Winston churchill (englisch)
Contents
1. Churchill´s life
1.1 Childhood
1.2 Churchill - a young man
1.3 The radical
1.4 High-altitude flight and fall
1.
5 The reactionary
1.6 Someone against everybody
1.7 Déjá vu
1.8 A man of destiny
1.9 Triumph and tragedy
1.10 The last fight
2.
Speeches
2.1 This is Your Victory
2.2 Their finest Hour
1.1 Childhood
In November 30, 1874 Lady Randolph Churchill, née Jennie Jerome and her husband Lord Randolph Churchill (chancellor of the Exchequer) visited Blenheim. Suddenly, Lady Randolph Churchill had gone into labour and Winston Spencer Churchill was born - two month premature. But Winston didn´t born in a hospital, he borned in a little cloakroom behind the mainentrance.
For family-life was no time. "A child get to know his parents as an adault". When Winston was one year old a nanny looked after him. Her name was Mrs. Everest. He had a close relationship to her.
At the age of seven he attended the St. James-School in Ascot. He didn´t learn anything, again and again he was beaten by his teachers, but Winston still didn´t learn. He began to stutter and spoke with a slight lisp. His parents didn´t notice that. His healthy broke down and so his parents told him to attend another school.
The school was in Brighton, nevertheless, after all Winston didn´t learn. He was a bad student, and mathematics and latin weren´t his favourite subjects. But in Englisch he was superb. Nobody was a better student - but only in English.
After his schooltime his father said, that he had no choice but to go to the military. But how could it be, Winston failed the entrance examination in Sandhurst.
After the third time he passed the examination and came to the cavalry.
1.2 Churchill - a young man
"I can never do anything right.I suppose I shall go on being treated as "that boy" till I am 50 years old." (Winston, aged 18 to his mother)
It was decided that he visit the Sandhurst Military College and become an Army Officer. Winston tried twice to pass the entrance examination. He failed.
Then he visited a "crammer" at school, which is specialised in intensive study in order to pass examinations. Winston managed it. So he could enter the school. When the course at Sandhurst started in 1893, Churchill (now 18 years old) began his training as an army officer. He was a brilliant student at Sandhurst′s. His best examination subjects were tactics, fortifications and riding.
"In all twelve years I was at school, no one ever succeeded in making me write a Latin verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet." "Personally I am was always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught." (Winston Churchill)
At the age of twenty he became a professional officer. Although in Europe was peace, Churchill managed it to take part in five campaigns:
in Cuba, in India, in the Sudan and in South-Africa.
Winston´s character changed completely. On the one hand is to say his father died and on the other hand is to say, that he became a keen personality.
A declaration for this is, that Winston found his lovely occupation: war!
He was an strategist, politician and diplomat and he was born to waged war. He found his luck in war but nobody could understand this.
In Churchill´s youth he spent a lot of time in war zones and many times he came under fire. For a young person it is terrible, but Churchill found in war his fulfiment.
Because of this terrible time he began to smoke cigars. In later life he was rarely photograohed without his famous cigars.
Later in his lifetime he read many books and so he began to write, too.
And not only writing, playing Polo was also one thing that he love to do. Even with a broken arm he won a cup.
To financiate his war time he had to earn a lot of money. Winston wrote newspaper articles an books, his masterpiece was :" The River war". His books were written in a brilliant style that in his later life he was even awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
On the outbreak of the South African War he went out as war correspondent for the London Morning Post.
Within a month of his arrival, he was taken to prison in Pretoria, Churchill made a dramatic escape and travelled back to the fighting front in Natal. The whole land spoke about him.
New elections in 1900 made it possible for him to enter parliament. Everybody was fascinated about him.
1.
3 The radical
"We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm."
(Churchill to Violet Asquith, 1906)
Though he was a Conservative, he criticized military spendig and supported free trade, which soon resulted in conflict with the Conservative leadership, who supported large military budgets and protective tariffs. Besides that his party didn´t like his verbal violence; he gave up hope of converting them to something like Tory Democracy - his father´s ideal.
At first he dreamed of a middle way - of a new centre party - free from "the sordid selfishness" of Toryism and "the blind appetites of the Radical masses." But soon he was writing: " I hate the Tory party.I am an English Liberal.
" On May 31, 1904, he crossed the floor of the House of Commons.
The consequence was unpopularity by the Conservatives.
