Modern History Sourcebook:
Winston Churchill: "Their Finest Hour"
To the House of Commons, 18 June 1940I spoke the other day of the colossal military disaster which occurred when the French
High Command failed to withdraw the Northern Armies from Belgium at the moment when they
knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and on the Meuse. This delay
entailed the loss of fifteen or sixteen French divisions and threw out of action for the
critical period the whole of the British Expeditionary Force. Our Army and 120,000 French
troops were indeed rescued by the British Navy from Dunkirk but only with the loss of
their cannon, vehicles and modem equipment. This loss inevitably took some weeks to
repair, and in the first two of those weeks the battle in France has been lost. When we
consider the heroic resistance made by the French Army against heavy odds in this battle,
the enormous losses inflicted upon the enemy and the evident exhaustion of the enemy, it
may well be thought that these twenty-five divisions of the best-trained and bestequipped
troops might have turned the scale. However, General Weygand had to fight without them.
Only three British divisions or their equivalent were able to stand in the line with their
French comrades. They had suffered severely, but they had fought well. We sent every man
we could to France as fast as we could re-equip and transport their formations.I am not reciting these facts for the purpose of recrimination. That I judge to be
utterly futile and even harmful. We cannot afford it. I recite them in order to explain
why it was we did not have, as we could have had, between twelve and fourteen British
divisions fighting in the line in this great battle instead of only three. Now I put all
this aside. I put it on the shelf, from which the historians, when they have time, will
select their documents to tell their stories. We have to think of the future and not of
the past. This also applies in a small way to our own affairs at home. There are many who
would hold an inquest in the House of Commons on the conduct of the Governments-and of
Parliaments, for they are in it, too-during the years which led up to this catastrophe.
They seek to indict those who were responsible for the guidance of our affairs. This also
would be a foolish and pernicious process. There are too many in it. Let each man search
his conscience and search his speeches. I frequently search mine.Of this I am quite sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we
shall find that we have lost the future. Therefore, I cannot accept the drawing of any
distinctions between Members of the present Government. It was formed at a moment of
crisis in order to unite all the parties and all sections of opinion. It has received the
almost unanimous support of both Houses of Parliament. Its Members are going to stand
together, and, subject to the authority of the House of Commons, we are going to govern
the country and fight the war. It is absolutely necessary at a time like this that every
Minister who tries each day to do his duty shall be respected; and their subordinates must
know that their chiefs are not threatened men, men who are here today and gone tomorrow,
but that their directions must be punctually and faithfully obeyed. Without this
concentrated power we cannot face what lies before us. I should not think it would be very
advantageous for the House to prolong this Debate this afternoon under conditions of
public stress. Many facts are not clear that will be clear in a short time. We are to have
a Secret Session on Thursday, and I should think that would be a better opportunity for
the many earnest expressions of opinion which Members will desire to make and for the
House to discuss vital matters without having everything read the next morning by our
dangerous foes.The disastrous military events which have happened during, the past fortnight have not
come to me with any sense of surprise. Indeed, I indicated a fortnight ago as clearly as I
could to the House that the worst possibilities were open; and I made it perfectly clear
then that whatever happened in France would make no difference to the resolve of Britain
and the British Empire to fight on, 'if necessary for years, if necessary alone.' During
the last few days we have successfully brought off the great majority of the troops we had
on the lines of communication in France; and seven-eighths of the troops we have sent to
France since the beginning of the war-that is to say, about 350,000 out Of 400,000 men-are
safely back in this country. Others are still fighting with the French, and fighting with
considerable success in their local encounters against the enemy. We have also brought
back a great mass of stores, rifles and munitions of all kinds which had been accumulated
in France during the last nine months.We have, therefore, in this island today a very large and powerful military force. This
force comprises all our best-trained and our finest troops, including scores of thousands
of those who have already measured their quality against the Germans and found themselves
at no disadvantage. We have under arms at the present time in this island over a million
and a quarter men. Behind these we have the Local Defence Volunteers, numbering half a
million, only a portion of whom, however, are yet armed with rifles or other firearms. We
have incorporated into our Defence Forces every man for whom we have a weapon. We expect
very large additions to our weapons in the near future, and in preparation for this we
intend forthwith to call up, drill and train further large numbers. Those who are not
called up, or else are employed upon the vast business of munitions production in all its
branches-and their ramifications are innumerable-will serve their country best by
remaining at their ordinary work until they receive their summons. We have also over here
Dominions armies. The Canadians had actually landed in France, but have now been safely
withdrawn, much disappointed, but in perfect order, with all their artillery and
equipment. And these very high-class forces from the Dominions will now take part in the
defence of the Mother Country.Lest the account which I have given of these large forces should raise the question:
Why did they not take part in the great battle in France? I must make it clear that, apart
from the divisions training and organizing at home, only twelve divisions were equipped to
fight upon a scale which justified their being sent abroad. And this was fully up to the
number which the French had been led to expect would be available in France at the ninth
month of the war. The rest of our forces at home have fighting value for home defence
