We learn that in June 1940, as France was falling to the Germans, Commander Ian Fleming RNVR was sent on a secret mission to the temporary seat of government in Tours to determine Admiral Darlan’s plans for the French navy in the event of surrender. Desperate to ensure that French ships did not fall into German hands, Fleming offered to cede the Isle of Wight to Darlan. But French resistance collapsed before a deal could be struck and Fleming was forced to make his way home through Spain and Portugal. A subsequent plan to capture a German motor torpedo boat and its vital codes by crashing a fake “German” plane into the sea was no more successful.