Great Britain Will Not Fall

WE ARE STRONGER THAN EVER

By WINSTON CHURCHILL, Prime Minister of Great Britain

Delivered to the House of Commons, London, August 20, 1940

Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. VI, pp. 692-696

ALMOST a year has passed since the war began. It is natural for us, therefore, 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 fore-runner 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 operators, science, mechanics and morale.

Year's Casualties Contrasted

The British casualties in the first twelve months of the great war amounted to 365,000. In this war British killed, wounded, prisoners and missing, including civilians, are about 92,000, but of these a large proportion are alive as prisoners of war. Throughout all Europe for one man killed or wounded in this first year perhaps five were killed or wounded in 1914-15.

The slaughter is but a 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 twenty-five 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 nationsthan anything which has ever happened since barbaric times.

Moves are made upon scientific and strategic boards, advantages are gained by mechanical means as the 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.

Entire Populations Involved There is another and far more obvious difference from 1914. The whole of the warring nations are involved—not only soldiers, but the entire population; men, women and children.

The fronts are everywhere. The trenches are dug in the towns and the 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.

There seems to be every reason to believe that this new kind of war is well suited to the genius and resources of the British Nation and 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 whole nations fighting and suffering together, that ought to suit us, too, because we are the most united of all the nations, because we entered the war upon the national will and with our eyes open, because we have been nursed 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 they have not thought of yet.

British Science Leads Since the Germans drove out the Jews 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, enables 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 nations. And when we are doing the finest thing in the world, and have the honor to be the sole champion of the liberty of all Europe, we must not grudge these years, or 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.

Deeds, Not Words, Will Tell

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 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 go in to nourish the Nazis and aid their war effort, or to allow food to go into the subjugated peoples which would certainly 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.

Nazis' New Economy

The Nazis are boasting 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 June 27 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 produced sufficient food for her people.

Moreover, the other countries which Herr Hitler has invaded all held considerable stock when the Germans entered and are themselves 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 there 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.

Foods Make War Materials

There is another aspect. Many of the most valuable foods are essential to the manufacture of vital war materials. Fats are used to make explosives, potatoes to make the alcohol for motor spirit. The plastic materials now so largely used for aircraft construction are made of milk.

If the Germans use these commodities to help them bomb our women and children, rather than to feed the populations who produce them, we may be sure that any imported food would go the same way, directly or indirectly, or be employed to relieve the enemy of the responsibilities he has 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 it will be broken. Meanwhile we can 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 out before the eyes of the peoples of Europe, including—I say it deliberately—the German Austrian peoples, the certainty that the shattering of the Nazi power will bring to them all immediate food, freedom and peace.

Cataract of Disaster

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 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 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 airfields upon this immense front employed against us as potential springboards of invasion; the German air power, numerically so far outstripping ours, has been brought so close to our island that what we used to dread 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 fighters.

If we had been confronted at the beginning of May with such a prospect, it would have seemed incredible that at this point of 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.

Britain Stronger Than Ever

Few would have believed we could survive; none would have believed that we should today 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 ruinhave 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 will face whatever is coming to us. We are sure of ourselves and of our cause. Here, then, is the supreme fact.

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, thanks to our friends over there, an immense mass of munitions of all kinds—cannon, rifles, machine guns, cartridges and shells— 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.

2,000,000 Men Armed

The whole British Army is at home. More than 2,000,000 determined men have rifles and bayonets in their hands tonight, 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 be the invading expedition; 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 would be the difficulty of feeding and supplying the invaders if ever they landed in the teeth of continuous naval and air attack upon their communications.

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 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.

Situation on the Seas

The seas and oceans are open. The U-boats are contained. The magnetic mine is 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, 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 many times as great as in the days of peace.

Why do I say all this? Not, assuredly, to boast; not 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 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 because the fact that the British Empire stands invincible and that nazidom can still be 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 thesesparks there will presently come a cleansing and devouring flame.

The Present Great Battle

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 the scale or duration of the great air battle. 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 most serious injury. If, after all these 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; after tales of panic-stricken British couched in their holes, cursing the plutocratic government which has led them to such a plight—his whole air onslaught were forced 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 and as long as any preoccupations he may have in respect of the Russian air force allow him to do so.

Fighting Favors British

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, 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 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 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 or 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.

Nazi Output Far Exceeded

The enemy is, of course, far more numerous than we are. But our new production already largely exceeds his, and the American production is only just beginning to flow in. Our bomber and fighter strength after all this fighting is larger than it has ever been.

We hope and believe that we shall be able to continue the struggle indefinitely and as long as the enemy pleases; and the longer it continues the more rapid will be our approach, first toward 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 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 heavy 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 by photograph.

Air the Way to Victory

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—and which 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 surest, 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 toward 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.

French Could Have Fought On

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, and the French Empire overseas should not have continued the struggle at our side.

Shielded by overwhelming seapower, 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—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 June 4, 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 on the struggle from beyond the oceans.

Most of the other countries that have been overrun by Germany for the time being have persevered 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.

Crime of "Men of Vichy"

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 tomorrow, when their names will be held in honor and graven in stone in the streets and villages of a France restored in a liberated Europe into its full freedom and 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 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 troops 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.

Promises to Allies

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 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 in its earlier stage, to embark upon elaborate speculation 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 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 convince all other countries that the Nazi tyranny is going to he 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 breasted the crest line. We cannot survey the landscape or even imagine what its condition will be in that longed-for hour.

The task which lies before us immediately is at once 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.

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.

Air Bases for United States

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 resources.

We have therefore decided, spontaneously and without being asked or offered any inducement, to inform the Government of the United States that we should 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 in the various agreements reached about certain small islands in the Pacific Ocean which have become important as air-fueling points. In all this line of thought we found ourselves in very close harmony.

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 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.

No Transfer of Sovereignty

There is of course no question of any transference of sovereignty or of any action being taken against the wishes of the various colonies concerned, but for our part His Majesty's Government is entirely willing to accord defense facilities to the United States on a ninety-nine-year 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.

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. No one can stop it. Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along. Let it roll. Let it roll on in full flood, inexorable, irresistible, to broader lands and better days.