Snapshots in History: June 18: Remembering Winston Churchill and This Was Their Finest Hour Speech
June 18, 2015 | John P. | Comments (0)
On June 18 and beyond, take a moment to remember British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill’s “This was their finest hour” speech to the British House of Commons on June 18, 1940, following the surrender of France to Nazi Germany on June 17, 1940. Churchill was in a defiant mood. With reference to Canada, Winston S. Churchill noted that “…We have also over here Dominions armies. The Canadians had actually landed in France, but have now been safely withdrawn, much disappointed, but in perfect order, with all their artillery and equipment. And these very high-class forces from the Dominions will now take part in the defense of the Mother Country…”
In a more famous passage of the speech, in fact the closing paragraph, Churchill stated: “What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin…The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us…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…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."”
Consider the following titles for borrowing from Toronto Public Library collections:
Books:
Click here for additional copies of Blood, toil, tears, and sweat: the speeches of Winston Churchill.
DVDs:
