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WINSTON CHURCHILL SPEAKS TO THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS, LONDON, UK
British History 1940
The Few
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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 of
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 of 27th 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 air-fields 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 to-day 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 to-night 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
on 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 downtrodden 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 blood-curdling
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
Fuehrer'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 by 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 the
struggle from beyond the oceans. Most of the
other countries that have been overrun by
Germany for the time being have preserved
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 to-morrow,
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 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 theatre, 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 fuelling 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 advantage.
For my own part, looking out upon the future, I
do not 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
along. Let it roll. Let it roll on full flood,
inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader
lands and better days.
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