Today in History

June 18, 1940

Their Finest Hour

On June 18, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons. Only slightly more than a month earlier, he had become Prime Minister of Britain. It was the first year of World War II. The Battle of France waged on, and it was a certainty that Germany would capture the French nation. Churchill’s speech rallied the morale of the British people and brought the rest of the world to a full realization of Europe’s plight.

What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. 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 freed 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, so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

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