The Men of Valour at Dunkirk
Winston Churchill made his first speech
as Prime Minister to entice courage for the people of the United
Kingdom. Churchill knew he MUST get his troops out of France. He had
to prepare his country for the Germans’ attempt to conquer Great
Britain. Winston ordered the evacuation of all British troops from
Dunkirk to England.
The Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and
individuals with large boats 30 feet or longer were ordered to help
with the evacuation. This began on the night of May 26, 1940. The
boats and planes would cross the English Channel to deliver the
troops home safely.
Be Ye Men of Valour
BBC, May 19, 1940
First Broadcast as Prime Minister to the British People
I speak to you for the first time as
Prime Minister in a solemn hour for the life of our country, of our
empire, of our allies, and, above all, of the cause of Freedom. A
tremendous battle is raging in France and Flanders. The Germans, by
a remarkable combination of air bombing and heavily armored tanks,
have broken through the French defenses north of the Maginot Line,
and strong columns of their armored vehicles are ravaging the open
country, which for the first day or two was without defenders. They
have penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their
track. Behind them there are now appearing infantry in lorries, and
behind them, again, the large masses are moving forward. The re-groupment
of the French armies to make head against, and also to strike at,
this intruding wedge has been proceeding for several days, largely
assisted by the magnificent efforts of the Royal Air Force.
We must not allow ourselves to be
intimidated by the presence of these armored vehicles in unexpected
places behind our lines. If they are behind our Front, the French
are also at many points fighting actively behind theirs. Both sides
are therefore in an extremely dangerous position. And if the French
Army, and our own Army, are well handled, as I believe they will be;
if the French retain that genius for recovery and counter-attack for
which they have so long been famous; and if the British Army shows
the dogged endurance and solid fighting power of which there have
been so many examples in the past -- then a sudden transformation of
the scene might spring into being.
It would be foolish, however, to
disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to
lose heart and courage or to suppose that well-trained,
well-equipped armies numbering three or four millions of men can be
overcome in the space of a few weeks, or even months, by a scoop, or
raid of mechanized vehicles, however formidable. We may look with
confidence to the stabilization of the Front in France, and to the
general engagement of the masses, which will enable the qualities of
the French and British soldiers to be matched squarely against those
of their adversaries. For myself, I have invincible confidence in
the French Army and its leaders. Only a very small part of that
splendid Army has yet been heavily engaged; and only a very small
part of France has yet been invaded. There is a good evidence to
show that practically the whole of the specialized and mechanized
forces of the enemy have been already thrown into the battle; and we
know that very heavy losses have been inflict upon them. No officer
or man, no brigade or division, which grapples at close quarters
with the enemy, wherever encountered, can fail to make a worthy
contribution to the general result. the Armies must cast away the
idea of resisting behind concrete lines or natural obstacles, and
must realize that mastery can only be regained by furious and
unrelenting assault. And this spirit must not only animate the High
Command, but must inspire every fighting man.
In the air -- often at serious odds,
often at odds hitherto thought overwhelming -- we have been clawing
down three or four to one of our enemies; and the relative balance
of the British and German Air Forces is now considerably more
favorable to us than at the beginning of the battle. In cutting down
the German bombers, we are fighting our own battle as well as that
of France. May confidence in our ability to fight it out to the
finish with the German Air Force has been strengthened by the fierce
encounters which have taken lace and are taking place. At the same
time, our heavy bombers are striking nightly at the tap-root of
German mechanized power, and have already inflicted serious damage
upon the oil refineries on which the Nazi effort to dominate the
world directly depends.
We must expect that as soon as stability
is reached on the Western Front, the bulk of that hideous apparatus
of aggression which gashed Holland into ruin and slavery in a few
days will be turned upon us. I am sure I speak for all when I say we
are ready to face it; to ensure it; and to retaliate against it --
to any extent that the unwritten laws of war permit. There will be
many men and many women in the Island who when the ordeal comes upon
them, as come it will, will feel comfort, and even a pride, that
they are sharing the perils of our lads at the Front -- soldiers,
sailors and airmen, God bless them -- and are drawing away from them
a part at least of the onslaught they have to bear. Is not this the
appointed time for all to make the utmost exertions in their power?
