Their Finest Hour - Steadfast Sense of Duty

Their Finest Hour - Part 2 of a 6-part memoirs regarding WW2 written by Winston Churchill.

This is the book I am currently reading. I have always admired the staunch dogged determination and sense of duty that the British and Churchill demonstrated during the Second World War, especially when they alone stood against the full might of Nazi Germany after the fall of France.

Below are some of the most inspiring and rallying excerpts of speeches made by Winston Churchill to Parliament in that decisive year of 1940.


First Speech to the House of Commons by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, May 1940
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."


The famous 'We shall fight ....' speech by Winston Churchill
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 in 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 beachers, 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, woudl 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.
FULL SPEECH: http://www.quoteland.com/library/speeches/churchill1.asp


The famous 'Their finest hour' speech by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, 18 June 1940 (Upon the fall of France and Britain stood alone as the sole ally powers nation free in Europe.)
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

Further link: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1