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This is something I just learned of; it has a lot of potential.

In the wake of Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into WW II, Churchill travelled to the U.S. in December 1941 with an entourage of high-level British officials and commanders to confer with Roosevelt and U.S. military and naval leaders. The group made the crossing on the new battleship HMS Duke of York. He departed on 14 January 1942, flying to Bermuda on a British flying boat to meet Duke of York for a return voyage. The recent disasters to British arms in Malaya, and other urgent matters which had accumulated in his absence, prompted him to accept the offer of the flying boat's commander to return to Britain by air instead, saving several days.

Because of fuel required by the length of the flight, only Churchill and his most important associates embarked (Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Supply; Air Marshal Portal, head of the RAF; Fleet Admiral Pound, First Sea Lord).

They took off at about 2 PM 15 January. Twenty hours later, the flying boat approached Europe amid heavy clouds. Portal reviewed the plane's navigation, and ordered an immediate turn to due north (in fact, west of north, according to Churchill in The Grand Alliance). The flying boat landed safely at Plymouth.

Churchill wrote that the flying boat had drifted a bit east and south of the intended course, and that when the flying boat turned, it was headed toward German-occupied port of Brest in France, and only about five minutes' flying time away. In fact when its subsequent course was noted by British radar, the flying boat was taken for a German bomber flying from Brest, and some RAF Hurricanes were sent up to intercept it and shoot it down.

Thus it seems clear there was significant danger to the flying boat and its passengers.

Now, it seems highly unlikely that the Hurricanes would mistake a British flying boat for a German bomber in daylight. But Brest was a very important naval base for the Germans, who deployed a lot of flak there. Had Portal not corrected the course, the flying boat might easily have continued over Brest and been shot down. If so, all the passengers would be killed.

Or for maximum weirdness, the plane has to make a forced landing in France due to damage. Churchill et al become Axis prisoners.

So what happens next - or could happen?
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