If the battle is to be won, we must provide our men with
ever-increasing quantities of the weapons and ammunition they need.
We must have, and have quickly, more aeroplanes, more tanks, more
shells, more guns. there is imperious need for these vital
munitions. They increase our strength against the powerfully armed
enemy. They replace the wastage of the obstinate struggle; and the
knowledge that wastage will speedily be replaced enables us to draw
more readily upon our reserves and throw them in now that everything
counts so much.
Our task is not only to win the battle -
but to win the war. After this battle in France abates its force,
there will come the battle for our Island -- for all that Britain
is, and all the Britain means. That will be the struggle. In that
supreme emergency we shall not hesitate to take every step, even the
most drastic, to call forth from our people the last ounce and the
last inch of effort of which they are capable. The interests of
property, the hours of labor, are nothing compared with the struggle
of life and honor, for right and freedom, to which we have vowed
ourselves.
I have received from the Chiefs of the
French Republic,and in particular form its indomitable Prime
Minister, M. Reynaud, the most sacred pledges that whatever happens
they will fight to the end, be it bitter or be it glorious. Nay, if
we fight to the end, it can only be glorious.
Having received His Majesty's
commission, I have formed an Administration of men and women of
every Party and of almost every point of view. We have differed and
quarreled in the past; but now one bond unites us all -- to wage war
until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude
and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be. this is one of
the most awe-striking periods in the long history of France and
Britain. It is also beyond doubt the most sublime. Side by side,
unaided except by their kith and kin in the great Dominions and by
the wide empires which rest beneath their shield - side by side, the
British and French peoples have advanced to rescue not only Europe
but mankind from the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which
has ever darkened and stained the pages of history. Behind them -
behind us- behind the Armies and Fleets of Britain and France -
gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the Czechs,
the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians - upon
all of whom the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even
by a star of hope, unless we conquer, as conquer we must; as conquer
we shall.
Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago
words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants
of Truth and Justice: "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour,
and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to
perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our
altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be."
Operation Dunkirk lasted until June 4,
1940. The maneuver was a success. A total of 338,226 troops had been
rescued, 225,000 of these were British troops. This inspired Churchill
to declare "We Shall Fight on the Beaches!"
We Shall Fight on the Beaches
June 4, 1940
House of Commons
The position of the B. E. F had now
become critical As a result of a most skillfully conducted retreat
and German errors, the bulk of the British Forces reached the
Dunkirk bridgehead. The peril facing the British nation was now
suddenly and universally perceived. On May 26, "Operation
Dynamo "--the evacuation from Dunkirk began. The seas remained
absolutely calm. The Royal Air Force--bitterly maligned at the time
by the Army--fought vehemently to deny the enemy the total air
supremacy which would have wrecked the operation. At the outset, it
was hoped that 45,000 men might be evacuated; in the event, over
338,000 Allied troops reached England, including 26,000 French
soldiers. On June 4, Churchill reported to the House of Commons,
seeking to check the mood of national euphoria and relief at the
unexpected deliverance, and to make a clear appeal to the United
States.
From the moment that the French defenses
at Sedan and on the Meuse were broken at the end of the second week
of May, only a rapid retreat to Amiens and the south could have
saved the British and French Armies who had entered Belgium at the
appeal of the Belgian King; but this strategic fact was not
immediately realized. The French High Command hoped they would be
able to close the gap, and the Armies of the north were under their
orders. Moreover, a retirement of this kind would have involved
almost certainly the destruction of the fine Belgian Army of over 20
divisions and the abandonment of the whole of Belgium. Therefore,
when the force and scope of the German penetration were realized and
when a new French Generalissimo, General Weygand, assumed command in
place of General Gamelin, an effort was made by the French and
British Armies in Belgium to keep on holding the right hand of the
Belgians and to give their own right hand to a newly created French
Army which was to have advanced across the Somme in great strength
to grasp it.
However, the German eruption swept like
a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the Armies of the north.
