Latest / Historic Speeches of the UK House of Commons, Vol. 1 / 016 - We shall fight on the beaches 1940

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016 - We shall fight on the beaches 1940 · Historic Speeches of the UK House of Commons, Vol. 1

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith
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  Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. What follows is the speech by
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  Speaker 1: Winston Churchill entitled we shall Fight on the Beaches, delivered
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  Speaker 1: in the House of Commons June fourth, nineteen forty. From
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  Speaker 1: the moment that the French defenses at Sedan and on
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  Speaker 1: the Meuse were broken at the end of the second
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  Speaker 1: week of May, only a rapid retreat to Ammia and
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  Speaker 1: the south could have saved the British and French armies
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  Speaker 1: who had entered Belgium at the appeal of the Belgian King.
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  Speaker 1: But this strategic fact was not immediately realized. The French
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  Speaker 1: high command hoped that they would be able to close
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  Speaker 1: the gap, and the armies of the north were under
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  Speaker 1: their orders. Moreover, a retirement of this kind would have
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  Speaker 1: involved almost certainly the destruction of the fine Belgian army
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  Speaker 1: of over twenty divisions, and the abandonment of the whole
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  Speaker 1: of Belgium. Therefore, when the force and scope of the
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  Speaker 1: German penetration were realized, and when a new French Generalissimo,
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  Speaker 1: General Wigand assumed command in place of General Gamelin. An
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  Speaker 1: effort was made by the French and British armies in
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  Speaker 1: Belgium to keep on holding the right hand of the
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  Speaker 1: Belgians and to give their own right hand to a
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  Speaker 1: newly created French army, which was to have advanced across
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  Speaker 1: the Somme in great strength to grasp it. However, the
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  Speaker 1: German eruptions swept like a sharp scythe around the right
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  Speaker 1: and rear of the armies of the North. Eight or
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  Speaker 1: nine armored divisions, each of about four hundred armored vehicles
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  Speaker 1: of different kinds, but carefully sorted to be complementary and
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  Speaker 1: divisible into small, self contained units, cut off all communications
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  Speaker 1: between us and the main French armies. It severed our
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  Speaker 1: own communications for food and ammunition, which ran first to
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  Speaker 1: Amiens and afterwards through Abbeville, and it sure its way
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  Speaker 1: up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, and almost to Dunkirk.
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  Speaker 1: Behind this armoured and mechanized onslaught came a number of
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  Speaker 1: German divisions in lorries, and behind them again there plotted
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  Speaker 1: comparatively slowly the dull brute mass of the ordinary German
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  Speaker 1: army and German people always so ready to be led
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  Speaker 1: to the trampling down in other lands of liberties and
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  Speaker 1: comforts which they have never known in their own. I
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  Speaker 1: have said this armored scythe stroke almost reached Dunkirk, almost
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  Speaker 1: but not quite. Bologna and Calais were the scenes of
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  Speaker 1: desperate fighting. The guards defended Boulogne for a while and
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  Speaker 1: were then withdrawn by orders from this country. The Rifle Brigade,
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  Speaker 1: the sixtieth Rifles and the Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a
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  Speaker 1: battalion of British tanks and one thousand frenchmen in all
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  Speaker 1: about four thousand strong, defended Calais to the last. The
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  Speaker 1: British brigadier was given an hour to surrender. He spurned
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  Speaker 1: the offer, and four days of intense street fighting passed
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  Speaker 1: before silence reigned over Calais, which marked the end of
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  Speaker 1: a memorable resistance. Only thirty unwounded survivors were brought off
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  Speaker 1: by the navy, and we do not know the fate
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  Speaker 1: of their comrades. Their sacrifice, however, was not in vain.
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  Speaker 1: At least two armored divisions, which otherwise would have been
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  Speaker 1: turned against the British expeditionary force had to be sent
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  Speaker 1: to overcome them. They have added another page to the
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  Speaker 1: glories of the light divisions, and the time gained enabled
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  Speaker 1: the grave Line water lines to be flooded and to
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  Speaker 1: be held by the French troops. Thus it was that
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  Speaker 1: the port of Dunkirk was kept open. When it was
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  Speaker 1: found impossible for the armies of the North to reopen
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  Speaker 1: their communications to Amia with the main French armies, only
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  Speaker 1: one choice remained. It seemed, indeed forlorn. The Belgian, British
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  Speaker 1: and French armies were almost surrounded. Their sole line of
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  Speaker 1: retreat was to a single port and to its neighboring beaches.