which will, of course, steadily increase every week that passes. Thus, the invasion of
Great Britain would at this time require the transportation across the sea of hostile
armies on a very large scale, and after they been so transported they would have to be
continually maintained with all the masses of munitions and supplies which are required
for continuous battle-as continuous battle it will surely be.Here is where we come to the Navy - and after all, we have a Navy. Some people seem to
forget that we have a Navy. We must remind them. For the last thirty years I have been
concerned in discussions about the possibilities of overseas invasion, and I took the
responsibility on behalf of the Admiralty, at the beginning of the last war, of allowing
all regular troops to be sent out of the country. That was a very serious step to take,
because our Territorials had only just been called up and were quite untrained. Therefore,
this island was for several months practically denuded of fighting troops. The Admiralty
had confidence at that time in their ability to prevent a mass invasion even though at
that time the Germans had a magnificent battle fleet the proportion of ten to sixteen,
even though they were capable of fighting a general engagement every day and any day,
whereas now they have only a couple of heavy ships worth speaking of - the Scharnhorst and
the Gneisenau. We are also told that the Italian Navy is to come out and gain sea
superiority in these waters. If they seriously intend it, 1 shall only say that we shall
be delighted to offer Signor Mussolini a free and safeguarded passage through the Straits
of Gibraltar in order that he may play the part to which he aspires. There is a general
curiosity in the British Fleet to find out whether the Italians are
up to the level they were at in the last war or whether they have fallen off at all.Therefore, it seems to me that as far as seaborne invasion on a great scale is
concerned, we are far more capable of meeting it today than we were at many periods in the
last war and during the early months of this war, before our other troops were trained,
and while the BEF [British Expeditionary Force] had proceeded abroad. Now, the
Navy have never pretended to be able to prevent raids by bodies of 5,000 or 10,000 men
flung suddenly across and thrown ashore at several points on the coast some dark night or
foggy morning. The efficacy of sea-power, especially under modern conditions, depends upon
the invading force being of large size. It has to be of large size, in view of our
military strength, to be of any use. If it is of large size, then the Navy have something
they can find and meet and, as it were, bite on. Now we must remember that even five
divisions, however lightly equipped, would require 200 to 250 ships, and with modern air
reconnaissance and photography it would not be easy to collect such an armada, marshal it
and conduct it across the sea without any powerful naval forces to escort it; and there
would be very great possibilities, to put it mildly, that this armada would be intercepted
long before it reached the coast, and all the men drowned in the sea or, at the worst,
blown to pieces with their equipment while they were trying to land. We also have a great
system of minefields, recently strongly reinforced, through which we alone know the
channels. If the enemy tries to sweep passages through these minefields, it will be the
task of the Navy to destroy the minesweepers and any other forces employed to protect
them. There should be no difficulty in this, owing to our great superiority at sea.Those are the regular, well-tested, well-proved arguments on which we have relied
during many years in peace and war. But the question is whether there are any new methods
by which those solid assurances can be circumvented. Odd as it may seem, some attention
has been given to this by the Admiralty, whose prime duty and responsibility it is to
destroy any large seaborne expedition before it reaches, or at the moment when it reaches
these shores. It would not be a good thing for me to go into details of this. It might
suggest ideas to other people which they have not thought of, and they would not be likely
to give us any of their ideas in exchange. All I will say is that untiring vigilance and
mind-searching must be devoted to the subject, because the enemy is crafty and cunning and
full of novel treacheries and stratagems. The House may be assured that the utmost
ingenuity is being displayed and imagination is being evoked from large numbers of
competent officers, well trained in tactics and thoroughly up to date, to measure and
counterwork novel possibilities. Untiring vigilance and untiring searching of the mind is
being, and must be, devoted to the subject, because, remember, the enemy is crafty and
there is no dirty trick he will not do.Some people will ask why, then, was it that the British Navy was not able to prevent
the movement of a large army from Germany into Norway across the Skaggerak? But the
conditions in the Channel and in the North Sea are in no way like those which prevail in
the Skaggerak. In the Skaggerak, because of the distance, we could give no air support to
our surface ships, and consequently, lying as we did close to the enemy's main air power,
we were compelled to use only our submarines. We could not enforce the decisive blockade
or interruption which is possible from surface vessels. Our submarines took a heavy toll
but could not, by themselves, prevent the invasion of Norway. In the Channel and in the
North Sea, on the other hand, our superior naval surface forces, aided by our submarines,
will operate with close and effective air assistance.This brings me, naturally, to the great question of invasion from the air, and of the
impending struggle between the British and German Air Forces. It seems quite clear that no
invasion on a scale beyond the capacity of our land forces to crush speedily is likely to
take place from the air until our Air Force has been definitely overpowered. In the
meantime, there may be raids by parachute troops and attempted descents of airborne
soldiers. We should be able to give those gentry a warm reception, both in the air and on
the ground, if they reach it in any condition to continue the dispute. But the great
question is: Can we break Hitler's air weapon? Now, of course, it is a very great pity
that we have not got an Air Force at least equal to that of the most powerful enemy within
striking distance of these shores. But we have a very powerful Air Force which has proved
itself far superior in. quality, both in men and in many types of machine, to what we have
met so far in the numerous and fierce air battles which have been fought with the Germans.
