these were compiled by his grandson, winston s. churchill
4.11.1919 'bolshevist atrocities' ..'it would not be right for us to send our armies raised on a compulsory basis to russia (to aid those victims of the communist revolution). if russia is to be saved it must be by russian manhood..
9.16.1925 ..'can we be blind to the fact that british interests and the british empire and britain herself have been singled out as the first and main object of their (the bolshevists') malice. this island community of ours which in all the great quarrels of the last 400 years has always defended and hitherto always successfully defended the cause of ordered freedom, stands as a massive obstacle in the path of boshevist revolutionaries. to lay it low, to shatter it to pieces, to grind it to powder by every resource of violence of cunning - this is their task. they have recognized it. let us recognize it too.
2.22.1933 ..'these well meaning gentlemen of the british broadcasting corporation (the bbc in the 1930s supported a policy of appeasement and did their best to keep churchill's voice off the air) have absolutely no qualifications and no claim to represent british public opinion.
speaking of the league of nations vis a vis germany after the latter's occupation of the rhineland..'do not let us have it out as if we were a rabble flying before forces we dare not resist. let us have it out on the basis that we are negotiation from strength and not from weakness; that we are negotiating from unity and not from division and isolation; that we are seeking to do justice because we have power.
9.24.1936 ..'if governments are to bind themselves together for collective security, it follows that they must rigorously abstain from organized interference in the internal affairs of their neighbors and fellow members of the League (of nations)...unprovoked aggression..propaganda carried on by foreign $ in any country is a serious form of provocation..' (churchill's pleas for united strength used by the league of nations as well as for britain to begin to arm were, at home and abroad ignored during the 5 years leading up to the declaration of war on germany in september, 1939...at which time he was asked to be prime minister and establish a wartime government with a policy of total victory over germany, italy..and eventually japan)
this book introduced me to 'lawrence of arabia' for the first time. churchill and his family were intimately acquainted with this person, lawrence, who accomplished amazing feats in the middle east only to return home and completely fade from public life. churchill speaks highly of his book, 'the 7 pillars'
10.16.1938 ..'alexander the great remarked that the people of asia were slaves because they had not learned to pronounce the word 'no'..the german people, industrious and faithful, valiant, but alas! lacking in the proper spirit of civic independence..tyrants are afraid of thoughts..words..the workings of the human mind.
4.20.1939 ..'if the british empire is fated to pass from life into history we must hope it will not be by the slow processes of dispersion and decay, but in some supreme exertion for freedom, for right and for truth.
(german armies have invaded france, the blitzkrieg, and there is the possibility of more than 300,000+ british and french troops being cut off and possibly destroyed/imprisoned)..'the armies must cast away the idea of resisting behind concrete lines or natural obstacles and must realize that mastery can only be regained by furious and unrelenting assault..
5.19.1940 (centuries old words from trinity sunday)..'but you men of valor be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar...
6.18.1940 ..'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 civilisation. 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, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the british empire and its commonwealth last for a 1000 years, men will still say, 'this was their finest hour'.
7.4.1940 'now i turn to the immediate future. we must, of course, expect to be attacked, or even invaded, if that proves to be possible - it has not been proved yet - in our own island before very long. we are making every preparation in our power to repel the assaults of the enemy, whether they be directed upon great britain, or upon ireland, which all irishmen, without distinction of creed or party, should realise is in imminent danger. these again are matters upon which we have clear views. these preparations are constantly occupying our toil from morn till night and far into the night. but, although we have clear views, it would not, i think, be profitable for us to discuss them in public, or even, so far as the government are concerned, except under very considerable reserve in a private session. i call upon all subjects of his majesty and upon our allies and well wishers - and they are not a few - all over the world, on both sides of the atlantic, to give us their utmost aid. in the fullest harmony with our dominions, we are moving through a period of extreme danger and of splendid hope, when every virtue of our race will be tested and all that we have and are will be freely staked. this is no time for doubt or weakness. it is the supreme hour to which we have been called.
i will venture to read to the House (of commons) a message which i have caused to be sent to all who are serving in positions of importance under the crown and, it the house should view it with sympathy, i should be very glad to send a copy of it to every member for his own use - not that such exhortations are needed. this is the message:
on what may be the eve of an attempted invasion or battle for our native land (hitler's forces were methodically massing across the channel for what seemed to be a massive assault), the prime minister desires to impress upon all persons holding responsible positions in the government, in the fighting services or in the civil departments (citizens in england were armed to resist enemy invasion, if necessary, block by block and street by street), their duty to maintain a spirit of alert and confident energy. while every precaution must be taken that time and means afford, there are no grounds for supposing that more german troops can be landed ion this country, either from the air or across the sea, than can be destroyed or captured by the strong forces at present under arms. the royal air force is in excellent order and at the highest strength it has yet attained. the german navy was never so weak, nor the british army at home so strong as now. the prime minister expects all his majesty's servants in high places to set an example of steadiness and resolution. they should check and rebuke expressions of loose and ill-digested opinion in their circle, or by their subordinates. they should not hesitate to report, or if necessary remove, any officers of officials who are found to be consciously exercising a disturbing or depressing influence and whose talk is calculated to spread alarm and despondency. thus alone will they be worthy of the fighting men, who, in the air, on the sea, and on land, have already met the enemy without any sense of being outmatched in martial qualities.
in conclusion, i feel that we are entitled to the confidence of the House and that we shall not fail in our duty, however painful. the action we have already taken should be, in itself, sufficient to dispose once and for all of the lies and rumours which have been so industriously spread by german propaganda and through fifth column activities that we have the slightest intention of entering into negotiations in any form and through any channel with the german and italian governments. we shall, on the contrary, prosecute the war with the utmost vigour by all the means that are open to us until the righteous purposes for which we entered upon it have been fulfilled.
