温斯顿丘吉尔他们最光辉的时刻

温斯顿·丘吉尔“他们最光辉的时刻”

温斯顿·丘吉尔“他们最光辉的时刻”

Winston Churchill “ THEIR FINEST HOUR ” June 18 ， 1940 Winston Churchill

“THEIR FINEST HOUR”

June 18，1940

I spoke the other day of the colossal military disas- ter which occurred when the French High Com- mand failed to withdraw the northern armies fromBelgium at a moment when they knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and onthe Meuse.

This delay entailed the loss of fifteen or six- teen French divisions and threw out of action thewhole of the British Expeditionary Force.

Our army were indeed rescued by the BritishNavy from Dunkirk，but only with the loss of alltheir cannon，vehicles and modern equipment.

This loss inevitably took some weeks to repair，and in the first two of these weeks the Battle ofFrance had been lost.

Now I put all this aside.I put it on the shelffrom which the historians may select their docu- ments in order to tell their story.We have to thinkof the future and not of the past.

There are many who wish to hold an inquest upon the conduct of the government and of Parlia- ment during the years which led up to this catas-trophe.They wish to indict those who were re- sponsible for the guidance of our affairs.

This also would be a foolish and perniciousprocess.There are too many in it.Let each mansearch his conscience and search his speeches，as Ifrequently search mine.Of this I am quite sure，that if we open a quarrel between the past and thepresent we shall find that we have lost the future.

The military events which have happened inFrance during the

last fortnight have not come tome with any sense of surprise；indeed，I indicateda fortnight ago as clearly as I could to the House，that the worst possibilities were open and I made itperfectly clear that whatever happened in France，it would make no difference to the resolve ofBritain and the British Empire to fight on，if neces-sary for years，and if necessary alone.

We have under arms at the present time in thisisland over 1，250，000 men.Behind these we havethe local defense volunteers，numbering 500，000，only a portion of whom，however，are armed withrifles or other firearms.

We have incorporated into our defense force amass of weapons and we expect very large addi-tions to these weapons in the near future.Inpreparation，we intend to call up，drill and train，further large numbers at once.

We also have the Dominion armies here.TheCanadians had actually landed in France，but havenow been safely withdrawn much disappointed andare here with all their artillery and equipment.These very high-class forces from the dominionswill now take part in the defense of their mothercountry.

Thus，the invasion of Great Britain at thistime would require the transport across the seas ofhostile armies on a very large scale and after theyhad been so transported，they would have to becontinually maintained with all the immense massof munitions and supplies which are required forcontinuous battle，as continuous battle it wouldbe.

Now here is where we come to the navy.Af- ter all，we have a navy； some people seem to for- get it.We must remind them.For more than thir-ty years I have been concerned in discussions aboutthe possibility of an overseas invasion and I tookthe responsibility on behalf of the Admiralty at thebeginning of