In France, where we were at a considerable disadvantage and lost many machines on the
ground when they were standing round the aerodromes, we were accustomed to inflict in the
air losses of as much as two to two-and-a-half to one. In the fighting over Dunkirk, which
was a sort of no-man's land, we undoubtedly beat the German Air Force, and gained the
mastery of the local air, inflicting here a loss of three or four to one day after day.
Anyone who looks at the photographs which were published a week or so ago of the
re-embarkation, showing the masses of troops assembled on the beach and forming an ideal
target for hours at a time, must realize that this re-embarkation would not have been
possible unless the enemy had resigned all hope of recovering air superiority at iat time
and at that place.In the defence of this island the advantages to the defenders will be much greater than
they were in the fighting around Dunkirk. We hope to improve on the rate of three or four
to one which was realized at Dunkirk; and in addition all our injured machines and their
crews which get down safe-and, surprisingly, a very great many injured machines and men do
get down safely in modern air fighting-all of these will fall, in an attack upon these
islands, on friendly soil and live to fight another day; whereas all the injured enemy
machines and their complements will be total losses as far as the war is concerned.During the great battle in France, we gave very powerful and continuous aid to the
French Army, both by fighters and bombers; but in spite of every kind of pressure we never
would allow the entire metropolitan fighter strength of the Air Force to be consumed. This
decision was painful, but it was also right, because the fortunes of the battle in France
could not have been decisively affected even if we had thrown in our entire fighter force.
That battle was lost by the unfortunate strategical opening, by the extraordinary and
unforeseen power of the armoured columns and by the great preponderance of the German Army
in numbers. Our fighter Air Force might easily have been exhausted as a mere accident in
that great struggle, and then we should have found ourselves at the present time in a very
serious plight. But as it is, 1 am happy to inform the House that our fighter strength is
stronger at the present time relatively to the Germans, who have suffered terrible losses,
than it has ever been; and consequently we believe ourselves possessed of the capacity to
continue the war in the air under better conditions than we have ever experienced before.
1 look forward confidently to the exploits of our fighter pilots-these splendid men, this
brilliant youth-who will have the glory of saving their native land, their island home,
and all they love, from the most deadly of all attacks.There remains, of course, the danger of bombing attacks, which will certainly be made
very soon upon us by the bomber forces of the enemy. It is true that the German bomber
force is superior in numbers to ours; but we have a very large bomber force also, which we
shall use to strike at military targets in Germany without intermission. 1 do not at all
underrate the severity of the ordeal which lies before us; but 1 believe our countrymen
will show themselves capable of standing up to it, like the brave men of Barcelona, and
will be able to stand up to it, and carry on in spite of it, at least as well as any other
people in the world. Much will depend upon this; every man and every woman will have the
chance to show the finest qualities of their race, and render the highest service to their
cause. For all of us, at this time, whatever our sphere, our station, our occupation or
our duties, it will be a help to remember the famous lines:
He nothing common did or mean,
Upon that memorable scene.
