As British forces reeled from new defeats, 17,000 troops evacuated Greece on April 24 and 25, and another 19,000 escaped the following night. Rommel continued advancing in Egypt, deepening anxiety inside Britain that the nation could retreat but not successfully hold ground. With Norway, Dunkirk, and now Greece forming a pattern of humiliating withdrawals, Churchill tried to steady opinion with a radio broadcast from Chequers on April 27, insisting that morale in bombed cities remained high and urging Britons to keep a sense of proportion despite present losses.

Churchill also tried to place the war in a longer perspective, arguing that Britain, the Empire, and the United States ultimately possessed superior resources to Germany. Yet the speech did not persuade everyone; some listeners thought he exaggerated public spirit. Privately, Churchill recognized that another reverse, especially in the Middle East, could be disastrous. On April 28 he sent a "MOST SECRET" directive declaring that Britain’s life and honor depended on defending Egypt, ordered all evacuation plans for Egypt or the Suez Canal locked away, and demanded extreme resistance from officers and men rather than surrender.

Churchill’s fear extended beyond the battlefield to foreign opinion, especially Roosevelt’s view of British strength. In a minute of April 30, Churchill warned that losing Egypt could sway Turkey, Spain, Vichy France, and the United States against Britain. At home, political pressure also rose. Hastings Lees-Smith forced the issue in Parliament by asking when the war situation would be debated, and Churchill responded by scheduling a Commons debate tied to a resolution endorsing the government’s Greek policy and wider conduct of the war, effectively turning the session into a vote of confidence in Churchill himself.

In Berlin, Joseph Goebbels studied Churchill’s broadcast as evidence of British strain and as material for propaganda. He focused particularly on Churchill’s claim that Australasian troops happened to be best suited for Greece, twisting it into proof that Britain let others bear the cost while British forces stayed to the rear. Goebbels also argued that Churchill had chosen broadcasting over Parliament to avoid hostile questioning, and he directed propagandists to use these points to weaken Churchill and exploit the unresolved American debate over intervention.

Amid these military and political pressures, Churchill paused to write a condolence letter to Hubert Pierlot, the Belgian prime minister in exile. The letter followed a train fire that killed six schoolboys returning to Ampleforth College after burning began in a wooden coach; two of the dead were Pierlot’s sons. The chapter then shifts to Germany, where Rudolf Hess prepared once again to attempt his secret flight, only to be stopped temporarily when Hitler ordered him to appear at a May Day ceremony. Hess obeyed at once, underscoring his intense personal devotion to Hitler even as he postponed his mysterious mission.