The banners still fluttered over Vienna's Heldenplatz, but beyond the borders of the Reich, the wind had changed.
The German annexation of Austria, executed with velvet gloves and diplomatic silence, had caught the continent in a moment between breath and declaration.
It was not simply a political maneuver.
It was a revelation another display of how quietly, how thoroughly, a sovereign nation could be made to vanish.
But the world had seen.
And the world had begun to speak.
In Whitehall.
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had received the reports in the early hours.
Austrian ministries dissolved.
German civil liaisons in place.
The military politely stationed, the press reshaped, and the people astonishingly seemingly accepting.
Sir Robert Vansittart, the Foreign Office's Chief Diplomatic Advisor, slammed a folder on the cabinet table.
"This is Anschluss in everything but name. They did it without firing a shot. That's the most dangerous part of all."
