Fifty years ago today one of the most consequential figures of the 20th century, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, died at the age of 90. To call Churchill a great war leader would be hopelessly inadequate. Calling him perhaps the greatest war leader in history would be getting closer to the truth. I seem to recall Churchill saying he often that felt his whole life was merely preparation for the role he would play over the summer of 1940. And he played his part magnificently. It is simply impossible to imagine any other British leader doing what Churchill did after the fall of France. If ever a military contest looked hopelessly unequal, it was the one between Great Britain and Nazi Germany in June of 1940. All that stood between Hitler, and his ultimate victory, was the 20-mile-wide saltwater moat called the English Channel. For hundreds of years, that barrier had been enough to keep would-be conquerors at bay. The Channel had frustrated Napoleon in the 19th Century, and even as recently as 1918 it had kept the Kaisers armies safely contained on the continent. But the two decades that had elapsed since the Great War ended had seen aviation come into its own. The combat aircraft that made Blitzkrieg warfare possible were not in the least bit deterred by 20 miles of deep water. Not when they now had bases that were right on the Channel coast. All that remained was to unleash Görings Luftwaffe and bomb Britain into submission. And the only thing standing in the way were those pitifully small numbers of RAF fighter planes and pilots. The temptation to negotiate peace terms with Hitler must have been unbearable at that point. To repeat, it is impossible to imagine any other British leader doing what Churchill did at that moment in time. No one else would have been able to encourage and inspire the British people the way that he did. No one else would have been able to harness the power of language the way that he did. We live in an age in which politicians speeches are canned and focus-tested. The rhetoric might well sound lofty and inspiring, but most of it has about as much substance as cotton candy. The speeches that Churchill delivered over those months when Britain stood alone stand as monuments to the power of words. But wars are not fought with words, and the Battle of Britain would be fought in the skies over the United Kingdom by grimly determined men at the controls of powerful flying machines. On one side were the German bombers that rained death from above, and on the other were those British fighter pilots whom Churchill would later immortalize. This is from Wikipedia: Churchill apparently first used his famous words upon his exit from the Battle of Britain Bunker at RAF Uxbridge on 16 August when visiting the No. 11 Group RAF Operations Room during a day of battle. Afterwards, Churchill told Major General Hastings Ismay, Dont speak to me, I have never been so moved. After several minutes of silence he said, Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few. The sentence would form the basis of his speech to the House of Commons on 20 August.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 18:44:21 +0000
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