The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

all France’s arms contracts in the USA should immediately be transferred to
Britain. That was something at least.
Meanwhile, those men of speed, Guderian and Rommel, had continued
their full-throttle hurtle through France. On 17 June, Rommel’s men
advanced a staggering 160 miles, while that same day Guderian reached the
Swiss border, sending a message back to OKW that he was in Pontarlier. A
reply came back: ‘Your signal based on an error. Assume you mean
Pontailler-sur-Saône.’ Guderian answered: ‘No error. Am myself in
Pontarlier on Swiss border.’
It was also the day the French asked for an armistice. Reynaud had
resigned and Pétain taken over, ordering his soldiers to lay down their arms.
Hitler, from his new HQ in Brûly-de-Pêche in southern Belgium, now flew
to Munich to meet with Mussolini. ‘Reply will be held until then,’ noted
Halder. ‘Nothing is known as yet about Britain’s reaction.’ In the meantime,
the German forces pushed on, Rommel reaching Cherbourg in the west, the
swastika rising over Strasbourg in the east. Halder busied himself preparing
for the peacetime organization of the army now that the war was all but
over; it would be reduced from 165 divisions to 120.
The Germans offered the armistice terms on 21 June and it was signed
the next day at Compiègne, in the very same railway carriage in which the
Germans had been forced to sign the surrender in 1918.
Britain now seemed terribly alone. Turkey, who had pledged to enter the
war on Britain’s side should Italy come in, had reneged on that promise. So
too had Egypt. Anti-British feeling was also growing in Iraq, so that British
interests in the Mediterranean and Middle East suddenly looked very shaky
indeed. Roosevelt and the United States were still a long way from entering
the war, and despite Spain’s claim of non-belligerency there was mounting
concern that she, too, would come in on the side of the Axis. At any rate,
Franco’s Spain was certainly sympathetic to Germany. This meant that the
entire coast from the Arctic Circle to the west coast of Africa was either
Nazi or pro-Nazi. Not even during the Napoleonic invasion threat had
Britain been confronted by such a wall of hostility. To make matters worse,
it looked very unlikely that Britain would be able to get her hands on the
all-important French Fleet, or on the American destroyers she so
desperately needed. For Britain, the future looked bleak indeed.
Neville Chamberlain had finally vacated No. 10, having moved next
door to No. 11 Downing Street instead. He was glad to still feel of use to