August 20, 1940
Winston Churchill "The Few"
House of
Commons
MP3 - 4 Megs
Almost a year has passed since the war began, and it is natural
for us, I think, to pause on our journey at this milestone and survey the dark,
wide field. It is also useful to compare the first year of this second war
against German aggression with its forerunner a quarter of a century ago.
Although this war is in fact only a continuation of the last, very great
differences in its character are apparent. In the last war millions of men
fought by hurling enormous masses of steel at one another. "Men and shells" was
the cry, and prodigious slaughter was the consequence. In this war nothing of
this kind has yet appeared. It is a conflict of strategy, of organization, of
technical apparatus, of science, mechanics and morale. The British casualties
in the first 12 months of the Great War amounted to 365,000. In this war, I am
thankful to say, British killed, wounded, prisoners and missing, including
civilians, do not exceed 92,000, and of these a large proportion are alive as
prisoners of war. Looking more widely around, one may say that throughout all
Europe, for one man killed or wounded in the first year perhaps five were
killed or wounded in 1914-15.
The slaughter is only a small fraction,
but the consequences to the belligerents have been even more deadly. We have
seen great countries with powerful armies dashed out of coherent existence in a
few weeks. We have seen the-French Republic and the renowned French Army beaten
into complete and total submission with less than the casualties which they
suffered in any one of half a dozen of the battles of 1914-18. The entire
body-it might almost seem at times the soul-of France has succumbed to physical
effects incomparably less terrible than those which were sustained with
fortitude and undaunted will power 25 years ago. Although up to the present the
loss of life has been mercifully diminished, the decisions reached in the
course of the struggle are even more profound upon the fate of nations than
anything that has ever happened since barbaric times. Moves are made upon the
scientific and strategic boards, advantages are gained by mechanical means, as
a result of which scores of millions of men become incapable of further
resistance, or judge themselves incapable of further resistance, and a fearful
game of chess proceeds from check to mate by which the unhappy players seem to
be inexorably bound.
There is another more obvious difference from
1914. The whole of the warring nations are engaged, not only soldiers, but the
entire population, men, women and children. The fronts are everywhere. The
trenches are dug in the towns and streets. Every village is fortified. Every
road is barred. The front line runs through the factories. The workmen are
soldiers with different weapons but the same courage. These are great and
distinctive changes from what many of us saw in the struggle of a quarter of a
century ago. There seems to be every reason to believe that this new kind of
war is well suited to the genius and the resources of the British nation and
the British Empire; and that, once we get properly equipped and properly
started, a war of this kind will be more favorable to us than the somber mass
slaughters of the Somme and Passchendaele. If it is a case of the whole nation
fighting and suffering together, that ought to suit us, because we are the most
united of all the nations, because we entered the war upon the national will
and with our eyes open, and because we have been nurtured in freedom and
individual responsibility and are the products, not of totalitarian uniformity,
but of tolerance and variety. If all these qualities are turned, as they are
being turned, to the arts of war, we may be able to show the enemy quite a lot
of things that they have not thought of yet. Since the Germans drove the Jews
out and lowered their technical standards, our science is definitely ahead of
theirs. Our geographical position, the command of the sea, and the friendship
of the United States enable us to draw resources from the whole world and to
manufacture weapons of war of every kind, but especially of the superfine
kinds, on a scale hitherto practiced only by Nazi Germany.
Hitler is now
sprawled over Europe. Our offensive springs are being slowly compressed, and we
must resolutely and methodically prepare ourselves for the campaigns of 1941
and 1942. Two or three years are not a long time, even in our short, precarious
lives. They are nothing in the history of the nation, and when we are doing the
finest thing in the world, and have the honor to be the sole champion of the
liberties of all Europe, we must not grudge these years or weary as we toil and
struggle through them. It does not follow that our energies in future years
will be exclusively confined to defending ourselves and our possessions. Many
opportunities may lie open to amphibious power, and we must be ready to take
advantage of them. One of the ways to bring this war to a speedy end is to
convince the enemy, not by words, but by deeds, that we have both the will and
the means, not only to go on indefinitely, but to strike heavy and unexpected
blows. The road to victory may not be so long as we expect. But we have no
right to count upon this. Be it long or short, rough or smooth, we mean to
reach our journey's end.
