The meeting at the Brenner Pass, where the two dictators spent three hours together in an armoured train, a gift from the Führer to the Duce. And what was particularly noteworthy was that Hitler was no longer talking about invading Britain. In Rome, the newspaper, Il Popolo di Roma, spoke of a long war in prospect, with Germany unable to invade Britain this year. That may have been unwelcome to Hitler, who had wanted a short war, but it spelled grave danger for Britain, which could not sustain its current shipping losses.