I have thought it right upon this occasion to give the House and the country some
indication of the solid, practical grounds upon which we base our inflexible resolve to
continue the war. There are a good many people who say, 'Never mind. Win or lose, sink or
swim, better die than submit to tyranny - and such a tyranny.' And I do not dissociate
myself from them. But I can assure them that our professional advisers of the three
Services unitedly advise that we should carry on the war, and that there are good and
reasonable hopes of final victory. We have fully informed and consulted all the
self-governing Dominions, these great communities far beyond the oceans who have been
built up on our laws and on our civilization, and who are absolutely free to choose their
course, but are absolutely devoted to the ancient Motherland, and who feel themselves
inspired by the same emotions which lead me to stake our all upon duty and honour. We have
fully consulted them, and I have received from their Prime Ministers, Mr Mackenzie King of
Canada, Mr Menzies of Australia, Mr Fraser of New Zealand, and General Smuts of South
Africa [these were the self-governing dominions of the British Empire]- that
wonderful man, with his immense profound mind, and his eye watching from a distance the
whole panorama of European affairs - I have received from all these eminent men, who all
have Governments behind them elected on wide franchises, who are all there because they
represent the will of their people, messages couched in the most moving terms in which
they endorse our decision to fight on, and declare themselves ready to share our fortunes
and to persevere to the end. That is what we are going to do.We may now ask ourselves: In what way has our position worsened since the beginning of
the war? It has worsened by the fact that the Germans have conquered a large part of the
coastline of Western Europe, and many small countries have been overrun by them. This
aggravates the possibilities of air attack and adds to our naval preoccupations. It in no
way diminishes, but on the contrary definitely increases, the power of our longdistance
blockade. Similarly, the entrance of Italy into the war increases the power of our
long-distance blockade. We have stopped the worst leak by that. We do not know whether
military resistance will come to an end in France or not, but should it do so, then of
course, the Germans will be able to concentrate their forces, both military and
industrial, upon us. But for the reasons I have given to the House these will not be found
so easy to apply. If invasion has become more imminent, as no doubt it has, we, being
relieved from the task of maintaining a large army in France, have far larger and more
efficient forces to meet it.If Hitler can bring under his despotic control the industries of the countries he has
conquered, this will add greatly to his already vast armament output. On the other hand,
this will not happen immediately, and we are now assured of immense, continuous and
increasing support in supplies and munitions of all kinds from the United States; and
especially of airplanes and pilots from the Dominions and across the oceans, coming from
regions which are beyond the reach of enemy bombers.I do not see how any of these factors can operate to our detriment on balance before
the winter comes; and the winter will impose a strain upon the Nazi regime, with almost
all Europe writhing and starving under its cruel heel, which, for all their ruthlessness,
will run them very hard. We must not forget that from the moment when we declared war on
the 3 September it was always possible for Germany to turn all her air force upon this
country, together with any other devices of invasion she might conceive, and that France
could have done little or nothing to prevent her doing so. We have, therefore, lived under
this danger, in principle and in a slightly modified form, during all these months. In the
meanwhile, however, we have enormously improved our methods of defence, and we have
learned, what we had no right to assume at the beginning, namely, that the individual
aircraft and the individual British pilot have a sure and definite superiority. Therefore,
in casting up this dread balance sheet and contemplating our dangers with a disillusioned
eye, I see great reason for intense vigilance and exertion but none whatever for panic or
despair.During the first four years of the last war the Allies experienced nothing but disaster
and disappointment. That was our constant fear: one blow after another, terrible losses,
frightful dangers. Everything miscarried. And yet at the end of those four years the
morale of the Allies was higher than that of the Germans, who had moved from one
aggressive triumph to another, and who stood everywhere triumph?int invaders of the lands
into which they had broken. During that war we repeatedly asked ourselves the question:
How are we going to win? And no one was able ever to answer it with much precision, until
at the end, quite suddenly, quite unexpectedly, our terrible foe collapsed before us, and
we were so glutted with victory that in our folly we threw it away.We do not yet know what will happen in France or whether the French resistance will be
prolonged, both in France and in the French Empire overseas. The French Government will be
throwing away great opportunities and casting adrift their future if they do not continue
the war in accordance with their Treaty obligations, from which we have not felt able to
release them. The House will have read the historic declaration in which, at the desire of
many Frenchmen - and of our own hearts - we have proclaimed our willingness at the darkest
hour in French history to conclude a union of common citizenship in this struggle. However
matters may go in France or with the French Government, or other French Governments, we in
this island and in the British Empire will never lose our sense of comradeship with the
French people. If we are now called upon to endure what they have been suffering, we shall
emulate their courage, and if final victory rewards our toils they shall share the gains,
aye, and freedom shall be restored to all. We abate nothing of our just demands; not one
jot or tittle do we recede. Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians have joined their
causes to our own. All these shall be restored.What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of
Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian
civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our
institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be
turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move
forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the
United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of
a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted
science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the
British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This
was their finest hour.'
Source:
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© Paul Halsall, July 1998
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