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WINSTON CHURCHILL SPEAKS TO THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS, LONDON, UK
British History 1940
We Shall Fight on the Beaches
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It follows the full text transcript of
Winston Churchill's We Shall Fight on the
Beaches speech, delivered before the House of Commons at
London, UK - June 4, 1940.
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From the moment
that the French defenses at Sedan and on the
Meuse were broken at the end of the second week
of May, only a rapid retreat to Amiens and the
south could have saved the British and French
Armies who had entered Belgium at the appeal of
the Belgian King. |
But this strategic
fact was not immediately realized. The French
High Command hoped they would be able to close
the gap, and the Armies of the north were under
their orders. Moreover, a retirement of this
kind would have involved almost certainly the
destruction of the fine Belgian Army of over 20
divisions and the abandonment of the whole of
Belgium. Therefore, when the force and scope of
the German penetration were realized and when a
new French Generalissimo, General Weygand,
assumed command in place of General Gamelin, an
effort was made by the French and British Armies
in Belgium to keep on holding the right hand of
the Belgians and to give their own right hand to
a newly created French Army which was to have
advanced across the Somme in great strength to
grasp it.
However, the German eruption swept like a sharp
scythe around the right and rear of the Armies
of the north. Eight or nine armored divisions,
each of about four hundred armored vehicles of
different kinds, but carefully assorted to be
complementary and divisible into small
self-contained units, cut off all communications
between us and the main French Armies. It
severed our own communications for food and
ammunition, which ran first to Amiens and
afterwards through Abbeville, and it shore its
way up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, and
almost to Dunkirk. Behind this armored and
mechanized onslaught came a number of German
divisions in lorries, and behind them again
there plodded comparatively slowly the dull
brute mass of the ordinary German Army and
German people, always so ready to be led to the
trampling down in other lands of liberties and
comforts which they have never known in their
own.
I have said this armored scythe-stroke almost
reached Dunkirk-almost but not quite. Boulogne
and Calais were the scenes of desperate
fighting. The Guards defended Boulogne for a
while and were then withdrawn by orders from
this country. The Rifle Brigade, the 60th
Rifles, and the Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a
battalion of British tanks and 1,000 Frenchmen,
in all about four thousand strong, defended
Calais to the last. The British Brigadier was
given an hour to surrender. He spurned the
offer, and four days of intense street fighting
passed before silence reigned over Calais, which
marked the end of a memorable resistance. Only
30 unwounded survivors were brought off by the
Navy, and we do not know the fate of their
comrades. Their sacrifice, however, was not in
vain. At least two armored divisions, which
otherwise would have been turned against the
British Expeditionary Force, had to be sent to
overcome them. They have added another page to
the glories of the light divisions, and the time
gained enabled the Graveline water lines to be
flooded and to be held by the French troops.
Thus it was that the port of Dunkirk was kept
open. When it was found impossible for the
Armies of the north to reopen their
communications to Amiens with the main French
Armies, only one choice remained. It seemed,
indeed, forlorn. The Belgian, British and French
Armies were almost surrounded. Their sole line
of retreat was to a single port and to its
neighboring beaches. They were pressed on every
side by heavy attacks and far outnumbered in the
air.
When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix
this afternoon as the occasion for a statement,
I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the
greatest military disaster in our long history.
I thought-and some good judges agreed with
me-that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be
re-embarked. But it certainly seemed that the
whole of the French First Army and the whole of
the British Expeditionary Force north of the
Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the
open field or else would have to capitulate for
lack of food and ammunition. These were the hard
and heavy tidings for which I called upon the
House and the nation to prepare themselves a
week ago. The whole root and core and brain of
the British Army, on which and around which we
were to build, and are to build, the great
British Armies in the later years of the war,
seemed about to perish upon the field or to be
led into an ignominious and starving captivity.
