The menace
„…the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation, upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institution and our empire.”
Winston Churchill, 18. Juni, 1940
At this time the destiny of France and the British expedition army was sealed. The last troops were picked up from the beach of Dunkerque by any vessel imaginable and taken back to England. The material and innumerable wrecks of ships that had been sunk by the Luftwaffe was left behind on the French beach.
The Germans, particularly Hitler and Göring, had miscalculated. They had assumed that war with England would be out of question. Hitler, a quiet admirer of the British and their Empire, had a conception of the world where coexistence with England should be a reality. He had firmly taken into account that a British peace offer was imminent. Hitler expressed to Field Marshal von Rundstedt still on June 2: "Well, now that Great Britain is most likely ready to make peace, I will start to finish the Soviet Union once and for all". But they did not reckon with Churchills stubbornness and forcefulness who happened to rally his people around him with talks like this of June 18.
Hitler had to make up his mind and he did this in the belief that a fast success of the operation "Sea Lion" would not delay his actual mission, the destruction of the Soviet Union, too long. General Erhard Milch suggested already few days to Dunkerque to occupy the south of England with paratroopers. This idea was not absurd but would absolutely have had chances for success. England was never as weak as within these days. Its army was without any heavy weapons and with few small arms the Royal Air Force was terribly decimated. Intact and a dangerous opponent was still its navy. Admiral Raeder hammered this into his colleagues of the Wehrmacht continually. He did not take any success guarantee as long as the Luftwaffe would not have won the air sovereignty over England.