Churchill also continued writing . His political desire was obvious in his novel "Savrola", in which the Hero leads a democratic revolution and an imaginary country in the Balkans, only to see the revolution escape from his control. During his first years in parliament, Churchill wrote a two volume biography of his father, a study of British parliamentary government. His research about his father′s political career helped him to learn about British politics and prepare for cabinet office.
After the Liberals won the General Elections in 1906, Churchill was appointed undersecretary at the Colonial Office, where he was minister and responsible for issues, which concerned Britain′s colonies. On one of his tours to inspect colonies in East Africa he wrote another book, called "My African Journey",1908. In the same year he got his first cabinet post as president of the Board of Trade.
Also in 1908, Churchill married, and in his own words, "lived happily ever afterwards." With almost 34 years he had got to know Clementine Ogilvy Hozier. Clementine was only 23 years old, she was not a rich girl and soon she got pregnant and there were one son ( Randolph) and four daughters (Diana, Sarah,Marigold, Mary) .
Winston became home secretary (1910-1911) with responsibility for police and the prison system. He held this post until 1911, he watched liberal reforms of Britain′s prison system to reduce lengthy terms, to find alternatives to prison for youthful criminals, and to tell the difference between criminal and political prisoners. He helped to introduce health and unemployment insurance,to limit working hours. And he introduced laws, which forbade the employment of boys under fourteen years in coal mines.
In 1911 Prime Minister Asquith decided to make a change at the Admiralitiy.
Churchill pressed Asquith to give him the post of First Lord, during a September weekend, which Churchill spent with Asquith.
"Will you come out for a walk with me - at once?" (Winston asked Asqutith)
"You don´t want tea?" (asked Asquith)
"No, I don´t want tea. I don´t want tea - I don´t want anything - anything in the world. Your father hast just offered me the Admiralty." (said Winston)
Now Churchill had got what he wanted: responsibility and power - the power to defend his country with the powerful Navy. He had to create a naval and to maintain the fleet. Churchill took this task seriously and developed havier guns, faster battleships and naval aviation.
For Churchill it was no surprise when in 1914 the war broke out. He was prepared for this war, which he foresaw. His opinion was that war can broke out at any time. Winston had a good relationship to Germany, but -in his opinion- was war unavoidable.
In 1914, 1August he received a box, which included a letter. On this letter stood: " Germany declared war on Russia.
"
1.4 High-altitude flight and fall
"My God! This, this is living History."
(Churchill to Margot Asquith, January, 1915)
In July 1914, Churchill carried out a test mobilisation of the fleet. When the test was over, he ordered the fleet to remain in readiness. That decision meant that Britain was prepared to act quckliy, when the war broke out. On July 28, after Austria declared war on Serbia, the fleet continued to its war station at Scapa Flow, Britain´s principal naval base, located in the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland.
Within these days, Britain joined the growing international conflict. Throughout the war, the navy´s presence in the North Sea dominated and stopped the German fleet.
In September 1914, Churchill hurried to Belgium to help saving the port city of Antwerp because the Belgian weren´t able to resist the German invasion.
Winston Churchill was unable to save the city, but his ideas showed the German Belgian´s resolve and the Allied lines became stronger.
This reduced the threat to Britain and saved some territories from coming under German control.
During this time Churchill realised that machine guns were not adequate tools to break the western front and he worked on armoured fighting vehicles to end the massacre.
As the lines got harder on the western front, Churchill concentrated on a campaign to open the "Dardanelles Strait". So he want to give the Allies a direct route to Russia through the Black Sea. Such a move would bring needed supplies to the Russian armies.
Early in 1915 the naval attack failed and Curchill agreed to the War Office plan suggested by Kitchener. However, this plan failed too, and the Allies suffered great losses. And Churchill´s cabinet colleagues let Churchill take all the blame.
More or less as "scapegoat".
Because of the failed Dardanelles campaign, Churchill was overthrew in May 1915. He resigned his cabinet post and went to an infrantry battalion in France as a Commander.
It was a very bad time for Winston and he don´t want to be only a Commander he want to lead the war.
So he resigned his Commander post in France and began to draw. And his pictures were very good.
He painted landscapes and flowers rather than portraits.
The next spring he returned to his seat in the House of Commons.
In May 1917, David Lloyd George the new prime minister recalled Churchill to the cabinet as minister of munitions, and for the rest of the war Churchill organised the national economy for the efficient production of war materials.
1.5 The reactionary
"But now one can see how lucky I was. Over me beat the invisible wings.