Eight or nine armored divisions, each of about four hundred armored
vehicles of different kinds, but carefully assorted to be
complementary and divisible into small self-contained units, cut off
all communications between us and the main French Armies. It severed
our own communications for food and ammunition, which ran first to
Amiens and afterwards through Abbeville, and it shore its way up the
coast to Boulogne and Calais, and almost to Dunkirk. Behind this
armored and mechanized onslaught came a number of German divisions
in lorries, and behind them again there plodded comparatively slowly
the dull brute mass of the ordinary German Army and German people,
always so ready to be led to the trampling down in other lands of
liberties and comforts which they have never known in their own.
I have said this armored scythe-stroke
almost reached Dunkirk-almost but not quite. Boulogne and Calais
were the scenes of desperate fighting. The Guards defended Boulogne
for a while and were then withdrawn by orders from this country. The
Rifle Brigade, the 60th Rifles, and the Queen Victoria's Rifles,
with a battalion of British tanks and 1,000 Frenchmen, in all about
four thousand strong, defended Calais to the last. The British
Brigadier was given an hour to surrender. He spurned the offer, and
four days of intense street fighting passed before silence reigned
over Calais, which marked the end of a memorable resistance. Only 30
unwounded survivors were brought off by the Navy, and we do not know
the fate of their comrades. Their sacrifice, however, was not in
vain. At least two armored divisions, which otherwise would have
been turned against the British Expeditionary Force, had to be sent
to overcome them. They have added another page to the glories of the
light divisions, and the time gained enabled the Graveline water
lines to be flooded and to be held by the French troops.
Thus it was that the port of Dunkirk was
kept open. When it was found impossible for the Armies of the north
to reopen their communications to Amiens with the main French
Armies, only one choice remained. It seemed, indeed, forlorn. The
Belgian, British and French Armies were almost surrounded. Their
sole line of retreat was to a single port and to its neighboring
beaches. They were pressed on every side by heavy attacks and far
outnumbered in the air.
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 capacity.
That was the prospect a week ago. But
another blow which might well have proved final was yet to fall upon
us. The King of the Belgians had called upon us to come to his aid.
Had not this Ruler and his Government severed themselves from the
Allies, who rescued their country from extinction in the late war,
and had they not sought refuge in what was proved to be a fatal
neutrality, the French and British Armies might well at the outset
have saved not only Belgium but perhaps even Poland. Yet at the last
moment, when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopard called upon
us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and
his brave, efficient Army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our
left flank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea.
Suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible
notice, without the advice of his Ministers and upon his own
personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command,
surrendered his Army, and exposed our whole flank and means of
retreat.
I asked the House a week ago to suspend
its judgment because the facts were not clear, but I do not feel
that any reason now exists why we should not form our own opinions
upon this pitiful episode. The surrender of the Belgian Army
compelled the British at the shortest notice to cover a flank to the
sea more than 30 miles in length. Otherwise all would have been cut
off, and all would have shared the fate to which King Leopold had
condemned the finest Army his country had ever formed. So in doing
this and in exposing this flank, as anyone who followed the
operations on the map will see, contact was lost between the British
and two out of the three corps forming the First French Army, who
were still farther from the coast than we were, and it seemed
impossible that any large number of Allied troops could reach the
coast.
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 upon
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 and French troops. He was so roughly
handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously. The Royal
Air Force engaged the main strength of the German Air Force, and
inflicted upon them losses of at least four to one; and the Navy,
using nearly 1,000 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men,
French and British, out of the jaws of death and shame, to their
native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead. 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. Very large formations of German aeroplanes-and we
know that they are a very brave race-have turned on several
occasions from the attack of one-quarter of their number of the
Royal Air Force, and have dispersed in different directions. Twelve
aeroplanes have been hunted by two. One aeroplane was driven into
the water and cast away by the mere charge of a British aeroplane,
which had no more ammunition. All of our types-the Hurricane, the
Spitfire and the new Defiant-and all our pilots have been vindicated
as superior to what they have at present to face.
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.
