Hitler never wanted to fight Britain - at least not at first. He regarded the UK as Germany's natural ally in a future confrontation with the Soviet Union and, until the summer of 1940, did not even plan a war against it.

Franz Halder recorded Hitler's view that defeating Britain at the cost of German blood would ultimately benefit only the United States, Japan, and other powers.

Adolf Galland offered another explanation: Hitler saw the British as a kindred people, of the same stock as the Germans, and therefore not Germany's natural enemy.

So it was hierarchy, not anti-socialism, the belief that some nations were born to rule, while others were born to be ruled.