In July, Adolf Hitler remained serious about ending the war through an agreement with Britain, but he concluded that no settlement was possible while Winston Churchill remained prime minister. Britain’s attack on the French fleet at Mers el-Kébir convinced Hitler that Churchill would not yield. Hitler told Rudolf Hess that he wanted Churchill removed so that negotiations might proceed with a more compliant successor.

Hess embraced the mission. Once one of Hitler’s closest associates, Hitler’s former private secretary, and the man who had typed Mein Kampf, Hess believed deeply in Hitler’s idea that Germany needed peace with Britain. Because Hess had lost standing during the war as figures like Hermann Göring rose, this assignment restored his sense of importance. Hitler’s frustration came through clearly when he asked, “What more can I do? I can’t fly over there and beg on bended knee.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Goebbels saw Mers el-Kébir as a propaganda opportunity. On July 4, he instructed his staff to use the attack to portray Britain as treacherous and to inflame hostility toward Churchill, while avoiding pressure for a full-scale assault that might outrun Hitler’s wishes. Since Hitler still preferred a negotiated outcome, Goebbels wanted public anger kept simmering until Hitler’s planned speech, which he hoped might either change the course of the war or provide fresh grounds for attacking Churchill in propaganda.

At 10 Downing Street, the same week brought rising fear that France might yet turn against Britain and that Germany was preparing invasion or heavy air attack. A July 3 chiefs of staff report warned that major operations might begin at any time, citing troop aircraft shifts, parachute regiments moving to Belgium, amphibious exercises, and intelligence suggesting Germany expected triumph soon. John Colville wrote that Germany seemed to be gathering itself “for a great spring,” and his anxiety deepened after twenty German dive-bombers struck the Isle of Portland in daylight without RAF interception, a sign of how vulnerable Britain might be.