"
(Churchill in "The Gathering Storm")
After World War I Churchill lost his seat in Parliament in the 1922 elections. It was 22 years after he had been first elected as a Member of Parliament.
" In the twinkling of one eye, I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix."
In the next two years he was out of parliament. He returned to write again. The result was "A World Crisis", a six volume account of World War I.
After that (earning a lot of money) he bought a large country house near Westerham, Kent - called Chartwell.
In October 1924 were the General Elections and Winston Churchill had his "Comeback". He received a seat in Parliament. He still belonged to the Liberal Party, but he noticed, that the Liberal Party don´t agree with his politics. And so, once again, he bacame a Conservative. The Conservative held the majority of seats in this parliament and Baldwin was Prime Minister.
He made Churchill the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Churchill was a fine leader but he was not a financial expert.
At the General Election in 1929, the Labour party gained a victory and Churchill kept his Conservative seat. During this period Churchill wrote one of his most important books. It was a biography in four volumes of his ancestor , the first Duke of Marlborough - "Marlborough, his Life and Times" . In these years, when Churchill seemed to be a figure in the background of politics, he still held his own opinions and meant that Germany′s rising power was a danger.
But nobody took him seriously. He, now a 55-years old man was, in the eyes of his conservative fellow politicians, a romantic reactionary, who don´t understand what happen in this time. He remained as a conservative member of parliament. As a serious politician he was finished.
1.6 Someone against everybody
Churchill still lived in his own house,was still a member of parliament in the Hose of Commons.
For ten years - from 1929 until 1939 - Churchill had no influence on the British (or on the world) history. He was not an anti-fascist, but he was also not a fascist. And he wasn´t, although everybody in Germany think so, against Germany.
On 30th January 1933, Hitler became the chancellor of the German state, the Reich. As Churchill had warned, Germany began to make a large amount of military equipment. Under the dictator′s leadership, the German forces soon began to claim the Rhineland, the Ruhr and Saar coalfields, Austria and the Sudeten lands the northern and western borders of Czechoslovakia.
It was when Hitler′s forces were placed along the Czechoslovakian border in September 1938, that the British prime minister -now Chamberlain - went to Munich in a try to prevent war. To prevent war was the policity of Chamberlain.
Mr. Chamberlain discussed with Adolf Hitler, Mussolini of Italy, and Daladier of France. They all signed the Munich Agreement. In this document, Hitler promised not to overstep the boundaries of other countries.
But Churchill did not believe Hitler. Churchill was very good in understanding other politicians, and he had seen trough Hitler. Winston Churchill was right. The Munich Agreement was broken in 1939, when Hitler claimed control of the whole Czechoslovakia. Hitler marched on, and when his troops entered Poland on September 1, 1939, England and France declared war on Germany.
After that Churchill was quickly recalled, as first lord of the admiralty.
The signal went round the fleet, "Winston is back," a quarter of a century after his first going to the post. For Churchill it was a dream came true. Now it was his briliant task to speak for England - old England, all England, his England - this was "living history", as he had said to Margot Asquith a quarter of a century ago. History was to live again.
1.7 Déjá vu
"Never give in.
Never give in. Never, never, never, never, never - in nothing great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." (Churchill at Harrow, 1941)
The Navy went into action without hesitation, and within a few months the Navy was responsible for decline of the German battleship. The German Army soon became active. Churchill felt that there was a danger to Norway. He wanted the Norwegian coast.
Other ministers did not share his concern, and were afraid to break Norwegian neutrality. Churchill followed his plan and in April 1940 the plan was pushed trough. It was too late, in April 1940 Germany occupied Norway and Denmark. The combined forces of the British Royal Navy and Royal Air Force made a try to help the Norwegians in a struggle to beat the German invader. Like the Dardanelles Campaign in World War I, the operation was a failure. With the collapse of Norway, the statesmen of the British government finally lost all their confidence in the Prime Minister Chamberlain.
The Members of Parliament felt that he was not taking enough action to limit Hitler´s attack. And so Chamberlain was asked to give up his post as Prime Minister, and his Government forced him to resign. On 10 May, 1940, Winston Churchill had to come to King Gerorge VI.
King said: "I suppose you don´t know why I have sent for you." "Sir I simply couldn´t imagine why." The King laughed and relaxed "I want to ask you to form a new Government.
"
This was the beginning of the most important phase of Churchill´s career, that of war-time Prime Minister. When he got the post as Prime Minister he told:
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat; You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory."
