A secret chiefs of staff report examines how Britain could keep fighting if France collapsed, the British Expeditionary Force were largely lost, and Britain had to stand alone. The report concludes that success would depend on full American economic support, the strength of British fighter defenses, and the public’s ability to withstand severe bombing. London appears especially vulnerable, and Winston Churchill grimly warns his ministers that the city may soon be transformed by attack.

As France falls faster than even the report anticipates, British intelligence begins to expect that Germany may invade immediately after smashing Britain from the air. German air strength, especially dive-bombers and bombers flying from bases close to England, seems capable of delivering a knockout blow like the one that helped force Rotterdam’s surrender. Because Britain’s only immediate answer is fighter production, the country’s peacetime aircraft system becomes a critical weakness: shortages, delays, scattered parts, unrepaired damage, and bureaucratic habits all slow output.

To break that bottleneck, Churchill creates the new Ministry of Aircraft Production and puts Lord Beaverbrook in charge after Beaverbrook first hesitates. Churchill knows Beaverbrook is abrasive, unhealthy, inexperienced in aircraft manufacturing, and widely disliked, but Churchill values Beaverbrook’s energy, candor, and ability to disrupt complacent systems. Beaverbrook launches the ministry from his own house, staffs it with newspaper employees and business executives, imposes brutal hours, and attacks the production problem with theatrical urgency.

Churchill also presses Beaverbrook to expand bomber production, because Churchill believes fighters may keep Britain alive but heavy bombers offer the only way to strike back at Germany directly. Churchill insists that Britain must aim at air mastery, and Beaverbrook embraces the mission so aggressively that aircraft output begins rising at a surprising rate. The chapter presents this administrative shift as a decisive answer to the growing fear that Britain may soon face Hitler alone.

Meanwhile, the invasion threat becomes personal across Britain. Churchill keeps weapons close and even prepares for the possibility of suicide rather than capture; Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West make practical plans for flight from Kent; civilians sit under beautiful summer skies and barrage balloons while imagining German barges crossing the Channel. As the first full moon of Churchill’s premiership brightens London, the moon itself becomes ominous, and Mass-Observation director Tom Harrisson tells observers to take shelter with crowds during expected air raids so they can witness how people behave under bombardment.