9.11.1940 (on 9.5 the germans switched tactics from trying to destroy the bases of the royal air force to continual bombing raids against the civilian population of london and other major cities)..'besides this, convoys of merchant ships in tens of dozens are being moved through the straits of dover into the channel, dodging along from port to port under the protection of the new batteries which the germans have built on the french shore. there are now considerable gatherings of shipping in the german, dutch, belgian and french harbours - all the way from hamburg to brest. finally, there are some preparations made of ships to carry an invading force from the norwegian harbours.
behind these clusters of ships or barges, there stand very large numbers of german troops, awaiting the order to go on board and set out on their very dangerous and uncertain voyage across the seas. we cannot tell when they will try to come; we cannot be sure that in fact they will try at all; but no one should blind himself to the fact that a heavy, full-scale invasion of this island is being prepared with all the usual german thoroughness and method and that it may be launched now - upon england, upon scotland, or upon ireland, or upon all three.
if this invasion is going to be tried at all, it does not seem that it can be long delayed. the weather may break at any time. besides this, it is difficult for the enemy to keep these gatherings of ships waiting about indefinitely, while they are bombed every night by our bombers and very often shelled by our warships which are waiting for them outside.
therefore, we must regard the next week or so as a very important period in our history. it ranks with the days when the spanish armada was approaching the channel, and drake was finishing his game of bowls; or when nelson stood between us and napoleon's grand army at boulogne. we have read all about this in the history books; but what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilisation than these brave old days of the past.
every man and woman will therefore prepare himself to do his duty, whatever it may be, with special pride and care. our fleets and flotillas are very powerful and numerous; our air force is at the highest strength it has ever reached and it is conscious of its proved superiority, not indeed in numbers, but in men and machines. our shores are well fortified and strongly manned and behind them, ready to attack the invaders, we have a far larger and better equipped mobile army than we have ever had before.
besides this, we have more than a million and a half men of the Home Guard, who are4 just as much soldiers of the regular army as the grenadier guards, and who are determined to fight for every inch of the ground in every village and in every street.
it is with devout but sure confidence that i say: let God defend the right.
these cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of london are, of course, a part of hitler's invasion plans. he hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians and women and children, that he will terrorise and cow the people of this mighty imperial city and make them a burden and an anxiety to the government and thus distract our attention unduly from the ferocious onslaught he is preparing. little does he know the spirit of the british nation or the tough fibre of the londoners whose forebears played a leading part in the establishment of parliamentary institutions and who have been bred to value freedom far above their lives. this wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. what he has done is to kindle a fire in british hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in london have been removed. he has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of nazi tyranny have been burnt out of europe and until the old world- and the new - can join hands to rebuild the temples of man's freedom and man's honour, upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown.
this is a time for everyone to stand together and hold firm, as they are doing. i express my admiration for the exemplary manner in which all the air raid precautions services of london are being discharged, especially the fire brigade, whose work has been so heavy and also dangerous. all the world that is still free marvels at the composure and fortitude with which the citizens of london are facing and surmounting the great ordeal to which they are subjected, the end of which or the severity of which cannot yet be foreseen.
it is a message of good cheer to our fighting forces on the seas, in the air, and in our waiting armies in all their posts and stations, that we send them from this capital city. they know that they have behind them a people who will not flinch or weary of the struggle - hard and protracted though it will be; but that we shall rather draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival, and of the victory won not only for our own time, but for the long and better days that are to come.
9.17.1940 (two days before the battle for britain reached its climax and on this day, unbenown at this speech hitler indefinitely suspended operation sealion..a direct attack upon the british island)..'these next few weeks are grave and anxious. i said just now in the public session that the deployment of the enemy's invasion preparations and the assembly of his ships and barges are steadily proceeding and that any moment a major assault may be launched upon this island. i now say in secret that upwards of 1700 self-propelled barges and more than 200 seagoing ships, some very large ships, are already gathering at the many invasion ports in german occupation. if this is all a pretense and stratagem to pin us down here, it has been executed with surprising thoroughness and on a gigantic scale. some of these ships and barges, when struck by our bombing counterattack and preventive attack, have blown up with tremendous explosions, showing that they are full loaded with all the munitions needed for the invading armies and to beat us down and subjugate us utterly. the shipping available and now assembled is sufficient to carry in one voyage nearly half a million men. we should, of course , expect to drown a great many on the way over and to destroy a large proportion of their vessels. but when you reflect upon the many points from which they could start and upon the fact that even the most likely sector of invasion, ie., the sector in which enemy fighter support is available for their bombers and dive bombers, extending from the Wash to the isle of wight, is nearly as long as the whole front in france from the laps to the sea, and also upon the dangers of fog or artificial fog, one must expect many lodgments or attempted lodgments to be made on our island simultaneously. these we shall hope to deal with as they occur and also to cut off the supply across the sea by which the enemy will seek to nourish his lodgments.
the difficulties of the invader are not ended when he sets foot on shore. a new chapter of perils opens upon him. i am confident that we shall succeed in defeating and largely destroying this most tremendous onslaught by which we are now threatened, and anyhow, whatever happens, we will all go down fighting to the end. i feel as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that we shall be victorious.
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