That was the prospect a week ago. But another
blow which might well have proved final was yet
to fall upon us. The King of the Belgians had
called upon us to come to his aid. Had not this
Ruler and his Government severed themselves from
the Allies, who rescued their country from
extinction in the late war, and had they not
sought refuge in what was proved to be a fatal
neutrality, the French and British Armies might
well at the outset have saved not only Belgium
but perhaps even Poland. Yet at the last moment,
when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold
called upon us to come to his aid, and even at
the last moment we came. He and his brave,
efficient Army, nearly half a million strong,
guarded our left flank and thus kept open our
only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly,
without prior consultation, with the least
possible notice, without the advice of his
Ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent
a plenipotentiary to the German Command,
surrendered his Army, and exposed our whole
flank and means of retreat.
I asked the House a week ago to suspend its
judgment because the facts were not clear, but I
do not feel that any reason now exists why we
should not form our own opinions upon this
pitiful episode. The surrender of the Belgian
Army compelled the British at the shortest
notice to cover a flank to the sea more than 30
miles in length. Otherwise all would have been
cut off, and all would have shared the fate to
which King Leopold had condemned the finest Army
his country had ever formed. So in doing this
and in exposing this flank, as anyone who
followed the operations on the map will see,
contact was lost between the British and two out
of the three corps forming the First French
Army, who were still farther from the coast than
we were, and it seemed impossible that any large
number of Allied troops could reach the coast.
The enemy attacked on all sides with great
strength and fierceness, and their main power,
the power of their far more numerous Air Force,
was thrown into the battle or else concentrated
upon Dunkirk and the beaches. Pressing in upon
the narrow exit, both from the east and from the
west, the enemy began to fire with cannon upon
the beaches by which alone the shipping could
approach or depart. They sowed magnetic mines in
the channels and seas; they sent repeated waves
of hostile aircraft, sometimes more than a
hundred strong in one formation, to cast their
bombs upon the single pier that remained, and
upon the sand dunes upon which the troops had
their eyes for shelter. Their U-boats, one of
which was sunk, and their motor launches took
their toll of the vast traffic which now began.
For four or five days an intense struggle
reigned. All their armored divisions-or what Was
left of them-together with great masses of
infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in
vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting
appendix within which the British and French
Armies fought.
Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help
of countless merchant seamen, strained every
nerve to embark the British and Allied troops;
220 light warships and 650 other vessels were
engaged. They had to operate upon the difficult
coast, often in adverse weather, under an almost
ceaseless hail of bombs and an increasing
concentration of artillery fire. Nor were the
seas, as I have said, themselves free from mines
and torpedoes. It was in conditions such as
these that our men carried on, with little or no
rest, for days and nights on end, making trip
after trip across the dangerous waters, bringing
with them always men whom they had rescued. The
numbers they have brought back are the measure
of their devotion and their courage. The
hospital ships, which brought off many thousands
of British and French wounded, being so plainly
marked were a special target for Nazi bombs; but
the men and women on board them never faltered
in their duty.
Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force, which had
already been intervening in the battle, so far
as its range would allow, from home bases, now
used part of its main metropolitan fighter
strength, and struck at the German bombers and
at the fighters which in large numbers protected
them. This struggle was protracted and fierce.
Suddenly the scene has cleared, the crash and
thunder has for the moment-but only for the
moment-died away. A miracle of deliverance,
achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect
discipline, by faultless service, by resource,
by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest
to us all. The enemy was hurled back by the
retreating British and French troops. He was so
roughly handled that he did not hurry their
departure seriously. The Royal Air Force engaged
the main strength of the German Air Force, and
inflicted upon them losses of at least four to
one; and the Navy, using nearly 1,000 ships of
all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and
British, out of the jaws of death and shame, to
their native land and to the tasks which lie
immediately ahead. We must be very careful not
to assign to this deliverance the attributes of
a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But
there was a victory inside this deliverance,
which should be noted. It was gained by the Air
Force. Many of our soldiers coming back have not
seen the Air Force at work; they saw only the
bombers which escaped its protective attack.
They underrate its achievements. I have heard
much talk of this; that is why I go out of my
way to say this. I will tell you about it.
