WHAT IF. . .
Nazi victory over the United Kingdom would have had a profound impact on the course of WWII
In the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany launched its devastating campaign into Western Europe. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all fell in quick succession. German forces also developed plans for Operation Sea Lion – an invasion of the British Isles. For a short while, the future of Britain, and of the Allied war effort at large, was on a knife-edge. Had Britain surrendered, or been occupied, the consequences would have been enormous.
How strong was the political and public support for making peace with Adolf Hitler during 1939-40?
During the 1930s, the appeasement of Hitler enjoyed extensive public support in Britain. However, following the Nazi invasion of the Czechoslovak rump state in March 1939, and then Poland in September, the British public generally recognised that Germany could only be stopped by force and began to face the grim prospect of another European war.
This attitude was badly shaken by the rapid German advances and the impending defeat of France in May 1940. At that point, Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax urged Britain to sue for peace with Germany, using the still-neutral Mussolini as an intermediary. But Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to fight on. Through some shrewd politicking, and the support of both Labour and his predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, Churchill emerged triumphant.
Churchill’s success in Whitehall was matched by progress in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the harbour and beaches at Dunkirk. Taken together, this stiffened the British public’s determination to fight. Had Halifax’s peace proposal been pursued, it is likely it would only have had a small minority of the public behind it.
Is there anything that could have shifted opinion towards an Anglo-German peace treaty?
Britain’s engagement with the affairs of mainland Europe has always been defined by its geography. As an island, the risk of invasion is considerably lower. While a Nazi invasion of the British Isles remained a distant possibility,the likelihood of surrender was correspondingly slim. However, had military developments made invasion more likely, the appetite for a negotiated exit from hostilities may have grown exponentially in Britain.
The most critical of these developments would have been any serious blow to the Royal Navy, as this offered the principal line of defence against invasion. Other possibilities, such as the failure
