The tactics of barter and threats took a back seat. Hitler now adopted an ambivalent course towards the British which acquired an increasingly anti-British flavour. On the one hand he did not absolutely turned his opinion on Britain, but rather continued to remain open to the original idea of an alliance as his policy for a long time into the war demonstrates. But on the other hand, besides this doctrinaire pet idea which he continued to pursue, the strategist in Hitler, under the principle of realist political calculation, and with vast experience of British statesmen, recognised the Great Britain might quite well have to be considered as an enemy. It was not primarily a question of conquering Britain, however, but rather of forcing them
