“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
It is the line from Mr Churchill’s Battle of Britain speech that everyone remembers and of course gave us the title the “Few”.
It was a memorable speech delivered at a critical moment in the Battle of Britain and until now I have never read the entire thing which is a shame.
More so because there is so much more about Fighter Command and those who flew off over Germany in Bomber Command.
So in the midst of the famous quotation there is “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their process and devotion. ............ All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must not forget that all the time, every night, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons, travel far into Germany find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under their heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war making structure of the Nazi power.”*
Now Mr Churchill was not held in high regard in our home. True there was a respect for him as a war leader but memories of his role in the miners’ strikes earlier in the century and his opposition to the demands for colonial independence led to a more balanced view of this politician.
Added to which mother never forgave him for what she saw as his decision to send her brother to the Far East just as Singapore was to fall to the Japanese.
Uncle Roger never returned dying just a tad past his 21st birthday in a Japanese POW camp.
I have yet to do the research on the decision to send those men East but like mother cannot forget his opposition to the Labour movement but it would be churlish and unhistorical not to recognise his contribution to winning the that war or his ability to express in a few simple sentences the resolve to prosecute it to victory.
Picture; cover of the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940, from the collection of David Harrop
* from the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940,
It was a memorable speech delivered at a critical moment in the Battle of Britain and until now I have never read the entire thing which is a shame.
More so because there is so much more about Fighter Command and those who flew off over Germany in Bomber Command.
So in the midst of the famous quotation there is “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their process and devotion. ............ All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must not forget that all the time, every night, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons, travel far into Germany find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under their heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war making structure of the Nazi power.”*
Now Mr Churchill was not held in high regard in our home. True there was a respect for him as a war leader but memories of his role in the miners’ strikes earlier in the century and his opposition to the demands for colonial independence led to a more balanced view of this politician.
Added to which mother never forgave him for what she saw as his decision to send her brother to the Far East just as Singapore was to fall to the Japanese.
Uncle Roger never returned dying just a tad past his 21st birthday in a Japanese POW camp.
I have yet to do the research on the decision to send those men East but like mother cannot forget his opposition to the Labour movement but it would be churlish and unhistorical not to recognise his contribution to winning the that war or his ability to express in a few simple sentences the resolve to prosecute it to victory.
Picture; cover of the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940, from the collection of David Harrop
* from the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940,
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