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  Speaker 1: They were pressed on every side by heavy attacks and
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  Speaker 1: far outnumbered in the air. When a week ago to
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  Speaker 1: day I asked the House to fix this afternoon as
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  Speaker 1: the occasion for a statement. I feared it would be
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  Speaker 1: my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in
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  Speaker 1: our long history, I thought, and some good judges agreed
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  Speaker 1: with me, that perhaps twenty thousand or thirty thousand men
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  Speaker 1: might be re embarked. But it certainly seemed that the
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  Speaker 1: whole of the French First Army and the whole of
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  Speaker 1: the British expeditionary force north of the Amia Abbeville Gap
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  Speaker 1: would be broken up in the open field, or else
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  Speaker 1: would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition.
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  Speaker 1: These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I
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  Speaker 1: called upon the House and the Nation to prepare themselves.
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  Speaker 1: A week ago. The whole route in corps and brain
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  Speaker 1: of the British Army, on which and around which we
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  Speaker 1: were to build, and are to build the great British
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  Speaker 1: Armies in the later years of the war, seemed about
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  Speaker 1: to perish upon the field, or to be led into
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  Speaker 1: an ignominious and starving captivity. That was the prospect a
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  Speaker 1: week ago. But another blow, which might well have proved final,
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  Speaker 1: was yet to fall upon us. The King of the
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  Speaker 1: Belgians had called upon us to come to his aid.
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  Speaker 1: Had not this ruler and his government severed themselves from
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  Speaker 1: the allies who rescued their country from extinction in the
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  Speaker 1: late war, and had they not sought refuge in what
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  Speaker 1: was proved to be a fatal neutrality, the French and
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  Speaker 1: British armies might well, at the outset have saved not
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  Speaker 1: only Belgium, but perhaps even Poland. Yet at the last moment,
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  Speaker 1: when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us
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  Speaker 1: to come to his aid, and even at the last
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  Speaker 1: moment we came. He and his brave, efficient army, nearly
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  Speaker 1: half a million strong, guarded our left flank and thus
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  Speaker 1: kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the
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  Speaker 1: advice of his ministers, and upon his own personal act,
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  Speaker 1: he sent uplenipotentiary to the German command, surrendered his army
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  Speaker 1: and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat. I
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  Speaker 1: asked the House a week ago to suspend its judgment
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  Speaker 1: because the facts were not clear. But I do not
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  Speaker 1: feel that any reason now exists why we should not
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  Speaker 1: form our own opinions upon this pitiful episode. The surrenderer
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  Speaker 1: of the Belgian army compelled the British at the shortest
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  Speaker 1: notice to cover a flank to the sea more than
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  Speaker 1: thirty miles in length. Otherwise all would have been cut off,
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  Speaker 1: and all would have shared the fate to which King
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  Speaker 1: Leopold had condemned. The finest army his country had ever formed.
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  Speaker 1: So in doing this and exposing this flank. As any
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  Speaker 1: one who followed the operations on the map will see,
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  Speaker 1: contact was lost between the British and two out of
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  Speaker 1: the three corps forming the first French Army, who were
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  Speaker 1: still farther from the coast than we were, and it
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  Speaker 1: seemed impossible that any large number of Allied troops could
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  Speaker 1: reach the coast. The enemy attacked on all sides with
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  Speaker 1: great strength and fierceness, and their main power, the power
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  Speaker 1: of their far more numerous air force, was thrown into
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  Speaker 1: the battle, or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches.
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  Speaker 1: Pressing in upon the narrow exit both from the east
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  Speaker 1: and from the west. The enemy began to fire with
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  Speaker 1: cannon upon the beaches by which alone the shipping could
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  Speaker 1: approach or depart. They sowed magnetic mines in the channels
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  Speaker 1: and seas. They sent repeated waves of hostile air craft,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes more than one hundred strong in one formation, to
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  Speaker 1: cast their bombs upon the single pier that remained, and
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  Speaker 1: upon the sand dunes upon which the troops had their
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  Speaker 1: eyes for shelter. Their u boats, one of which was sunk,
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  Speaker 1: and their motor launches took their toll of the vast traffic,
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  Speaker 1: which now began. For four or five days an intense
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  Speaker 1: struggle reigned. All their armored divisions, or what was left
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  Speaker 1: of them, together with great masses of infantry and artillery,
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  Speaker 1: hurled themselves in vain upon the ever narrowing, ever contracting appendix,
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  Speaker 1: within which the British and French armies fought. Meanwhile, the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Navy, with a willing help of countless merchant seamen,
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  Speaker 1: strained every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops.