It is our intention to maintain and enforce a
strict blockade, not only of Germany, but of Italy, France, and all the other
countries that have fallen into the German power. I read in the papers that
Herr Hitler has also proclaimed a strict blockade of the British Islands. No
one can complain of that. I remember the Kaiser doing it in the last war. What
indeed would be a matter of general complaint would be if we were to prolong
the agony of all Europe by allowing food to come in to nourish the Nazis and
aid their war effort, or to allow food to go in to the subjugated peoples,
which certainly would be pillaged off them by their Nazi conquerors.
There have been many proposals, founded on the highest motives, that
food should be allowed to pass the blockade for the relief of these
populations. I regret that we must refuse these requests. The Nazis declare
that they have created a new unified economy in Europe. They have repeatedly
stated that they possess ample reserves of food and that they can feed their
captive peoples. In a German broadcast oL27th June it was said that while Mr.
Hoover's plan for relieving France, Belgium and Holland deserved commendation,
the German forces had already taken the necessary steps. We know that in Norway
when the German troops went in, there were food supplies to last for a year. We
know that Poland, though not a rich country, usually produces sufficient food
for her people. Moreover, the other countries which Herr Hitler has invaded all
held considerable stocks when the Germans entered and are themselves, in many
cases, very substantial food producers. If all this food is not available now,
it can only be because it has been removed to feed the people of Germany and to
give them increased rations-for a change-during the last few months. At this
season of the year and for some months to come, there is the least chance of
scarcity as the harvest has just been gathered in. The only agencies which can
create famine in any part of Europe, now and during the coming winter, will be
German exactions or German failure to distribute the supplies which they
command.
There is another aspect. Many of the most valuable foods are
essential to the manufacture of vital war material. Fats are used to make
explosives. Potatoes make the alcohol for motor spirit. The plastic materials
now so largely used in the construction of aircraft are made of milk. If the
Germans use these commodities to help them to bomb our women and children,
rather than to feed the populations who produce them, we may be sure that
imported foods would go the same way, directly or indirectly, or be employed to
relieve the enemy of the responsibilities he has so wantonly assumed. Let
Hitler bear his responsibilities to the full, and let the peoples of Europe who
groan beneath his yoke aid in every way the coming of the day when that yoke
will be broken. Meanwhile, we can and we will arrange in advance for the speedy
entry of food into any part of the enslaved area, when this part has been
wholly cleared of German forces, and has genuinely regained its freedom. We
shall do our best to encourage the building up of reserves of food all over the
world, so that there will always be held up before the eyes of the peoples of
Europe, including-I say deliberately-the German and Austrian peoples, the
certainty that the shattering of the Nazi power will bring to them all
immediate food, freedom and peace.
Rather more than a quarter of a year
has passed since the new Government came into power in this country. What a
cataract of disaster has poured out upon us since then! The trustful Dutch
overwhelmed; their beloved and respected Sovereign driven into exile; the
peaceful city of Rotterdam the scene of a massacre as hideous and brutal as
anything in the Thirty Years' War; Belgium invaded and beaten down; our own
fine Expeditionary Force, which King Leopold called to his rescue, cut off and
almost captured, escaping as it seemed only by a miracle and with the loss of
all its equipment; our Ally, France, out; Italy in against us; all France in
the power of the enemy, all its arsenals and vast masses of military material
converted or convertible to the enemy's use; a puppet Government set up at
Vichy which may at any moment be forced to become our foe; the whole western
seaboard of Europe from the North Cape to the Spanish frontier in German hands;
all the ports, all the airfields on this immense front employed against us as
potential springboards of invasion. Moreover, the German air power, numerically
so far outstripping ours, has been brought so close to our Island that what we
used to dread greatly has come to pass and the hostile bombers not only reach
our shores in a few minutes and from many directions, but can be escorted by
their fighting aircraft. Why, Sir, if we had been confronted at the beginning
of May with such a prospect, it would have seemed incredible that at the end of
a period of horror and disaster, or at this point in a period of horror and
disaster, we should stand erect, sure of ourselves, masters of our fate and
with the conviction of final victory burning unquenchable in our hearts. Few
would have believed we could survive; none would have believed that we should
today not only feel stronger but should actually be stronger than we have ever
been before.
