement, even if it meant a humiliating peace.
But on May 10, 1940--coincidentally, the very day of the German offensive in the west-- Neville Chamberlain had finally stepped aside and made way for a different sort of Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Churchill took office because, by this time, the cabinet recognized that Britain was irrevocably at war, and it needed a war leader. Churchill, whose anti-Nazi sentiments throughout the 1930s had made him very unpopular with his own Conservative Party leadership, would now inspire more confidence in the nation's commitment to the war. In the event, he became one of the most important of all World War II political leaders.
After France fell, Hitler made some public speeches with favorable references to Britain, hoping that Churchill would initiate a dialogue that might lead to peace--a peace that would recognize Germany's dominant position, of course...