Inwardly Halifax congratulated him on his use of typical British understatement to describe the catastrophic outcome of the war so far. He thought he detected a slightly more buoyant Churchill.
“However,” Churchill continued, “you all know my sincere and absolute distrust of Herr Hitler. The man is pure evil, and his word means nothing. That alone tells me to treat this matter with extreme caution.”
Halifax immediately interpreted this to mean that Churchill once again was going to veto any peace talks. He was about to interrupt when Churchill continued.
“Nevertheless, the manner in which this matter has been put to us, perhaps gives some cause for cautious optimism.”
He continued, “Firstly, the initiative has come from the German side, not ourselves. Could this mean they are as exhausted as we are? It is possible, and we should not discount this, even though I personally have my doubts it is the case.
Secondly, the interventions of the Portuguese, Swiss and American ambassadors are unusual. We must not treat them in a cavalier fashion and ignore their endorsements.
Finally, if Lord Halifax is correct in his assessment that the American President is insisting on our country at least being prepared to negotiate, we cannot be seen to dismiss the idea.
I understand the urgency of the situation and that an answer is required. There is much to think about. I suggest we suspend this meeting for one hour to give each of us time to review what we have learnt here, and consider all our options.”
All agreed. It was a momentous decision they were facing, it really required days or weeks of analysis, discussions, questions and answers.
Instead they had one hour!
Back in his office Halifax replayed the meeting in his mind. He was sure everything had gone well. Better than he had expected. He thought that even the old war horse Churchill, could not oppose this particular peace initiative. If he did, he would almost certainly lose the support of the War Cabinet.
Halifax had already resolved that if Churchill did not agree with the proposal, and coerced the war Cabinet to follow his lead, he would take the matter further. He had no doubt that the rest of the British Government would like peace.
One hour later, back in the War Rooms, there seemed to a touch of excitement in the atmosphere. The Prime Minister asked for questions and comment. There were many, and these were dealt with as quickly as possible.
To Halifax’s immense relief the consensus was to agree to meet with the German delegation on the proposed date in Lisbon. There were certain security considerations to be addressed, but in principle, everything else raised in the envoys notes was accepted.
There must be no pre-conditions by either side.
In anticipation of a positive outcome at the War Cabinet meeting, Halifax had already formulated his replies to the foreign governments involved. It only needed the go-ahead from the Churchill to release them. No time would be wasted!
The Prime Minister formally addressed the Foreign Secretary. “Lord Halifax, it is the decision of this esteemed Council that you inform the ambassadors of Portugal, Switzerland and the United States that His Majesty’s Government has no objection to attending the proposed meeting in Lisbon on the terms as outlined, subject only to the minor details we have discussed here.”
As always, Churchill could not resist an opportunity for a little oratory. He looked at his colleagues. The speech was short.
“Gentlemen, let us not succumb to unjustified optimism at this particular moment in time. We are in the middle of a war against unspeakable tyranny. Hitler wishes to enslave the British people. Indeed he wants to bend the whole world to his evil will.
Every time I hear that man’s name I wish I had the power to change history. If only I could go back in time to the day in the Great War when one of our own soldiers had Herr Hitler in his sights, and didn’t fire. Oh what trouble the world would have been saved.”
Churchill was referring the case of Private Henry Tandey, Britain’s most decorated soldier of the Great War. He took part in an attack on German trenches in 1918 and his orders were to take no prisoners. However, when a wounded enemy soldier appeared before him, Private Tandey found he could not shoot, and he let the man go. The enemy soldier was Adolf Hitler.
“Things have not gone well for us and the current military situation is bleak. However, I have no doubt that our resolute island race will fight on, and triumph in the end. Let us not drop our guard in the coming days.”
He looked at Halifax and added, “If there is one single confirmed attack by a German submarine or aircraft on a British ship or our land over the next few days, the talks are finished. No ifs or buts!”
He continued his speech. “We will sincerely hope for the best outcome from these upcoming talks, while at the same time continue to prepare for the worst.
The British people would welcome an honourable peace. But, if we lead them into slavery through a lack of vigilance or lack of firm leadership on our part, we will never be forgiven.
History will not be kind to us.”
It had been hectic. Meeting after meeting of the War Cabinet, thrashing through all conceivable scenarios. Briefings from various ‘specialists’ who did not know, and could not be told, the reason why they were there. Secrecy was paramount.
Now the British delegation was here, over Lisbon.
So far the Germans had lived up to their undertakings. No sinkings by enemy submarines, and no sightings of Luftwaffe aircraft had been reported over Britain in the previous two days. The American embassy had, however, passed on a concern of the Kriegsmarine, the German Navy. They had been unable to establish contact with one of their submarines, U-48, to order it to suspend its activities. It was probable that their radio was malfunctioning. They would keep on trying to contact them, and they had also ordered two other submarines into the general area of its last reported position. These would try to find U-48.
The morning before, the RAF had flown the delegation from London to an air base in Devon in a Douglas DC3 transport aircraft, escorted by a flight of fighter aircraft, the daunting Spitfire. After refuelling they had taken off again for Lisbon. During the flight they stayed a respectable distance from the coasts of France and Spain.
Along the way they had flown over the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, in company with a cruiser and two destroyers somewhere off the coast of Northern Spain. It had been a sight for sore eyes to see this fine example of British sea power here, off an unfriendly coast. They had circled the ships and dipped their wings in salute before carrying on towards Lisbon.
The total flight distance flown was a little over one thousand nautical miles, which at the modest cruising speed of the Dakota meant a little over five hours and a half hours actual flying time. This had ended up being more like eight hours total travelling time when one included boarding time and the refuelling stop. The passengers were not impressed with the quality of the light lunch that had been served to them during the flight. Is this the best the RAF could do?
As they flew over Lisbon they were greeted with the sight of the now famous British cruiser, HMS Ajax, moored in the harbour. It had recently been refitted in Chatham Dockyard after its epic ‘Battle of the River Plate’ a few months earlier — in company with two other cruisers — against the German pocket battleship Graf Spee, off the coast of South America. The news of the destruction of the Graf Spee had been a welcome bright spot in a dark period only noted for British ships being sunk by U-boats.