Let us see what has happened on the other side of the
scales. The British nation and the British Empire, finding themselves alone,
stood undismayed against disaster. No one flinched or wavered; nay, some who
formerly thought of peace, now think only of war. Our people are united and
resolved, as they have never been before. Death and ruin have become small
things compared with the shame of defeat or failure in duty. We cannot tell
what lies ahead. It may be that even greater ordeals lie before us. We shall
face whatever is coming to us. We are sure of ourselves and of our cause, and
that is the supreme fact which has emerged in these months of trial.
Meanwhile, we have not only fortified our hearts but our Island. We have
rearmed and rebuilt our armies in a degree which would have been deemed
impossible a few months ago. We have ferried across the Atlantic, in the month
of July, thanks to our friends over there, an immense mass of munitions of all
kinds: cannon, rifles, machine guns, cartridges and shell, all safely landed
without the loss of a gun or a round. The output of our own factories, working
as they have never worked before, has poured forth to the troops. The whole
British Army is at home. More than 2,000,000 determined men have rifles and
bayonets in their hands tonight, and three-quarters of them are in regular
military formations. We have never had armies like this in our Island in time
of war. The whole Island bristles against invaders, from the sea or from the
air. As I explained to the House in the middle of June, the stronger our Army
at home, the larger must the invading expedition be, and the larger the
invading expedition, the less difficult will be the task of the Navy in
detecting its assembly and in intercepting and destroying it in passage; and
the greater also would be the difficulty of feeding and supplying the invaders
if ever they landed, in the teeth of continuous naval and air attack on their
communications. All this is classical and venerable doctrine. As in Nelson's
day, the maxim holds, "Our first line of defense is the enemy's ports." Now air
reconnaissance and photography have brought to an old principle a new and
potent aid.
Our Navy is far stronger than it was at the beginning of
the war. The great flow of new construction set on foot at the outbreak is now
beginning to come in. We hope our friends across the ocean will send us a
timely reinforcement to bridge the gap between the peace flotillas of 1939 and
the war flotillas of 1941. There is no difficulty in sending such aid. The seas
and oceans are open. The U-boats are contained. The magnetic mine is, up to the
present time, effectively mastered. The merchant tonnage under the British
flag, after a year of unlimited U-boat war, after eight months of intensive
mining attack, is larger than when we began. We have, in addition, under our
control at least 4,000,000 tons of shipping from the captive countries which
has taken refuge here or in the harbors of the Empire. Our stocks of food of
all kinds are far more abundant than in the days of peace, and a large and
growing program of food production is on foot.
Why do I say all this?
Not, assuredly, to boast; not, assuredly, to give the slightest countenance to
complacency. The dangers we face are still enormous, but so are our advantages
and resources. I recount them because the people have a right to know that
there are solid grounds for the confidence which we feel, and that we have good
reason to believe ourselves capable, as I said in a very dark hour two months
ago, of continuing the war "if necessary alone, if necessary for years." I say
it also because the fact that the British Empire stands invincible, and that
Nazidom is still being resisted, will kindle again the spark of hope in the
breasts of hundreds of millions of down-trodden or despairing men and women
throughout Europe, and far beyond its bounds, and that from these sparks there
will presently come cleansing and devouring flame.
The great air battle
which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently
attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to
its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts
will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth. Hostile air fields
are still being developed in France and the Low Countries, and the movement of
squadrons and material for attacking us is still proceeding. It is quite plain
that Herr Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain
without sustaining most serious injury. If after all his boastings and
bloodcurdling threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the world of the
damage he has inflicted, of the vast numbers of our Air Force he has shot down,
so he says, with so little loss to himself; if after tales of the
panic-stricken British crushed in their holes cursing the plutocratic
Parliament which has led them to such a plight-if after all this his whole air
onslaught were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Fuhrer's
reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. We may be
sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength to do so,
and as long as any preoccupations he may have in respect of the Russian Air
Force allow him to do so.
On the other hand, the conditions and course
of the fighting have so far been favorable to us. I told the House two months
ago that, whereas in France our fighter aircraft were wont to inflict a loss of
two or three to one upon the Germans, and in the fighting at Dunkirk, which was
a kind of no-man's-land, a loss of about three or four to one, we expected that
in an attack on this Island we should achieve a larger ratio. This has
certainly come true. It must also be remembered that all the enemy machines and
pilots which are shot down over our Island, or over the seas which surround it,
are either destroyed or captured; whereas a considerable proportion of our
machines, and also of our pilots, are saved, and soon again in many cases come
into action.
