We Shall Fight on the Beaches

Winston Churchill

With We shall fight on the beaches ( "We shall fight on the beaches") is a speech by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to this on 4. June 1940 before the British House of Commons shortly thereafter and again in Broadcasting held.

Historical context

The speech is one of Churchill's great speeches during the German offensive against France in the spring of 1940 and the Battle of Britain in the summer of the same year - alongside “ Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat ” from May 13th, “ This Was Their Finest Hour ” (“This was their greatest hour”) from June 18th and “ Never was so much owed by so many to so few ” (“Never before had so many so few had so much too owe ”) from August 20th. It was addressed to Parliament and the people of Great Britain as well as the outside world and became one of the most famous speeches Churchill made during World War II .

He formulated it just a few weeks after taking office on May 10 of the same year against the background of the precarious war situation in the United Kingdom, after the evacuation of the British expeditionary forces from Dunkirk . “We shall fight on the beaches” primarily served to strengthen the British population's will to resist and assert themselves in the fight against National Socialist Germany. Churchill followed up his government statement of May 10, in which he had declared that his only policy was "victory, victory at any price". In unequivocal rhetoric , he rejected all defeatist tendencies at home, as well as any hopes or fears about British inclinations to surrender in hostile and friendly countries. In particular, he refused a mutual agreement with Hitler's Germany.

The speech owes its name to a central passage in which Churchill made an evocative statement to the British and the outside world:

"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. "

“We will continue to the end. We will fight in France, we will fight on the seas and oceans. We will fight in the air with increasing confidence and increasing strength. We will defend our island, whatever it costs. We will fight on the beaches, we will fight in the landing sites, we will fight in the fields and on the streets, we will fight in the hills. We will never surrender. "

Churchill made it clear that the British 'internal will to defend themselves was completely detached from the actual or supposed hopelessness of their external situation and the advances made by the enemy. Because his list anticipates further, increasing successes of the war opponent, in particular a possible invasion of Great Britain by German troops. In an antagonistic exaggeration, however, he turns these possible successes against the invaders by making it clear that each of their successes and each British defeat will only lead to even greater determination.

Churchill's speech was probably modeled on an address given by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau during the First World War . Clemenceau had said in the French Parliament in June 1918:

"I will fight before Paris, I will fight in Paris, I will fight behind Paris."

These words made a lasting impression on Churchill, who at the time had visited France as the British Minister of Munitions and had attended the speech. Both speeches have in common the emphasis on the absolute will to fight through rhetorical accumulations of similar statements.

The author Alan Moorehead , who had directly witnessed the impact of Churchill's speeches in 1940, commented on their impact and importance for the development of the war as follows:

“It was the most dangerous moment in the history of the country, but since Shakespeare's day such dramatic, heartfelt words had hardly been heard in England, and indeed in the years that followed they were on everyone's lips in every democracy and perhaps have Contributed as much to Hitler's fall as any other weapon. Under such a leader there was no alternative, no one wanted anything other than to continue the fight. "

- Moorehead : Churchill. A Pictorial Biography, 1961, p. 79

Aftermath

The speech is still considered a masterpiece of rousing political rhetoric. In the UK in particular, some of their passages are still extremely popular today. They have found their way into the English vocabulary and rhetorical repertoire of demanding conversation and small talk as fixed phrases . Its immediate effect was expressed, among other things, in the fact that it was inserted into a scene in the James Cagney film Heroes of the Skies in 1942 : It is about Canadian volunteers who were helped by Churchill's brilliant speech (“Who could not be addressed by this appeal? ? ”) To report to the Royal Air Force .