|
|
Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918
Contents:
Show Summary
Hide Summary
Historical SummaryWith the collapse of France, the British Commonwealth was left alone in the fight against Germany and Italy. In a speech before the House of Commons on June 18, 1940, Churchill referred to the impending "Battle of Britain" and commented upon the importance of its outcome for Christian civilization.
World History 266.
Mr. Churchill’s Speech of June 18, 1940—"Their Finest Hour" (Extracts)16
What General Weygand called the "Battle of France" is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
16 Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, Fifth Series, vol. 362, pp. 60–61.
Contents:
Chicago: "Mr. Churchill’s Speech of June 18, 1940— Their Finest Hour (Extracts)," Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan (Chicage: Lippincott, 1951), 891. Original Sources, accessed December 3, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=JSVGBLVH6HWV7HJ.
MLA: . "Mr. Churchill’s Speech of June 18, 1940— "Their Finest Hour" (Extracts)." Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, Vol. 362, in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, edited by Walter Consuelo Langsam and James Michael Egan, Chicage, Lippincott, 1951, page 891. Original Sources. 3 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=JSVGBLVH6HWV7HJ.
Harvard: , 'Mr. Churchill’s Speech of June 18, 1940— "Their Finest Hour" (Extracts)' in Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918. cited in 1951, Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918, ed. , Lippincott, Chicage, pp.891. Original Sources, retrieved 3 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=JSVGBLVH6HWV7HJ.
|