Their Finest Hour

Summary

Churchill gave this speech to the House of Commons on the afternoon of 18 June 1940 and read it again over BBC radio that evening. He had been prime minister for just over five weeks. In that time the German offensive had broken through in the west, the British Expeditionary Force had been evacuated from Dunkirk, and on 17 June the new French government under Marshal Pétain had asked Germany for an armistice. Britain now faced the prospect of fighting on alone. The speech is long and largely a sober report. Churchill reviews the disaster in France without trying to minimize it and declines to open an inquiry into blame for the years before the war, warning that a Parliament busy settling old accounts would throw away the chance of winning the war still ahead. He then sets out the reasons for confidence: the large number of troops now in the island, the Royal Navy's power to break up a seaborne invasion, the performance of the Royal Air Force over Dunkirk, and the support pledged by the Dominions. He does not hide that heavy air attack is likely and asks the country to endure it. Turning to France, Churchill expresses sympathy for the French people, regret at their government's decision, and confidence that the cause of France will be restored if Britain wins. He speaks of the exiled governments and forces of the occupied nations who had joined Britain. The peroration gathers the argument into a single choice. The Battle of France, he says, is over, and the Battle of Britain is about to begin; the enemy must break Britain or lose the war. If Britain stands, Europe may be freed; if it falls, the whole world, the United States included, will sink into a new dark age. He ends by asking his hearers to bear themselves so that, should the Commonwealth and Empire last a thousand years, people will still call this their finest hour. The speech gave its name to the summer's air battle and became, with the Dunkirk speech two weeks earlier, the best known of Churchill's 1940 addresses.

Plot or Argument

• The disaster in France and the refusal of recrimination

  Churchill reports the collapse of the Allied armies in France plainly and turns aside calls to investigate the prewar governments, arguing that the country cannot afford a quarrel over the past while it fights for its future.

• The means of defense: Army, Navy, and Air Force

  He lists the forces gathered in Britain since Dunkirk, explains why the Navy makes a large seaborne invasion very difficult, and argues that the Royal Air Force, having held its own over the French coast, can meet attack over its own island.

• Allies, Dominions, and the French tragedy

  Churchill reports the pledges of the Dominions, honors the forces of the occupied nations now in Britain, and speaks with sympathy of the French people while regretting their government's request for an armistice.

• Peroration: the Battle of Britain and the finest hour

  He names the coming struggle the Battle of Britain, sets out the stakes for Europe and the world, including the United States, and calls the nation to so carry itself that later ages will judge this its finest hour.

Lessons

• Hope founded on an honest reckoning

  Most of the speech is arithmetic: divisions in Britain, ships in the Channel, aircraft and pilots. Churchill earns the right to his famous ending by first telling Parliament the worst. Courage in this speech rests on clear facts rather than on denial of danger.

  • Why does Churchill spend so long on numbers and forces before his peroration?
  • How does admitting the scale of the defeat in France make his confidence more believable?
  • When you face something hard, does knowing the full truth help or hinder your courage?

• Refusing to quarrel with the past

  Many in Parliament wanted to blame the men who had governed before the war. Churchill, who had been their sharpest critic, refuses, arguing that the urgent task is survival. He puts the common danger ahead of his own vindication.

  • Why might Churchill, of all people, have been tempted to assign blame for Britain's unreadiness?
  • What does he say would be lost if Parliament turned to recrimination?
  • Is there a time when examining past mistakes must wait, and a time when it must not?

• Living for the judgment of history

  The peroration asks a people to imagine how they will look to those who come a thousand years later and to act accordingly. Churchill makes posterity a moral audience, turning an hour of defeat into a test of character that future generations will remember.

  • What does it mean to call a moment of defeat someone's finest hour?
  • How does imagining a future judgment change the way a person acts in the present?
  • Is the judgment of history a worthy motive, or only a lesser one beside the judgment of God?

Context

Germany attacked the Low Countries and France on 10 May 1940, the day Churchill became prime minister. Within six weeks the Netherlands and Belgium had surrendered, more than 330,000 Allied troops had been lifted from Dunkirk, and France had sought an armistice, which was signed on 22 June. Britain, with the Dominions, was left as the only major power still fighting Germany in the west, and an invasion was widely expected.

Composition

Churchill composed his major speeches by dictation and revised them heavily, often setting the final text out in short lines for delivery. He delivered this one in the Commons on 18 June, the anniversary of Waterloo, and broadcast it that evening. The same evening Charles de Gaulle made his own broadcast appeal from London calling on the French to continue the fight. The speech text remains under copyright.

Reception

The speech was printed in full in the newspapers and widely heard on the radio. Contemporary accounts suggest the evening broadcast came across less forcefully than the Commons delivery, but the closing sentence entered the language at once, and the air battle of July to October 1940 took its name from the speech. Later sound recordings made by Churchill have kept it familiar.

