“We Shall Fight on the Beaches”

WINSTON CHURCHILL

“We Shall Fight on the Beaches” is the common title given to this speech delivered by British prime minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the British Parliament on June 4, 1940. This was the second of three major war speeches given during the Battle of France in World War II. The others were designated as the “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat” speech of May 13 and the “This Was Their Finest Hour” speech of June 18. Taken all together, Churchill’s series of speeches are considered some of the most rhetorically motivating proclamations in modern history. His task was to rally the British people to prepare to fight the Axis powers, even to the death. We know how the story ends, but these speeches capture the urgency and passion of the moment in which freedom and democracy hung in the balance.

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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.