Amateur diplomat sought Nazi pact

Summary

August 30, 2008: As newly released documents show, the British James Lonsdale-Bryans traveled to Italy during World War II to meet with the German diplomat Ulrich von Hassell where he proposed peace between their two countries, allowing Germany to retain continental Europe while the British Empire would control the rest of the world as its own sphere of influence.

Source

Original story

Game and Story Use

• If this attempt had been successful and condoned by the British government (unlikely, with Winston Churchill in office), this might be a turning point in an Alternate History campaign.
  • And given the state of play in 1941, it's not all that unlikely that Britain might have sought terms … the absence of one or both of Churchill and the "Miracle of Dunkirk" might have swung it. Likely as not, Mussolini would have been the go-between for the armistice negotiations.
• In a historical campaign, the PCs might be assigned to accompany Lonsdale-Bryans as bodyguards, or alternately to prevent his mission from succeeding.
• Does this sound like a mirror of the Rudolph Hesse debacle to anyone?