A vast and admirable system of salvage, directed by the
Ministry of Aircraft Production, ensures the speediest return to the fighting
line of damaged machines, and the most provident and speedy use of all the
spare parts and material. At the same time the splendid-nay,
astounding-increase in the output and repair of British aircraft and engines
which Lord Beaverbrook has achieved by a genius of organization and drive,
which looks like magic, has given us overflowing reserves of every type of
aircraft, and an ever-mounting stream of production both in quantity and
quality. The enemy is, of course, far more numerous than we are. But our new
production already, as I am advised, largely exceeds his, and the American
production is only just beginning to flow in. It is a fact, as I see from my
daily returns, that our bomber and fighter strength now, after all this
fighting, are larger than they have ever been. We believe that we shall be able
to continue the air struggle indefinitely and as long as the enemy pleases, and
the longer it continues the more rapid will be our approach, first towards that
parity, and then into that superiority, in the air upon which in a large
measure the decision of the war depends.
The gratitude of every home in
our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the
abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds,
unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide
of the World War by their prowess and b~ their devotion. Never in the field
of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out
to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day
after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month
after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets
in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often
under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful
discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical
and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force
does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who
will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal
it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain.
We are able to verify the results of bombing military targets in
Germany, not only by reports which reach us through many sources, but also, of
course, by photography. I have no hesitation in saying that this process of
bombing the military industries and communications of Germany and the air bases
and storage depots from which we are attacked, which process will continue upon
an ever-increasing scale until the end of the war, and may in another year
attain dimensions hitherto undreamed of, affords one at least of the most
certain, if not the shortest, of all the roads to victory. Even if the Nazi
legions stood triumphant on the Black Sea, or indeed upon the Caspian, even if
Hitler was at the gates of India, it would profit him nothing if at the same
time the entire economic and scientific apparatus of German war power lay
shattered and pulverized at home.
The fact that the invasion of this
Island upon a large scale has become a far more difficult operation with every
week that has passed since we saved our Army at Dunkirk, and our very great
preponderance of sea power enable us to turn our eyes and to turn our strength
increasingly towards the Mediterranean and against that other enemy who,
without the slightest provocation, coldly and deliberately, for greed and gain,
stabbed France in the back in the moment of her agony, and is now marching
against us in Africa. The defection of France has, of course, been deeply
damaging to our position in what is called, somewhat oddly, the Middle East. In
the defense of Somaliland, for instance, we had counted upon strong French
forces attacking the Italians from Jibuti. We had counted also upon the use of
the French naval and air bases in the Mediterranean, and particularly upon the
North African shore. We had counted upon the French Fleet. Even though
metropolitan France was temporarily overrun, there was no reason why the French
Navy, substantial parts of the French Army, the French Air Force and the French
Empire overseas should not have continued the struggle at our side.
Shielded by overwhelming sea power, possessed of invaluable strategic bases and
of ample funds, France might have remained one of the great combatants in the
struggle. By so doing, France would have preserved the continuity of her life,
and the French Empire might have advanced with the British Empire to the rescue
of the independence and integrity of the French Motherland. In our own case, if
we had been put in the terrible position of France, a contingency now happily
impossible, although, of course, it would have been the duty of all war leaders
to fight on here to the end, it would also have been their duty, as I indicated
in my speech of 4th June, to provide as far as possible for the Naval security
of Canada and our Dominions and to make sure they had the means to carry on the
struggle from beyond the oceans. Most of the other countries that have been
overrun by Germany for the time being have persevered valiantly and faithfully.
The Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Dutch, the Belgians are still in the
field, sword in hand, recognized by Great Britain and the United States as the
sole representative authorities and lawful Governments of their respective
States.
