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

An ashen and rather shell-shocked Chamberlain had walked stiffly from
the Commons amidst jeers and taunts of ‘Missed the bus!’, ‘Get out!’ and
‘Go, in the name of God, go!’, while another Tory rebel, Harold Macmillan,
began singing ‘Rule Britannia’ before being silenced by irate supporters of
the Prime Minister. A more sensitive man than his sometimes austere
persona suggested, Chamberlain had been profoundly humiliated by events.
‘Everybody was shocked,’ Joe Kennedy wrote in his diary the following
day. ‘The Prime Minister looked stunned and although he appeared to carry
it off, he looked to me like a definitely beaten man.’
In the lobby afterwards, Kennedy met Lady Astor, who told the
Ambassador that she thought Chamberlain would have to fall and that
Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, should take over. He then went to see the
Canadian press baron Lord Beaverbrook, to get his slant on the situation.
He too thought Chamberlain would go. The following morning, Kennedy
spoke with President Roosevelt on the telephone and heard the news that
Germany had just delivered an ultimatum to Holland. Later, at the
Admiralty, he saw Winston Churchill, and the Minister for Air, Sir Samuel
Hoare, and relayed the news about Germany. ‘A terrible world this is
getting to be,’ Churchill told him. ‘There really doesn’t seem to be much
hope anywhere, does there?’ added Hoare.
Despite the predictions given to Kennedy the previous evening, the 71-
year-old Prime Minister had woken early that Thursday morning, 9 May,
determined to fight his corner. The Government whips had busied
themselves trying to discover what concessions the Government would
have to make to win back the rebels’ support, while Chamberlain’s
Parliamentary Private Secretary invited leading back-benchers to No. 10 to
discuss grievances. Chamberlain even offered Leo Amery, the man who
more than anyone had landed the killer blow during the debate, a choice of
the Chancellorship of the Exchequer or Foreign Secretary, but the Prime
Minister’s assassin refused.
Yet Amery was not the only Tory rebel in no mood for either
concessions or olive branches; clearly the revolt had lost none of its
momentum after a night of reflection. It was also becoming apparent that a
consensus was emerging that a full cross-party coalition was needed – one
that included Labour and the Liberals too. Chamberlain hoped he might yet
lead this new administration but was conscious that neither Clement Attlee,