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  Speaker 1: Two hundred twenty light warships and six hundred fifty other
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  Speaker 1: vessels were engaged. They had to operate upon the difficult coast,
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  Speaker 1: often in adverse weather, under an almost ceaseless hail of
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  Speaker 1: bombs and an increasing concentry ration of artillery fire. Nor
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  Speaker 1: were the seas, as I have said, themselves, free from
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  Speaker 1: mines and torpedoes. It was in conditions such as these
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  Speaker 1: that our men carried on with little or no rest,
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  Speaker 1: for days and nights on end, making trip after trip
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  Speaker 1: across the dangerous waters, bringing with them always men whom
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  Speaker 1: they had rescued. The numbers they have brought back are
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  Speaker 1: the measure of their devotion and their courage. The hospital ships,
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  Speaker 1: which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded,
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  Speaker 1: being so plainly marked, were a special target for Nazi bombs,
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  Speaker 1: but the men and women on board them never faltered
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  Speaker 1: in their duty. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force, which had
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  Speaker 1: already been intervening in the battle so far as its
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  Speaker 1: range would allow from home bases, now used part of
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  Speaker 1: its main metropolis in fighter strength, and struck at the
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  Speaker 1: German bombers and at the fighters which in large numbers
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  Speaker 1: protected them. This struggle was protracted in fierce Suddenly the
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  Speaker 1: scene has cleared, The crash and thunder has for the moment,
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  Speaker 1: but only for the moment, died away. A miracle of deliverance,
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  Speaker 1: achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service,
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  Speaker 1: by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us. All.
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  Speaker 1: The enemy was hurled back by the retreating British and
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  Speaker 1: French troops. He was so roughly handled that he did
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  Speaker 1: not hurry their departure seriously. The Royal Air Force engaged
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  Speaker 1: the main strength of the German Air Force and inflicted
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  Speaker 1: upon them losses of at least four to one, and
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  Speaker 1: the Navy, using nearly one thousand ships of all kinds,
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  Speaker 1: carried over three hundred thirty five thousand men, French and British,
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  Speaker 1: out of the jaws of death and shame to their
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  Speaker 1: native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead.
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  Speaker 1: We must be very careful not to assign to this
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  Speaker 1: deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won
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  Speaker 1: by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance
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  Speaker 1: which should be noted. It was gained by the air force.
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  Speaker 1: Many of our soldiers coming back have not seen the
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  Speaker 1: air force at work. They saw only the bombers which
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  Speaker 1: escaped its protective attack. They underrated its achievements. I have
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  Speaker 1: heard much talk of this, and that is why I
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  Speaker 1: go out of my way to say this. I will
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  Speaker 1: tell you about it. This was a great trial of
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  Speaker 1: strength between the British and German air forces. Can you
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  Speaker 1: conceive a greater object to for the Germans in the
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  Speaker 1: air than to make evacuation from these beaches I impossible
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  Speaker 1: and to sink all these ships which were displayed almost
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  Speaker 1: to the extent of thousands. Could there have been an
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  Speaker 1: objective of greater military importance? And significance for the whole
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  Speaker 1: purpose of the war than this. They tried hard, and
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  Speaker 1: they were beaten back. They were frustrated in their task.