That France alone should lie prostrate at this moment is the
crime, not of a great and noble nation, but of what are called "the men of
Vichy." We have profound sympathy with the French people. Our old comradeship
with France is not dead. In General de Gaulle and his gallant band, that
comradeship takes an effective form. These free Frenchmen have been condemned
to death by Vichy, but the day will come, as surely as the sun will rise
tomorrow, when their names will be held in honor, and their names will be
graven in stone in the streets and villages of a France restored in a liberated
Europe to its full freedom and its ancient fame. But this conviction which I
feel of the future cannot affect the immediate problems which confront us in
the Mediterranean and in Africa. It had been decided some time before the
beginning of the war not to defend the Protectorate of Somaliland. That policy
was changed in the early months of the war. When the French gave in, and when
our small forces there, a few battalions, a few guns, were attacked by all the
Italian troops, nearly two divisions, which had formerly faced the French at
Jibuti, it was right to withdraw our detachments, virtually intact, for action
elsewhere. Far larger operations no doubt impend in the Middle East theater,
and I shall certainly not attempt to discuss or prophesy about their probable
course. We have large armies and many means of reinforcing them. We have the
complete sea command of the eastern Mediterranean. We intend to do our best to
give a good account of ourselves, and to discharge faithfully and resolutely
all our obligations and duties in that quarter of the world. More than that I
do not think the House would wish me to say at the present time.
A good
many people have written to me to ask me to make on this occasion a fuller
statement of our war aims, and of the kind of peace we wish to make after the
war, than is contained in the very considerable declaration which was made
early in the autumn. Since then we have made common cause with Norway, Holland
and Belgium. We have recognized the Czech Government of Dr. Benes, and we have
told General de Gaulle that our success will carry with it the restoration of
France. I do not think it would be wise at this moment, while the battle rages
and the war is still perhaps only in its earlier stage, to embark upon
elaborate speculations about the future shape which should be given to Europe
or the new securities which must be arranged to spare mankind the miseries of a
third World War. The ground is not new, it has been frequently traversed and
explored, and many ideas are held about it in common by all good men, and all
free men. But before we can undertake the task of rebuilding we have not only
to be convinced ourselves, but we have to convince all other countries that the
Nazi tyranny is going to be finally broken
The right to guide the
course of world history is the noblest prize of victory. We are still toiling
up the hill; we have not yet reached the crest-line of it; we cannot survey the
landscape or even imagine what its condition will be when that longed-for
morning comes. The task which lies before us immediately is at once more
practical, more simple and more stern. I hope-indeed, I pray-that we shall not
be found unworthy of our victory if after toil and tribulation it is granted to
us. For the rest, we have to gain the victory. That is our task.
There
is, however, one direction in which we can see a little more clearly ahead. We
have to think not only for ourselves but for the lasting security of the cause
and principles for which we are fighting and of the long future of the British
Commonwealth of Nations. Some months ago we came to the conclusion that the
interests of the United States and of the British Empire both required that the
United States should have facilities for the naval and air defense of the
Western Hemisphere against the attack of a Nazi power which might have acquired
temporary but lengthy control of a large part of Western Europe and its
formidable resources. We had therefore decided spontaneously, and without being
asked or offered any inducement, to inform the Government of the United States
that we would be glad to place such defense facilities at their disposal by
leasing suitable sites in our Transatlantic possessions for their greater
security against the unmeasured dangers of the future. The principle of
association of interests for common purposes between Great Britain and the
United States had developed even before the war. Various agreements had been
reached about certain small islands in the Pacific Ocean which had become
important as air fueling points. In all this line of thought we found ourselves
in very close harmony with the Government of Canada.
Presently we
learned that anxiety was also felt in the United States about the air and naval
defense of their Atlantic seaboard, and President Roosevelt has recently made
it clear that he would like to discuss with us, and with the Dominion of Canada
and with Newfoundland, the development of American naval and air facilities in
Newfoundland and in the West Indies. There is, of course, no question of any
transference of sovereignty-that has never been suggested-or of any action
being taken without the consent or against the wishes of the various Colonies
concerned; but for our part, His Majesty's Government are entirely willing to
accord defense facilities to the United States on a 99 years' leasehold basis,
and we feel sure that our interests no less than theirs, and the interests of
the Colonies themselves and of Canada and Newfoundland, will be served thereby.
These are important steps. Undoubtedly this process means that these two great
organizations of the English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the
United States, will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their
affairs for mutual and general one can stop it. Like the Mississippi, it just
keeps rolling alone. Let it roll. Let it roll on full flood, view the process
with any misgivings. I could not stop it if I wished; no one can stop it. Like
the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling alone. Let it roll. Let it roll on full
flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days.
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