The We Shall Fight Speech By Winston Churchill

The “We Shall Fight” speech was delivered by one of England’s greatest orators, Winston Churchill (1874–1965), shortly after becoming Prime Minister amidst the crisis that was the fall of France to the Nazi Germany. This was a time of crisis; the USSR had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop-pact, the US was holding to its policy of non-intervention policy, and mighty France had fallen. Britain itself barely escaped a total rout, when her troops were miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk at a great cost in personnel and matériel. Thus, all European eyes had turned their gaze to Churchill; what would England do? Thus, only days later after Dunkirk, Churchill delivered his famous “We Shall Fight” speech to the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill, who had personally fought in four wars, had already decided to fight the Germans to the end; yet, he needed to persuade the parliament to the cause.
First, he needed to explain the disaster for few could understand how this had happened. France, in paper, had a stronger army and superb defenses; furthermore, Germany’s innovative battle tactics—the blitzkrieg—was yet to be understood. Thus, Churchill opened his speech by describing the disaster, German’s new tactics, Belgium’s fatal neutrality that exposed the
The Germans, he stressed out, “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.” (Churcill, 2008) Masterfully, he brought the subject closer to his listeners’ hearts by mentioning the loss of Sir Andrew Duncan’s son, and then prepared his audience for his future policy by appealing to their patriotic sentiments; “we are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles,” and quickly adding, “this has often been thought of before.” The message was clear; Britain was to fight and