A white man (i.e. me) would have had one response for the UK editor: "I will see to it that you are terminated if you do not follow my directions on this project", and then my next call would have been to that person's boss or the head of that office saying "if this person does not follow the instructions of the CEO regarding this project I want him terminated".

Assuming the UK guy got fired, the German guy would have fallen into line.

What would have been your downside? If you made the threat and then couldn't carry it out, you'd be right back where you ended up anyway. If you made the threat and the UK person tried to go over your head and get you fired, that would have exposed your manager to the ire of the Corporate Overlords.

I'm a white man so I assume that making threats to end someone is something I'm entitled to do when the circumstances are appropriate. But as a white man, I expect to be threatened existentially if I don't do what I'm supposed to be doing. When dealing with white men, you can take the gloves off.