I return to the Army. In the long
series of very fierce battles, now on this front, now on that,
fighting on three fronts at once, battles fought by two or three
divisions against an equal or somewhat larger number of the enemy,
and fought fiercely on some of the old grounds that so many of us
knew so well-in these battles our losses in men have exceeded
30,000 killed, wounded and missing. I take occasion to express the
sympathy of the House to all who have suffered bereavement or who
are still anxious. The President of the Board of Trade [Sir Andrew
Duncan] is not here today. His son has been killed, and many in
the House have felt the pangs of affliction in the sharpest form.
But I will say this about the missing: We have had a large number
of wounded come home safely to this country, but I would say about
the missing that there may be very many reported missing who will
come back home, some day, in one way or another. In the confusion
of this fight it is inevitable that many have been left in
positions where honor required no further resistance from them.
Against this loss of over 30,000 men,
we can set a far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the enemy.
But our losses in material are enormous. We have perhaps lost
one-third of the men we lost in the opening days of the battle of
21st March, 1918, but we have lost nearly as many guns -- nearly
one thousand-and all our transport, all the armored vehicles that
were with the Army in the north. This loss will impose a further
delay on the expansion of our military strength. That expansion
had not been proceeding as far as we had hoped. The best of all we
had to give had gone to the British Expeditionary Force, and
although they had not the numbers of tanks and some articles of
equipment which were desirable, they were a very well and finely
equipped Army. They had the first-fruits of all that our industry
had to give, and that is gone. And now here is this further delay.
How long it will be, how long it will last, depends upon the
exertions which we make in this Island. An effort the like of
which has never been seen in our records is now being made. Work
is proceeding everywhere, night and day, Sundays and week days.
Capital and Labor have cast aside their interests, rights, and
customs and put them into the common stock. Already the flow of
munitions has leaped forward. There is no reason why we should not
in a few months overtake the sudden and serious loss that has come
upon us, without retarding the development of our general program.
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 weeds in
England." There are certainly a great many more of them since
the British Expeditionary Force returned.
The whole question of home defense
against invasion is, of course, powerfully affected by the fact
that we have for the time being in this Island incomparably more
powerful military forces than we have ever had at any moment in
this war or the last. But this will not continue. We shall not be
content with a defensive war. We have our duty to our Ally. We
have to reconstitute and build up the British Expeditionary Force
once again, under its gallant Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort. All
this is in train; but in the interval we must put our defenses in
this Island into such a high state of organization that the fewest
possible numbers will be required to give effective security and
that the largest possible potential of offensive effort may be
realized. On this we are now engaged. It will be very convenient,
if it be the desire of the House, to enter upon this subject in a
secret Session. Not that the government would necessarily be able
to reveal in very great detail military secrets, but we like to
have our discussions free, without the restraint imposed by the
fact that they will be read the next day by the enemy; and the
Government would benefit by views freely expressed in all parts of
the House by Members with their knowledge of so many different
parts of the country. I understand that some request is to be made
upon this subject, which will be readily acceded to by His
Majesty's Government.
We have found it necessary to take
measures of increasing stringency, not only against enemy aliens
and suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also against
British subjects who may become a danger or a nuisance should the
war be transported to the United Kingdom. I know there are a great
many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the
passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but
we cannot, at the present time and under the present stress, draw
all the distinctions which we should like to do. If parachute
landings were attempted and fierce fighting attendant upon them
followed, these unfortunate people would be far better out of the
way, for their own sakes as well as for ours. There is, however,
another class, for which I feel not the slightest sympathy.
Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column
activities with a strong hand, and we shall use those powers
subject to the supervision and correction of the House, without
the slightest hesitation until we are satisfied, and more than
satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been effectively
stamped out.
Turning once again, and this time more
generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there
has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we
boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less
against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the
days of Napoleon the same wind which would have carried his
transports across the Channel might have driven away the
blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that
chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many
Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are
assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the
originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our
enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind
of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous
maneuver. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not
be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I
hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances
of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be
locally exercised.
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. Even though
large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or
may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of
Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. 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.
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