This was a great trial of strength between the
British and German Air Forces. Can you conceive
a greater objective for the Germans in the air
than to make evacuation from these beaches
impossible, and to sink all these ships which
were displayed, almost to the extent of
thousands? Could there have been an objective of
greater military importance and significance for
the whole purpose of the war than this? They
tried hard, and they were beaten back; they were
frustrated in their task. We got the Army away;
and they have paid fourfold for any losses which
they have inflicted. Very large formations of
German aero planes, and we know that they are a
very brave race, have turned on several
occasions from the attack of one-quarter of
their number of the Royal Air Force, and have
dispersed in different directions. Twelve aero
planes have been hunted by two. One aero plane
was driven into the water and cast away by the
mere charge of a British aero plane, which had
no more ammunition. All of our types-the
Hurricane, the Spitfire and the new Defiant-and
all our pilots have been vindicated as superior
to what they have at present to face.
When we consider how much greater would be our
advantage in defending the air above this Island
against an overseas attack, I must say that I
find in these facts a sure basis upon which
practical and reassuring thoughts may rest. I
will pay my tribute to these young airmen. The
great French Army was very largely, for the time
being, cast back and disturbed by the onrush of
a few thousands of armored vehicles. May it not
also be that the cause of civilization itself
will be defended by the skill and devotion of a
few thousand airmen? There never has been, I
suppose, in all the world, in all the history of
war, such an opportunity for youth.
The Knights of the
Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into
the past, not only distant but prosaic. These
young men, going forth every morn to guard their
native land and all that we stand for, holding
in their hands these instruments of colossal and
shattering power, of whom it may be said that
Every morn brought
forth a noble chance
And every chance
brought forth a noble knight,
deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men
who, in so many ways and on so many occasions,
are ready, and continue ready to give life and
all for their native land.
I return to the Army. In the long series of very
fierce battles, now on this front, now on that,
fighting on three fronts at once, battles fought
by two or three divisions against an equal or
somewhat larger number of the enemy, and fought
fiercely on some of the old grounds that so many
of us knew so well-in these battles our losses
in men have exceeded 30,000 killed, wounded and
missing.
I take occasion to
express the sympathy of the House to all who
have suffered bereavement or who are still
anxious. The President of the Board of Trade
[Sir Andrew Duncan] is not here today. His son
has been killed, and many in the House have felt
the pangs of affliction in the sharpest form.
But I will say this about the missing: We have
had a large number of wounded come home safely
to this country, but I would say about the
missing that there may be very many reported
missing who will come back home, some day, in
one way or another. In the confusion of this
fight it is inevitable that many have been left
in positions where honor required no further
resistance from them.
Against this loss of over 30,000 men, we can set
a far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the
enemy. But our losses in material are enormous.
We have perhaps lost one-third of the men we
lost in the opening days of the battle of 21st
March, 1918, but we have lost nearly as many
guns -- nearly one thousand-and all our
transport, all the armored vehicles that were
with the Army in the north. This loss will
impose a further delay on the expansion of our
military strength. That expansion had not been
proceeding as far as we had hoped. The best of
all we had to give had gone to the British
Expeditionary Force, and although they had not
the numbers of tanks and some articles of
equipment which were desirable, they were a very
well and finely equipped Army. They had the
first-fruits of all that our industry had to
give, and that is gone. And now here is this
further delay. How long it will be, how long it
will last, depends upon the exertions which we
make in this Island. An effort the like of which
has never been seen in our records is now being
made. Work is proceeding everywhere, night and
day, Sundays and week days. Capital and Labor
have cast aside their interests, rights, and
customs and put them into the common stock.
Already the flow of munitions has leaped
forward. There is no reason why we should not in
a few months overtake the sudden and serious
loss that has come upon us, without retarding
the development of our general program.
