We shall fight on the beaches.. we shall never surrender

When, a week ago today,

I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement,

I feared it would be my hard lot

to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history.

I thought-and some good judges agreed with me

-that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked.

But it certainly seemed that the whole of the French First Army

and the whole of the British Expeditionary Force north of the Amiens-Abbeville gap

would be broken up in the open field

or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition.

These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House

and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago.

The whole root and core and brain of the British Army,

on which and around which we were to build, and are to build,

the great British Armies in the later years of the war,

seemed about to perish upon the field

or to be led into an ignominious and starving captivity.

The enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and fierceness,

and their main power, the power of their far more numerous Air Force,

was thrown into the battle or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches.

Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both from the east and from the west,

the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches

by which alone the shipping could approach or depart.

They sowed magnetic mines in the channels and seas;

they sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft,

sometimes more than a hundred strong in one formation,

to cast their bombs upon the single pier that remained,

and upon the sand dunes on which the troops had their eyes for shelter.

Their U-boats, one of which was sunk,

and their motor launches took their toll of the vast traffic which now began.

For four or five days an intense struggle reigned.

All their armored divisions-or what Was left of them

together with great masses of infantry and artillery,

hurled themselves in vain upon the ever-narrowing,

ever-contracting appendix within which the British and French Armies fought.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help of countless merchant seamen,

strained every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops;

220 light warships and 650 other vessels were engaged.

They had to operate upon the difficult coast, often in adverse weather,

under an almost ceaseless hail of bombs

and an increasing concentration of artillery fire.

Nor were the seas, as I have said,

themselves free from mines and torpedoes.

It was in conditions such as these that our men carried on,

with little or no rest, for days and nights on end,

making trip after trip across the dangerous waters,

bringing with them always men whom they had rescued.

The numbers they have brought back are the measure of their devotion and their courage.

The hospital ships, which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded,

being so plainly marked were a special target for Nazi bombs;

but the men and women on board them never faltered in their duty.

Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force,

which had already been intervening in the battle,

so far as its range would allow, from home bases,

now used part of its main metropolitan fighter strength,

and struck at the German bombers and at the fighters which in large numbers protected them.

This struggle was protracted and fierce.

Suddenly the scene has cleared,

the crash and thunder has for the moment-but only for the moment-died away.

A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance,

by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource,

by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all.

The enemy was hurled back by the retreating British troops.

He was so roughly handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously.

We must be very careful not to assign

to this deliverance the attributes of a victory.

Wars are not won by evacuations.

But there was a victory inside this deliverance, which should be noted.

It was gained by the Air Force.

Many of our soldiers coming back have not seen the Air Force at work;

they saw only the bombers which escaped its protective attack.

They underrate its achievements.

I have heard much talk of this;

that is why I go out of my way to say this. I will tell you about it.

This was a great trial of strength between the British and German Air Forces.

Can you conceive a greater objective for the Germans in the air

than to make evacuation from these beaches impossible,

and to sink all these ships which were displayed,

almost to the extent of thousands?

Could there have been an objective of greater military importance

and significance for the whole purpose of the war than this?

They tried hard, and they were beaten back;

they were frustrated in their task.

We got the Army away;

and they have paid fourfold for any losses which they have inflicted.

When we consider how much greater would be our advantage

in defending the air above this Island against an overseas attack,

I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis

upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest.

I will pay my tribute to these young airmen.

The great French Army was very largely,

for the time being, cast back and disturbed

by the onrush of a few thousands of armored vehicles.

May it not also be that the cause of civilization itself

will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen?

There never has been, I suppose, in all the world,

in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth.

The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders,

all fall back into the past-not only distant but prosaic;

these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land

and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments

of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that:

Every morn brought forth a noble chance

And every chance brought forth a noble knight,

deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men who,

in so many ways and on so many occasions,

are ready, and continue ready to give life and all for their native land.

Nevertheless, our thankfulness at the escape of our Army

and so many men, whose loved ones have passed through an agonizing week,

must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium

is a colossal military disaster.

The French Army has been weakened, the Belgian Army has been lost,

a large part of those fortified lines upon which

so much faith had been reposed is gone,

many valuable mining districts and factories have passed into the enemy’s possession,

the whole of the Channel ports are in his hands,

with all the tragic consequences that follow from that,

and we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us or at France.

We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles.

This has often been thought of before.

When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year

with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone.

“There are bitter ****s in England.”

There are certainly a great many more of them

since the British Expeditionary Force returned.

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.

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.

June 4, 1940