Which way will the U.S. turn?

2nd October 1940: The British value American support - but are they more likely to confront Japan and ignore Germany?

Destroyers at the US Navy base in San Diego in 1940. Fifty relatively old destroyers were now in the process of being transferred to the Royal Navy to bolster defences against the expected German invasion.

Fairly early in his Premiership, Winston Churchill had concluded that, while Britain could fight on alone, there was little prospect of defeating Germ…