How Winston Churchill used words as Weapons

We shall fight them on the beaches…

“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”

Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 4 June 1940

This speech was delivered to the British House of Commons when Britain really was facing their darkest hour. The BEF (the British Expeditionary Forces) was chased out of France by the victorious Nazi war machine. For regular Britons the war until now had been a “phoney” one. The blitz hadn’t begun yet, but everyone could see what was coming. 

The pressure on Churchill was enormous. Most people were afraid, some were urging negotiation with Hitler. Don’t forget that the country was still deeply wounded by WWI. While many objected to Hitler, many did not want to accept another war. Churchill was new to the prime ministership and had to convey confidence to potential US allies as well as his own wary constituents.

With this speech, he reached into the oldest parts of the English language to make his point. As Melvyn Bragg pointed out in his book The Adventure of English, most of the words have Anglo-Saxon origins. They are commonly understood and thus evocative for everyone in England. His repetition of “we shall fight” drives his point home and serves as a rallying call.

I find this speech incredibly moving, perhaps more than some of my favourite Shakespeare soliloquies. It’s guaranteed to tear me up!

The Few

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 20 August 1940

This quote has come to evoke the sacrifice of the fighter pilots who were instrumental in prevent a Nazi invasion in 1940. But actually it’s part of a wider speech that pays tribute to all the men in the RAF. In fact, immediately after this famous line, Churchill went on to say:

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 serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power.

I find this tribute the most moving of all. Many Australians (as well as airmen from all over the commonwealth from Canada, New Zealand, Africa and the Caribbean) did work like this with Bomber Command. After the war, they weren’t recognised in the same way as the men in fighter command because no one wanted to celebrate the atrocities they’d been ordered to commit. The way Churchill describes their work is such compelling oratory. The repetition of “night after night, month after month” reinforces the relentlessness of the work with Bomber Command, which Churchill summons using some very specific images of the nature of their repetitive work. 

The kind of work Churchill describes here is the same work that my main character does in my first book.

Never give in

“This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Winston Churchill, Harrow School, 29 October 1941

What do you think about this? I love the repetition, the balance and the clever but simply evocative words but I’m not entirely sure about the sentiment. I wonder whether it is admirable to be so stubborn that you “never, never, never, never” give in. However, that was what characterised the British in WWII. Even in their darkest hour when it may have seemed easier – prudent, even – to yield to Hitler’s might they didn’t give in.

Do you have a favourite quote from Winston Churchill? There are so many it can be hard to chose. I’d love to hear it!