Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Join to automatically receive a subscription to BOTH. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. --Caramella1 09:44, 17 March 2016 (UTC) This page was last edited on 19 June 2019, at 00:01 (UTC). They have suffered severely, but they have fought well. > Their Finest Hour. 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. See also: fin, hour. Copyright © 2021 International Churchill Society. And these very high-class forces from the Dominions will now take part in the defence of the Mother Country. 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. 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. Definition of Finest Hour in the Idioms Dictionary. But for the reasons I have given to the House these will not be found so easy to apply. Churchill composed the speech to boost the British people’s morale as they faced off against the Nazi regime … 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. Here is where we come to the Navy-and after all, we have a Navy. 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? We cannot afford it. Share on Twitter Their Finest Hour ©BBC. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. This also applies in a small way to our own affairs at home. Therefore, I cannot accept the drawing of any distinctions between Members of the present Government. Everything miscarried. What does Finest Hour expression mean? 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. “This Was Their Finest Hour” W. Churchill, Speech about Dunkirk in 1940 Harry McElroy Willcox, AZ Edited by Paul Hilmo Quail Point, photo by L. McElroy. Their Finest Hour, 1940 . 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. Read this excerpt from "their finest hour":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. It was given just over a month after he took over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the head of an all-party coalition government.. That I judge to be utterly futile and even harmful. 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. This was their finest hour is the title commonly used for a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940. Ein Beispiel vorschlagen. 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. 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. 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. Therefore, this Island was for several months particularly denuded of fighting troops. 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. 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. 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. On the same day that Churchill delivered the speech, General Charles de Gaulle addressed the French by radio in an effort to encourage them to continue the fight. His speech ended with the following words: “What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Britain's Finest Hour will be when the policy of mass immigration is ended in the UK!Stand up to Hitler! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Winston Churchill used many powerful oratorical figures in his speech “This was their finest hour”. It in no way diminishes, but on the contrary definitely increases, the power of our long-distance blockade. This was their finest hour is the title commonly used for a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940. We use cookies to ensure that we are able to give you the best experience on our website. This was their finest hour was a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940, just over a month after he took over as Prime Minister at the head of an all-party coalition government. We have, therefore, lived under this danger, in principle and in a slightly modified form, during all these months. Namely, the German army entered Paris a few days earlier, and the new French government led by Marshal Petaine was preparing to sign the … The concluding part of Churchill’s speech to this day read: “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, I will still say, ‘This was their finest hour ‘. 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. VOLUME 2: THEIR FINEST HOUR On June 4, 1940, he addressed Parliament, ending with the statement, “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. 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. Helmut Lent – night pilot with more than 100 downed aircraft – 1944. If it is of large size, then the Navy have something they can find and meet and, as it were, bite on. This loss inevitably took some weeks to repair, and in the first two of those weeks the battle in France has been lost. After … 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. All these shall be restored. had proceeded abroad. 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. Without this concentrated power we cannot face what lies before us. Why was it their finest hour? It follows the full text transcript of Winston Churchill's Finest Hour speech, delivered to the House of Commons, London, UK - June 18, 1940. 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. It is necessary to look at the context in which that speech originated. 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. We abate nothing of our just demands; not one jot or tittle do we recede. Their Finest Hour on Amazon.com. The ending of a story or speech is crucial especially when the goal is to invite the audience to take action. I am not reciting these facts for the purpose of recrimination. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. Share by Email, The most recent issues of Finest Hour are available online to members. 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. 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. If you continue to use this website then you must agree to the terms set out in our Privacy Policy. 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. 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. During the great battle in France, we gave very powerful and continuous aid to. The History Place - Great Speeches Collection See also: The History Place - Defeat of Hitler - Britain Stands Alone 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. 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. 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. 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 the conditions in the Channel and in the North Sea are in no way like those which prevail in the Skagerrak. Share on Linked In Their Finest Hour (1940) [June 18, 1940. It would not be a good thing for me to go into details of this. 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.

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