Comparisons

• we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches

  Churchill's speech of 4 June 1940, after Dunkirk, defied invasion with a list of places to fight; two weeks later, with France gone, he addressed the same danger with a longer view of history.

• elizabeth-speech-at-tilbury

  Elizabeth I faced the threat of Spanish invasion in 1588 as Churchill faced German invasion in 1940; both speeches stake a ruler's personal resolve on the defense of the island.

• st-crispins-day-speech

  Shakespeare's Henry tells an outnumbered army that the day will be remembered to the ending of the world; Churchill similarly asks a beleaguered nation to fight for how future generations will remember it.

• d-day-order-of-the-day

  Eisenhower's 1944 order launched the liberation of Europe that Churchill had said would follow only if Britain stood firm in 1940.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How the opening sections admit the scale of the defeat in France before any word of encouragement.
• Churchill's refusal to hold an inquiry into the prewar governments, and the reason he gives for it.
• The service-by-service review of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, offered as the ground of confidence.
• The moment in the peroration when he names the Battle of France as over and the Battle of Britain as beginning.
• The final sentence's leap to a thousand years in the future, turning the present into a memory.

Key terms and names

Battle of France

The German campaign of May and June 1940 that defeated the French and British armies on the continent; Churchill declares it over in this speech.

Battle of Britain

Churchill's name, given here in advance, for the coming German effort to defeat Britain, which became the air battle of summer and autumn 1940.

Dunkirk

The French port from which British and French troops were evacuated between 26 May and 4 June 1940, leaving their heavy equipment behind.

Armistice

An agreement to stop fighting; the French government's request for one on 17 June left Britain without its main ally.

Dominions

The self-governing members of the British Commonwealth, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, whose support Churchill reports.

Peroration

The closing section of a speech that sums up and rouses the hearers; this speech's peroration is among the most famous in English.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What had happened in France in the days just before 18 June 1940, and why did it change Britain's position?
2. Comprehension What reasons does Churchill give for thinking Britain can resist invasion?
3. Interpretation Why does Churchill refuse to look for those to blame, and what does that choice show about his priorities as a leader?
4. Interpretation How does Churchill speak about the French people and their government, and why does he distinguish between them?
5. Interpretation In the final sentence Churchill asks the nation to see itself through the eyes of people far in the future. Why is that more stirring than a simple command to fight?
6. Big Question Can a nation, like a person, have a finest hour? What makes an hour of danger an hour of greatness?
7. Big Question Is it right for a leader to ask people to endure suffering for the sake of the judgment of history?

Faith Connections

• Esther 4:14 (Scripture)

  Mordecai asks whether Esther has come to the kingdom for such a time as this; Churchill likewise presents a single moment of peril as the hour a people was made for.

• Deuteronomy 31:6 (Scripture)

  Moses tells Israel to be strong and of a good courage before entering a hostile land; Churchill's speech is a long version of the same charge to a people facing enemies stronger than themselves.

• Augustine, City of God V (Church Fathers)

  Augustine discusses the Romans' love of glory and praise from later generations, granting that it restrained lesser vices while ranking it below the love of God; the book frames Churchill's appeal to the verdict of a thousand years.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: France has fallen and Britain stands alone; recrimination over the past would only weaken the country; Britain's Navy, Air Force, army, and allies give real grounds to resist invasion; if Britain holds, Europe can be freed, and if it falls, the world will enter a new dark age; therefore the nation must brace itself to fight so well that later ages will count this its finest hour.

Rhetorical device: Prolepsis (an imagined future verdict). The closing sentence projects a thousand years ahead and puts words in the mouths of future people looking back on 1940, so that the hearers judge their present conduct as history will.

Debate: Resolved: Churchill was right to rule out any inquiry into the prewar governments in June 1940.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Much of Their Finest Hour is a sober review of military facts. Analyze how Churchill uses that review to prepare for the peroration, and explain why the closing sentence would be weaker without it.

Comparison with Speech to the Troops at Tilbury: Elizabeth at Tilbury in 1588 and Churchill in the Commons in 1940 both addressed an island expecting invasion. Compare how each ruler uses personal resolve, the honor of the nation, and the prospect of victory to steady their hearers.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Using a map of Western Europe in June 1940, have students mark what Germany controlled before and after the French armistice, then explain why Churchill gave so much of the speech to the Navy and the Air Force.

• Essay

  Churchill declined to blame the prewar governments, though he had criticized them for years. Write an essay on whether that restraint was wise, using what the speech says about past and future.

• Fiction

  Write a short scene set in a British household on the evening of 18 June 1940 as the family gathers by the wireless to hear the prime minister.

Further Reading

• Their Finest Hour, Winston S. Churchill

  The second volume of Churchill's The Second World War, which takes its title from this speech and covers 1940.

• Five Days in London, May 1940, John Lukacs

  Study of the War Cabinet debate weeks before the speech over whether to explore peace terms.

• Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45, Max Hastings

• Churchill: Walking with Destiny, Andrew Roberts