Churchill Takes Up Cause for Victory
Good morning, it’s May 13. On this date in 1940, Winston Churchill assumed office as the leader of his isolated and besieged island. Hitler’s invasion of Poland eight months earlier had put a bloody punctuation mark of the futility of Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement, and the success of the Germans’ lightning-fast invasion of the Low Countries had brought about Chamberlain’s resignation.
The man replacing him had no illusions about the threat to his people, or the pain they would endure should they be successful in fighting off the wolf at their nation's doorstep. To General Hastings Ismay, Churchill confided the stark truth: “Poor people, poor people. They trust me, and I can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time.”
On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister. “I would say to the House,” he said, “as I said to those who have joined this government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.'”
Actually, he had a good deal more to offer his people, which he revealed moments later.
What Winston Churchill could offer his countrymen, in addition to “blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” was a fierce determination and an uncommon eloquence that helped channel the bravery and resilience of the English people and the rest of the British Commonwealth. It was to serve them well.
“We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering,” Churchill said in that House of Commons speech 73 years ago today. “You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal.
“But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.’”