Nevertheless, our thankfulness at the escape of
our Army and so many men, whose loved ones have
passed through an agonizing week, must not blind
us to the fact that what has happened in France
and Belgium is a colossal military disaster. The
French Army has been weakened, the Belgian Army
has been lost, a large part of those fortified
lines upon which so much faith had been reposed
is gone, many valuable mining districts and
factories have passed into the enemy's
possession, the whole of the Channel ports are
in his hands, with all the tragic consequences
that follow from that, and we must expect
another blow to be struck almost immediately at
us or at France. We are told that Herr Hitler
has a plan for invading the British Isles. This
has often been thought of before. When Napoleon
lay at Boulogne for a year with his
flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was
told by someone. "There are bitter weeds in
England." There are certainly a great many more
of them since the British Expeditionary Force
returned.
The whole question of home defense against
invasion is, of course, powerfully affected by
the fact that we have for the time being in this
Island incomparably more powerful military
forces than we have ever had at any moment in
this war or the last. But this will not
continue. We shall not be content with a
defensive war. We have our duty to our Ally. We
have to reconstitute and build up the British
Expeditionary Force once again, under its
gallant Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort. All this
is in train; but in the interval we must put our
defenses in this Island into such a high state
of organization that the fewest possible numbers
will be required to give effective security and
that the largest possible potential of offensive
effort may be realized. On this we are now
engaged. It will be very convenient, if it be
the desire of the House, to enter upon this
subject in a secret Session. Not that the
government would necessarily be able to reveal
in very great detail military secrets, but we
like to have our discussions free, without the
restraint imposed by the fact that they will be
read the next day by the enemy; and the
Government would benefit by views freely
expressed in all parts of the House by Members
with their knowledge of so many different parts
of the country. I understand that some request
is to be made upon this subject, which will be
readily acceded to by His Majesty's Government.
We have found it necessary to take measures of
increasing stringency, not only against enemy
aliens and suspicious characters of other
nationalities, but also against British subjects
who may become a danger or a nuisance should the
war be transported to the United Kingdom. I know
there are a great many people affected by the
orders which we have made who are the passionate
enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for
them, but we cannot, at the present time and
under the present stress, draw all the
distinctions which we should like to do. If
parachute landings were attempted and fierce
fighting attendant upon them followed, these
unfortunate people would be far better out of
the way, for their own sakes as well as for
ours. There is, however, another class, for
which I feel not the slightest sympathy.
Parliament has given us the powers to put down
Fifth Column activities with a strong hand, and
we shall use those powers subject to the
supervision and correction of the House, without
the slightest hesitation until we are satisfied,
and more than satisfied, that this malignancy in
our midst has been effectively stamped out.
Turning once again, and this time more
generally, to the question of invasion, I would
observe that there has never been a period in
all these long centuries of which we boast when
an absolute guarantee against invasion, still
less against serious raids, could have been
given to our people. In the days of Napoleon the
same wind which would have carried his
transports across the Channel might have driven
away the blockading fleet. There was always the
chance, and it is that chance which has excited
and befooled the imaginations of many
Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are
told. We are assured that novel methods will be
adopted, and when we see the originality of
malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our
enemy displays, we may certainly prepare
ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and
every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I
think that no idea is so outlandish that it
should not be considered and viewed with a
searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a
steady eye. We must never forget the solid
assurances of sea power and those which belong
to air power if it can be locally exercised.
I have, myself, full confidence that if all do
their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the
best arrangements are made, as they are being
made, we shall prove ourselves once again able
to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm
of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if
necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any
rate, that is what we are going to try to do.
That is the resolve of His Majesty's
Government-every man of them. That is the will
of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire
and the French Republic, linked together in
their cause and in their need, will defend to
the death their native soil, aiding each other
like good comrades to the utmost of their
strength. 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.
We shall go on to
the end, we shall fight in France, we shall
fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight
with growing confidence and growing strength in
the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever
the cost may be.
We shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing
grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the
streets, we shall fight in the hills.
We shall never
surrender, and even if, which I do not for a
moment believe, this Island or a large part of
it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire
beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the
British Fleet, would carry on the struggle,
until, in God's good time, the New World, with
all its power and might, steps forth to the
rescue and the liberation of the old.
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