In 1915 the same action cost Churchill his political career, but almost 25 years later it was his political break trough. Excessive and unfair punishment the first time and almost 25 years later, excessive and unfair reward - for the same thing. This you can only explain with the words : Churchill was no man of reconciliation, he was a man of war.
And at this time was war!Of course, Chamberlain and the King may have had their doubts about Churchill. But Chuchill: "I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preperation for this hour and for this trial."
1.8 A man of destiny
On the same day, 10 May, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Four days after Churchill took office, Holland collapsed under the pressure of the German attack, and only two weeks later, Belgian collapsed, too. Churchill made four visits to France and had discussions with the French leaders.
They review the conduct and progress of the war. For some time Churchill had confidence in the power of the French army, but Germanies advance split the French and British Forces as the Germans take the French towns of Calais and Boulogne.
In June 1940, the British Army was pushed to the West and invaded in the Dunkirk region of the French coast. The French gave up. Churchill stayed strong and determined. In the House of Commons he held a speech which was a slogan to the whole nation.
And the nation answered. 650 little ships crossed the English Channel under the protection of the Navy. This was not easy. They were not crewed by the Royal Navy, but by their owners and other volunteers. They saved 233,000 British and 112,000 French soldiers from the Dunkirk beaches and brought them back to England. Now France, had fallen and England was fighting on her own, the production of fighter and bomber aircraft was speeded up.
Every try was made to repair damaged aircraft as quickly as possible. The Royal Air Force needed more pilots. The training plan was changed so that pilots were trained more quickly. In August 1940 , the Royal Air Force had 700 fighter - but the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force , had 3,500 aircrafts. Churchill knew that help was quickly needed, he spoke with the United States - with Roosevelt - and asked, if Britain could have 50 American destroyers. The United States agreed.
Churchill realised what would happen next.
"The battle of France in over, I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin."
With Churchill as a leader, England was ready to fight against the Germans and to prevent a German invasion. It was known that Germany planned to invade Britain. Invading forces had no success in Britain. Britain had the advantage of a new invention- the Radar.
This gave an early warning,if enemy aircraft want to invade a land, and made it possible for the British fighter planes to stop the enemy aircraft before the aim was reached. Hitler extended his attack on England.
In the middle of August 1940, large formations of German bombers, protected by Messerschmitt fighter planes, flew to England to try to put English ports, airfields and factories out of action. There were losses of both British and German planes and pilots, but Hitler was unable to beat the Royal Air force and so to beat England,too. In his radio broadcast on September 11,1940, Churchill warned the nation of the probability of invasion. Although he spoke of new dangers, he also strengthened the nation with nice words.
The war was spreading on many fronts. In June 1941, Hitler attacked Russia. Although Churchill resisted Russia′s Communist policies, he knew that all countries must work together to overcome Hitler. Churchill discussed with the Russian leaders Stalin and Molotov, and promised to give whatever help is possible. December 1941 USA came, because of Japan′ attack on Pearl Harbour, into war. Churchill and the American President became even closer.
The war went on,in other areas,too. Hitler had sent his Afrika Korps, of which he was particularly proud, to north Africa in January 1942. At first the German forces were beatened, and the British 8th Army captured Tobruk. But the battle in North Africa went on. Eventually, in June 1942, Tobruk was recaptured by the Germans and the 8th Army had to pull back to El Alamein. Churchill and his ministers decided that it was serious important for the British and Allied Forces to conquer French North America.
Churchill made General Alexander the Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East, and in August General Montgomery gave command of the 8th Army. It was almost autumn,1942,and Churchill′s strategies began to be effective. Montgomery give a victory at El Alamein in North Africa, and this was the turning point of the war.
Churchill in his memoirs: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat."
The Americans landed with the British troops in Algeria.
Morocco and Tunisia. In spring 1943, General Alexander reported to Churchill that the Middle Eastern countries were free from enemies. So, Churchill started to attack North West of Europe. It was code-named "Operation Overlord" . Just as in World War One, Churchill developed tanks. He supported plans such as PLUTO (the pipe line under the ocean which carried petrol under the English Channel to France.
) and FIDO, a method which you can get fog from landing areas away.
1.9 Triumph and tragedy
The end of the war was now in sight. Immediately, Churchill made many visits. He saw General Montgomery in France, President Tito of Yugoslavia in Naples, President Roosevelt of the United States in Quebec, Joseph Stalin, the Russian Dictator, in Moscow and General Charles de Gaulle, the French statesman, in liberated France. From 4 until 11 February ,1945, Churchill attended the Yalta Conference in the Crimea.
