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

of Britain’s southern coastline and navigational conditions, her defences,
ports and the proximity of airfields to these harbours. What was clear from
these early investigations, however, was that the difficulties of such an
operation were many indeed. And they were still just preliminary
preparations, not yet part of any formal planning – because both Hitler and
his commanders still hoped Britain would sue for peace.
As it happened, the chances of Britain doing the ‘reasonable thing’
seemed to have been given a boost at the end of June. On the 19th, von
Ribbentrop had told Count Ciano that Germany now wanted peace with
Britain and had alluded vaguely to contacts between London and Berlin
through Sweden. This referred to comments made by ‘Rab’ Butler, a junior
minister in the Foreign Office, to the Swedish envoy in London, Björn
Prytz. Butler had told Prytz during an off-the-cuff meeting at the FO, that if
reasonable conditions were offered, Britain would be open for talks.
Apparently, halfway through the conversation, Butler was called in to see
Halifax, who sent the message that ‘Common sense and not bravado would
dictate the British Government’s policy.’ This was Halifax still thinking
with the same detached logic he had used at the end of May – an argument
that had already been defeated and was, for the time being at any rate, a
non-starter. However, Prytz sent a cable about his conversation with Butler
back to Stockholm, from where it was then forwarded to the Germans by
the Swedish Foreign Minister.
Both Butler and Halifax had their knuckles rapped by Churchill and that
was pretty much the end of the matter as far as London was concerned.
However, for the Germans, it suggested the British were secretly hoping for
a peaceful settlement despite all the outward bluster to the contrary. Then, at
the end of June, Pope Pius XII proposed mediating between Britain and
Germany. Although Britain did not respond to the offer, it helped build a
groundswell of opinion in Germany and on the Continent that Britain was
about to seek terms – something that Hitler was all too eager to believe.
On 2 July, the Führer met with Goebbels to discuss his triumphant
return to Berlin and his plans for a speech to the Reichstag in which he
would make a peace offer to Britain. He told Goebbels he would return to
Berlin on the 6th and make his speech a week after that. In other words, his
own peace offer would be made nearly a month after he had told his
secretary the same thing. It was not true to say he had no plan – he did; it