British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives a “Victory Salute”

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Robert Richardson

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MOMENT IN TIME: JUNE 4, 1940

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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives a “Victory Salute” Aug. 27, 1941.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Churchill delivers his ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech
Never in the history of mankind has such a great speech been heard by so few. Winston Churchill was addressing the House of Commons shortly after the “colossal military disaster” – Churchill’s words – that miraculously ended with the evacuation of more than 330,000 troops from the beaches at Dunkirk, in northern France. But “wars are not won by evacuations,” said the new prime minister, who had the terrible habit (for a politician) of telling it like it is. The speech had two main purposes: to assure Britain’s allies, especially the United States, that the island nation was not on the brink of falling to the Germans, who would soon take Paris, and to steel the British people against the darkness to come. Historians and linguists have noted Churchill’s use of the word “fight” – he uses it seven times in quick succession – with its root in the Old English feohtan, designed to resonate with his people at a deep level. But the British public did not hear it – not in 1940, anyway. The speech was not broadcast, and people who, many years later, recalled being moved by it probably heard a recording that Churchill made some nine years later. –Massimo Commanducci

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