And In The Town Halls And At The Polling Stations

It was 70 years ago today that Winston Churchill gave one of the greatest speeches in the history of the English language.

The British Army had just been ejected from continental Europe.  But it could have been worse.  We talked about Dunkirk earlier this week

Dunkirk was a miracle on one hand – but it had limits.  The Army had left all its tanks, artillery and all equipment heavier than rifles on the beach; it would have to be replaced, gun by gun, tank by tank, over the coming years.  And the rescue had battered the Royal Navy, which lost many ships protecting the evacuation.  Hitler was to turn in the coming weeks to trying to win air superiority over the island – the Battle of Britain, which Churchill would declare “their finest hour”…

…but that was all in the future.  On the evening of June 4, the Army – most of it – was home and safe, but the future was grim. 

The British people had been rocked on their heels.  There was some talk of reaching an armistice with Hitler; the British War Cabinet even voted on trying to seek terms with Hitler, although the proposal was soundly defeated.

Into that gap Churchill stepped, from the well of the House of Commons.  His speech concluded:

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.

And Britain went into its two-minute drill that we all know today; they held out under the bombardment; they kept air superiority over their island; they became the base from which the liberation of Europe was launched.

The coming months would be almost unimaginably grim by our 21st-century understanding, with the near-destruction of Britain’s air defenses, the Blitz, the firebombing of London and most other major British cities, and the near-starving of the island kingdom by a deadly-effective U-boat campaign.  

Hard to picture?  Imagine 9/11, only 2-3 times a week.  More British civilians died during the five months of the Blitz than American soldiers in fifteen years in Vietnam.  Ten British civilians died during those twenty brutal weeks for every American serviceman that has died in nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And yet Churchill kept his peoples’ minds on the prize – freedom for Britain, liberation for the Continent – for five more bloody years.

All we have to do is politically repel socialism and repeal a healthcare law.

Audio?  Sure!

11 thoughts on “And In The Town Halls And At The Polling Stations

  1. D-Day was 4 years later almost to the day (June 6th).

    Seems to me those tough, hard fighting Brits have done quite well with their acceptance of what you call socialism. Perhaps they are better at recognizing what needs to be fought and what should be welcomed as an improvement.

    But, nice try — and I always enjoy your appreciation of good oratory.

  2. “Brits have done quite well with their acceptance of what you call socialism. ”

    Sharia Law on the doorstep, and NHS death panels at large. Yes, DogPile, Churchill is rolling over in his grave alright. Back to your kool-aid, then…

  3. 70 years ago today the Jews were in countries Helen Thomas has decided are their homelands.

    Funny, my original birth certificate did not say “Russian”, or “Soviet Citizen” – it said I am a Jew, born from Jewish parents. Homeland? Hardly – just a place where my relatives have lived, died and are buried.

    Oddly enough, I just reread accounts of S.S. St. Louis yesterday. I think I’m going to go stock up on ammo.

  4. Dog Gone said:

    “done quite well with their acceptance of what you call socialism”

    And the Canadians have done quite well with their acceptance of what you call health care. Ha!

    I watched a bit of Parliament on C-SPAN. It wasn’t so much a parliament of whores as a parliament of nannies, differentiated by degree.

  5. I think those people who have health care in Canada look pretty good to those here in the US who have their costs rising steeply that affording it is prohibitive; or, who have had to file bankruptcy because of health care costs; or, who have been turned down for health care insurance because of a pre-existing condition; or, who have had a family member or friend die because of lack of health care, or…..

    you get the idea. Some form of what you term socialized medicine exist in every industrialized nation, and produces better results than our system which is spiraling out of control………and down the drain.

  6. “…Some form of what you term socialized medicine exist in every industrialized nation, and produces better results than our system which is spiraling out of control………and down the drain…”

    And that is why Canada is ditching single payer system and is going back to private healthcare. Bravo, DogPile, Bravo! Your logic is as usual completely devoid of reality, and least of all – facts!

  7. And “bankruptcy”, being “turned down”, and having to “die” are suddenly all good when it is a result of government policy.

  8. Justplainangry, I think the impetus for the Canadians adopting some form of private insurance was human rights. Some court decided it was simply wrong to insist that a trained surgeon could not provide care to willing patient simply because the government decreed that they made the decisions about who did and did not receive what treatment.

  9. “Some form of what you term socialized medicine exist in every industrialized nation, and produces better results than our system which is spiraling out of control………and down the drain.”
    And all of them are experiencing costs that are spiraling out of control and its corollary — rationing care based on political, not rational, considerations.
    The dirty trick ‘single payer’ plays on its victims is that some bureaucrat will decide whether you get your cancer treatment of 10.000 children get vaccinations. Single-payer just substitutes one irrational system for another — but it always results in the transfer of power from the individual to the State.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.