This was their finest hour
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The This was their finest hour speech was delivered by Sir Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940. It was given shortly after he took over as Prime Minister of Britain on 10 May, in the first year of World War II.
It was the third of three speeches which he gave during the period of the Battle of France. These speeches (the other two being the "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech of 13 May, and the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech of 4 June) were a great inspiration to the embattled United Kingdom as it entered what was probably the most dangerous phase of the entire war.
It was given as France continued to reel from the stunning and massive German breakthrough at Sedan, France; it was shortly to be overcome, and sued for peace a week later, on 22 June. In it he tried to give a confident overview of the military situation and rally his people for what he probably knew was going to be a tremendous struggle. The final sentence of the extract below, referring to the idea that the British Empire might last a thousand years, illustrates Churchill's extreme attachment and faith in the Empire — its gradual dissolution in the subsequent decades was a source of great distress for Churchill.
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[edit] Excerpts
| “ | 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." | ” |
[edit] Cultural references
Parts of the speech are paraphrased by the English rock band The Kinks in the song "Mr. Churchill Says", from the album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). In the Hilary Duff song "Gypsy Woman", there are snippets of his speech at the beginning and end of the song where he said "The Battle of France is over" to which Duff replied, "Congratulations, you've joined the ranks of all the rest". The speech is also incorporated in Sonic Hub's 2007 song "Fact Destruction", on their album Eye of the storm. Some words have been changed to reflect the state of the music industry instead of Britain.
In the opening title sequence of the game Civilization: Call to Power, Churchill is heard uttering part of this phrase through the loudspeakers of a city being bombed.
Samples of Churchill's speech were also used in the song "In Dulce Decorum" by The Damned in 1987. The song was featured in the Miami Vice episode "Walk Alone" in the third season, and an extended version with complete lyrics/vocals was featured on the compilation album "The Light at the End of the Tunnel".
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