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  Speaker 1: We got the army away, and they have paid fourfold
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  Speaker 1: for any losses which they have inflicted. Very large formations
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  Speaker 1: of German aeroplanes, and we know that they are a
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  Speaker 1: very brave race, have turned on several occasions from the
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  Speaker 1: attack of one quarter of their number of the Royal
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  Speaker 1: Air Force, and have dispersed in different directions. Twelve aeroplanes
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  Speaker 1: have been haunted by two. One aeroplane was driven into
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  Speaker 1: the water cast away by the mere charge of a
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  Speaker 1: British aeroplane which had no more ammunition. All of our types,
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  Speaker 1: the Hurricane, the Spitfire and the new Defiant, and all
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  Speaker 1: our pilots have been vindicated as superior to what they
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  Speaker 1: have at present to face. When we consider how much
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  Speaker 1: greater would be our advantage him defending the air above
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  Speaker 1: this island against an overseas attack, I must say that
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  Speaker 1: I find in these facts a sure basis upon which
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  Speaker 1: practical and reassuring thoughts may rest. I will pay my
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  Speaker 1: tribute to these young airmen. The great French Army was
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  Speaker 1: very largely for the time being cast back and disturbed
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  Speaker 1: by the onrush of a few thousands of armored vehicles.
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  Speaker 1: May it not also be that the civilization itself will
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  Speaker 1: be defended by this skill and devotion of a few
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  Speaker 1: thousand dermen. There never has been, I suppose, in all
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  Speaker 1: the world, in all the history of war, such an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for youth. The knights of the round Table, the crusaders,
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  Speaker 1: all fall back into the past, not only distant but prosaic.
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  Speaker 1: These young men going forth every morn to guard their
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  Speaker 1: native land and all that we stand for, Holding in
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  Speaker 1: their hands, these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of
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  Speaker 1: which it may be said that every morn brought forth
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  Speaker 1: a noble chance, and every chance brought forth a noble knight,
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  Speaker 1: deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men, who,
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  Speaker 1: in so many ways, and on so many occasions, are
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  Speaker 1: ready and continue ready to give life and all for
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  Speaker 1: their native land. I returned to the army in the
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  Speaker 1: long series of very fierce battles, now on this front,
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  Speaker 1: now on that, fighting on three fronts at once, battles
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  Speaker 1: fought by two or three divisions against an equal or
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  Speaker 1: somewhat larger number of the enemy, and fought fiercely on
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  Speaker 1: some of the old grounds that so many of us
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  Speaker 1: knew so well. In these battles, our losses in men
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  Speaker 1: have exceeded thirty thousand kill'd, wounded and missing. I take
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  Speaker 1: occasion to express the sympathy of the House to all
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  Speaker 1: who have suffered bereavement or who are stulanxious. The President
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  Speaker 1: of the Board of Trade, Sir Andrew Duncan, is not
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  Speaker 1: here to day. His son has been killed, and many
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  Speaker 1: in the House have felt the banks of affliction in
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  Speaker 1: the sharpest form. But I will say this about the missing.
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  Speaker 1: We have had a large number of wounded come home
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  Speaker 1: safely to this country. But I would say about the missing,
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  Speaker 1: that there may be very many reported missing who will
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  Speaker 1: come back home some day in one way or another.
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  Speaker 1: In the confusion of this fight, it is inevitable that
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: many have been left in positions where honor required no
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  Speaker 1: further resistance from them. Against this loss of over thirty
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  Speaker 1: thousand men, we can set a far heavier loss certainly
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  Speaker 1: inflicted upon the enemy, but our losses in material are enormous.
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  Speaker 1: We have perhaps lost one third of the men we
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: lost in the opening days of the Battle of March
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, nineteen eighteen. But we have lost nearly as
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  Speaker 1: many guns, nearly one thousand, and all our transport, all
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  Speaker 1: the armored vehicles that were with the army in the North.
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  Speaker 1: This loss will impose a further delay on the expansion
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  Speaker 1: of our military strength. That expansion had not been proceeding
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  Speaker 1: as far as we had hoped. The best of all
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  Speaker 1: we had to give had gone to the British Expeditionary Force.
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  Speaker 1: And although they had not the numbers of tanks and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: some articles of equipment which were desirable, they were a
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  Speaker 1: very well and finely equipped army. They had the first
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  Speaker 1: fruits of all that our industry had to give. And
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  Speaker 1: that is gone. And now here is this further delay.
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  Speaker 1: How long it will be, how long it will last,
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  Speaker 1: depends upon the exertions which we make in this island.