Here he met Roosevelt and Stalin. The three leaders discussed military missions and the conduct of the war, and the "post war agreement of Europe. "They also arranged a conference, on 25 April, which took place in San Francisco, USA to prepare the document for a United Nation Organisation. The members of the UN promised themselves to the maintenance of international peace and security.
At Yalta Churchill noticed that Roosevelt became ill with Polio. Although Roosevelt attended to all talks he was, in fact, very ill.
He died two months later. Churchill had lost a personal friend and ally.
On 8 May ,1945 Germany were finally beaten and at 15 o´clock, Downing Street 10 Winston Churchill declared the Nation, that war is over.In this times the famous V for Victory sign was associated with Churchill.
1.10 The last fight
He is the most honored and honorable man to walk the stage of human history in the time in which we live.
President John F. Kennedy on Churchill in 1963
Before Japan finally were beaten, Churchill′s wartime government broke up, and the Labour party won large majority in the general election of July 1945, so he lost his post as Prime Minister. Several reasons for the Conservative decline were put forward. Many people thought that Churchill was too aggressive in his election campaign - a policy ideal for war but not suitable for peace. He became the leader of the opposition Conservative party.
The following month he held very famous speeches.
This speeches were the most celebrated speeches he ever held, yet the most provocative speeches, too. All the time Churchill was speaking of the continuing friendship between England and America. Churchill spoke also from the danger of the Russians and their spreading communism into other countries. He mentioned the gulf between East and West. He called it the "Iron Curtain" which had "descended across Europe". " A shadow had fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allies victory.
.. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Western Europe...
Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia..." Churchill. In his speech at Fulton
In September 1946, Churchill mentioned that he wants to have United States of Europe. The result was the " European Economic Community" and the "Common Market".
He continued writing a personal History, called The Second World War, (6 Vols. 1948 - 53), and to painting. His pictured he showed regularly at the Royal Akademy.
At the age of 77, on 26 October, 1951, he became again Prime Minister and Minister of defence. In June 1953, he got crowned and his name was now Sir Leonard Winston Churchill.
Also in 1953 he gained the Nobel Prize of Literature.
On 5April, 1955, 80 years old, he resigned as Prime Minister, but continued the post as a Common in the Parliament until July 1964. 1963, he received the honour of being made an honorary American citizen by the US Government.
From 1955 until 1965 it was a very boring time for Winston Churchill. He was very old and had nothing to do. One of his last sentences was: "Everything is so boring"
When he died in London on 24 January 1965, at the age of 90, he was celebrated as a citizen of the world, and on 30 January a big funeral took place for "The hero". He was buried at Bladon, in the little churchyard near Blenheim Palace, his birthplace.
"He is history′s child, and what he said and what he said and what he did will never die."(Charles de Gaulle, on the death of Churchill)
2.1 This is Your Victory
May 8, 1945Ministry of Health, London
During the celebrations that followed the announcement of the end of the war in Europe, Churchill and his principal colleagues appeared on the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall, and made two brief speeches to the vast crowd. After the words "This is your victory" the crowd roared back, "No-it is yours." It was an unforgettable moment of love and gratitude.
God bless you all.
This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best. Everyone has tried. Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attacks of the enemy, have in any way weakened the independent resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.
2.2 Their Finest Hour
June 18, 1940House of Commons
I 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 modern 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 the thought that these 25 divisions of the best-trained and best-equipped 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 have suffered severely, but they have 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, '~f 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 line 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 Defense Volunteers, numbering half a million, only a portion of whom, however, are yet armed with rifles or other firearms. We have incorporated into our Defense 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 during 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 defense 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 12 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 a fighting value for home defense 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 had 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 oversea 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 particularly 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 in the proportion of 10 to 16, 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, I shall only say that we shall be delighted to offer Signor Mussolini a free and safeguarded passage through the Strait 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 sea-borne 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 B.E.F.
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 mine-sweepers 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 is to destroy any large sea-borne 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 Skagerrak? But the conditions in the Channel and in the North Sea are in no way like those which prevail in the Skagerrak. In the Skagerrak, 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 and 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 that time and at that place.
In the defense 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 safely-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 unforseen power of the armored 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, I 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. I 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.
I do not at all underrate the severity of the ordeal which lies before us; but I 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 honor. 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-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 coast line 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 long-distance 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 aeroplanes 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 3rd 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 m6nths. In the meanwhile, however, we have enormously improved our methods of defense, 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 balancesheet 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 triumphant 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
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