when a week ago today
Mr. Speaker I
Asked the house to fix this afternoon
at the occasion for a statement [I]
Feared it would be my hard lot
to announce
the greatest military
disaster in Our Long History [I]
I thought and
Some good Gadget agreed with me
The draft Twenty or Thirty thousand men might be reembarked
but it suddenly [seems] as the whole of the french first army and
the whole of the British expeditionary Force
North of the Amia
Advil yet
Would be broken up in the open field or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition
These were the hard and heavy tidings
Which I call [above] the house and the nations to prepare themselves that week ago
The whole route [length] [Corps] and brain as a program is on which and around which
We were to build and are to build
the Great British armies in the later years of the war
seemed about to perish upon the field or be led into an ignominious and
Starving captivity
the enemy attacked us on all sides with great strength and justice and
our main power
The part of the far more numerous Air Force was thrown into the battle or else
concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches
pressing in upon the narrow exit
both from the East and from the West
The enemy began to fire with Cannon upon the beaches by which alone the shipping could approach or Depart.
They so Magnetic mines in the channels and seas
It sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft
sometimes more [than] a hundred strong in one formation
to craft our bombs from the single pellet remain and if in the sand Dunes
On which the troops had the only shelter
their U-Boats one of which were sunk and [the] Mogollon trees took the toll of
the vast traffic which now began
For four or five days an intense struggle rained all their armored divisions or what was left of them
together with great masses of infantry and artillery
[hurled] themselves in vain from the ever narrowing away contracting appendix
Within which the British and French armies fought
Meanwhile the Royal Navy
was a willing help of countless Merchant Seamen
strained every nerve to Embark the British and allied Troops
220 Lights warships and
[650] other vessels were engaged
They had to operate [it] from the difficult coast
Often in adverse weather and an almost ceaseless hail of bombs and an increasing
concentration of artillery fire
Nor were the seas as I've said themselves free from mines and torpedoes
It was in conditions such as these
As I'm in carried on was little or no rest
the days and nights on end making
Trip after trip across the dangerous waters
bringing wisdom
Always Men who made rescue
The numbers [they're] brought back other measure of [their] devotion
and the courage
The hospital ships which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded being so plainly marked
Where a special target for naughty bombers, but the men and women on board them the never falters in their duty?
Meanwhile the Royal Air Force
which had already been
Intervening in the battle and fought the train would allow
From our home bases
now use part of its main Metropolitan [fighter] [straits] and
struck at the German bombers and at the fighters which in large numbers protected
This [struggle] [would] protracted and Fierce
Suddenly the pigeons guard
the crashing [Thunder] and strew the moment that only was a moment tide away a
miracle of deliverance
achieved by Valor by Perseverance by perfect discipline by Faultless service
Irish lost by skill by unconquerable fidelity it manifested to us all
the enemy
Which fell back as a retreating British troops?
They were so roughly handled that he is not [carries] our departure
seriously
Sir, we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance
the attributes of a victory
Wars are not won by evacuation
But there was a victory inside this deliverance which will be noted he could gain by the [Air] [force]
Many of our soldiers coming back have not seen the [Air] [Force's] work
They so only the bombers which escaped its protective attack
They underrated the treatments
I've heard much talk of this
That is why I go out of my way to say this I
Will tell you about it. This was a great trial of strengths between the british and German Air force
Can you can see a greater objective for the German in the air?
[meant] to make evacuations from these [beeches impossible and
To think all these ships which was it [stayed] almost to the extent of thousand
Could I have been an objective and greater military importance and significance?
for the whole purpose of the walls of this
They tried hard, and they were beaten back. They were frustrated in the task
We got the army away, and they have paid for cold
for any losses
Which they have been written?
So when we consider how much greater would be our advantage in defending the Air above the [size] [of] the infant overseas attack?
And I'll say that I find in the tractor shrug basis upon which practical and reassuring thoughts nearest I
would pay my tribute [diseased] young [Haman]
the great French Army which very largely
for the time being
tossed back and
Disturbed for the on Russia [or] to thousands of armored vehicles
may it not also be that the cause of
Civilization itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of [a] few thousand down
There never has been I suppose in all the world
In all the history of war such [an] opportunity for use
the knights of the round Table
the Crusaders all fall back into the past
Not early
distance
but per day
These young men growing forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for
Holding in their hands
these instruments of colossal shattering power a
limit may be said that every morn brought forth or no [Trance] and
every Transcript for the Noble Knight
Deserve our gratitude
Yes to all the brave men
In so many ways and on so many occasions
Are ready and continue ready give life and all their native land
nevertheless
Thankfulness at the escape of our army and so many men who [have] run to pass to an agonizing [weak]
but not blind us to the fact that what happens in France and
Belgium it's a colossal military disaster
the French Army has been weakened the Belgian army has been lost a
Large part of those 40 guidelines a little bit so much faith has been reposed. He's gone
Many valuable mining districts and factories across into the enemy's protection
Over the channel ports [my] hands. There's all the tragic consequences [that] follow from that
And we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us or a [trompe]
We are told sir. That's how hitler and to plan for invading the British isles
[this] is [awful] [being] thought of before
When Napoleon Led boulogne for a year [visit] [fat-bottomed] [books] and his grand army?
he was told by someone that
Are bitter we'd hit England?
They are certainly a great many more of them since the British expeditionary force returned
So I have myself full confidence that you go to educate
If nothing is neglected and if the best arrangements are [made] as they are being made we should prove ourselves
Once more able to defend our island home
To ride out the [storm] of war and to our the menace of Tyranny
if necessary videos
explicitly alone
At any rate that is what we're going [to] try to do
[then] is [resolve] his majesty's government
every Manner
That is a will of parliament in the nation the [British] [Empire] [and] the French republic
linked together in their code and in our need
Will defend to the death penaity soil aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost to their [strength]
We shall go [on] to the end?
We shall fight in France
[which] [will] 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
[and] if
Which I do not for a moment believe
This island or large part of it when subjugated and starving in our empire
Beyond the Seas
Armed and guarded by the beliefs which would carry on the struggle
until in God's good time
The new World was all its power [might] steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old
you