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  Speaker 1: An effort the like of which has never been seen
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  Speaker 1: in our records is now being made. Workers proceeding everywhere
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  Speaker 1: night and day, Sundays and week days. Capital and labour
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: have cast aside their interests, rights and customs and put
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: them into the common stock. Already the flow of munitions
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  Speaker 1: has leaped forward. There is no reason why we should
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  Speaker 1: not in a few months overtake the sudden and serious
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: loss that has come upon us, without retarding the development
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: of our general program. Nevertheless, our thankfulness that the escape
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of our army and so many men whose loved ones
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: have passed through an agonizing week must not blind us
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: to the fact that what has happened in France and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Belgium is a colossal military disaster. The French army has
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: been weakened, the Belgian army has been lost. A large
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: part of those fortified lines upon which so much faith
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: have been reposed is gone. Many valuable mining districts and
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: factories have passed into the end Y's possession. The whole
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of the Channel ports are in his hands, with all
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the tragic consequences that follow from that, and we must
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us
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  Speaker 1: or at France. We are told that her Hitler has
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: a plan for invading the British Isles. This has often
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: been thought of before. When Napoleon lay at Bologne for
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: a year with his flat bottomed boats and his grand army,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: he was told by some one there are bitter weeds
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: in England. There are certainly a great many more of
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: them since the British Expeditionary Force returned. The whole question
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of home defense against invasion is of course powerfully affected
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: by the fact that we have, for the time being
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: in this island incomparably more powerful military forces than we
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: have ever had at any moment in this World War
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: or the last. But this will not continue. We shall
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: not be content with the defensive war. We have our
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: duty to our ally. We have to reconstitute and build
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: up the British Expeditionary Force once again under its gallant
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: commander in Chief, Lord gort All. This is in train,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: but in the interval we must put our defenses in
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: this island into such a high state of organization that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the fewest possible numbers will be required to give effective security,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and that the largest possible potential level offensive effort may
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: be realized. On this we are now engaged. It will
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: be very convenient if it be the desire of the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: House to enter upon this subject in a secret session,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: not that the Government would necessarily be able to reveal
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in very great detail military secrets, like to have our
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: discussions free without the restraint imposed by the fact that
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: they will be read the next day by the enemy
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and the government would benefit by fews freely expressed in
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: all parts of the House by members with their knowledge
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: of so many different parts of the country. I understand
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: that some request is to be made upon this subject,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: which will be readily exceeded to by His Majesty's government.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: We have found it necessary to take measures of increasing
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: stringency not only against enemy aliens and suspicious characters of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: other nationalities, but also against British subjects, who may become
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: a danger or a nuisance should the war be transported
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to the United Kingdom. I know there are a great
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: many people affected by the orders which we have made,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: who are the passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: very sorry for them, but we cannot at the present time,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: we should like to do. If parachute landings were attempted
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: in fierce fighting attendant upon them followed, these unfortunate people
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: would be far better out of the way, for their
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: own sakes as well as for ours. There is, however,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: another class for which I feel not the slightest sympathy.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Parliament has given us the powers to put down fifth
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: column activities with a strong hand, and we shall use
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: those powers, subject to the supervision and correction of the House,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: without the slightest hesitation, until we are satisfied, and more
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: than satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: effectively stamped out. Turning once more, and this time more generally,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to the question of invasion, I would observe that there
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: has never been a period in all these long centuries
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of which we boast, when an absolute guarantee against invasion,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: still less against serious raids, could have been given to
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: our people. In the days of Napoleon, the same wind
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: which would have carried his transports across the channel might
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and it is that chance which has excited and befooled
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the imaginations of many continental tyrants. Many are the tales
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that are told. We are assured that novel methods will
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I think that
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: no idea is so outlandish that it should not be
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: considered and viewed with a searching But at the same time,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I hope with a steady eye we must never forget
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to air power, if it can be locally exercised. I
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: have myself full confidence that if all do their duty,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: made as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: once again able to defend our island home, to ride
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of tyranny if necessary, for years, if necessary alone, at
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: any rate, that is what we are going to try
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's govern
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: every man of them, That is the will of Parliament
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: link together in their cause and in their need, will
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: like good comrades, to the utmost of their strength. Even
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: states have fallen or may fall into the grip of
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the Gestapo, and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: fight on the beaches, We shall fight on the landing grounds.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: And even if which I do not for a moment
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: believe this island, where a large part of it was
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: subjucated in starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: struggle until, in God's good time the New World, with
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Where the liberation of the old end of speech