ates of America, though sympathetic to Britain, was still neutral, and did not believe that the British nation could survive for long. At the headquarters of the British War Cabinet, Winston Churchill gazed at the map of Europe, and what he saw would have chilled the heart of a man with less courage and patriotism than he possessed. To the north and west of Britain was open sea. To the northeast, east and south, the whole of the European coastline - Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France was in German hands. (Hough 11-12).To Britain, the outlook of the imminent siege of its homeland appeared hopeless. With the enemy surrounding the last stronghold of the Allies, the odds against Britain were extremely in the favor of the opposition:Britain not only faced an enemy ten times as powerful as she was on land and more than twice as powerful in the air. Invasion appeared imminent and inevitable. On July 16, Adolf Hitler issued a directive As England despite her hopeless military situation, still shows no sign of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary carry, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English motherland as a base from which war against Germany can be continued (Hough 13).Like the mouth of a leviathan opening to consume a lone minnow on the open sea, the German forces faced an enemy that was not only surrounded on three sides, but one that still tasted the rancid bile of defeat at Dunkirk. The Germans planned an extensive assault on Britain that would attack them from the air and on the ground that was code named Operation Sealion. Len Deighton confirms that the plans for British invasion were not complete until three days after the confirmed start of the battle when he wrote, Not until 13 July did the German General Staff lay before Hitler their draft plans for Operation Sealion the invasion of Britain(Deighton, Len. Battle of Britain. New York: Georg...
