I would say to the House as I said to those who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: 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. Winston Churchill, House of Commons 13th May 1940 original transcript
If this long-island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood on the ground. Winston Churchill, May 1940 cited Hugh Dalton
You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war. Winston S Churchill, purported letter to Chamberlain
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 duty, and 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. Winston Churchill 18th June 1940
No-one can guarantee success in war but only deserve it. Winston Churchill, letter to Lord Wavell 26th November 1940
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the sea, 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. Winston Churchill, House of Commons 4th June 1940
Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Winston Churchill, speech Harrow School 29th October 1941
What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realise that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget? Winston Churchill, speech joint session of Congress 26th December 1941
When I warned them [French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their prime minister and his divided Cabinet, ‘In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.’ Some chicken! Some neck! Winston Churchill, speech to Canadian parliament 30 December 1941
The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others. Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Winston Churchill, speech Lord Mayor’s Luncheon, London 10th November 1942
We make this wide encircling movement in the Mediterranean, having for its primary object the recovery of the command of that vital sea, but also having for its object the exposure of the underbelly of the Axis, especially Italy, to heavy attack. Winston Churchill, House of Commons 11th November 1942
Let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil. Each to our part, each to our station. Winston Churchill, Manchester Free Trade Hall January 1940
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons. Winston Churchill, to personal secretary on eve of Operation Barbarossa
We believe that the honour of France lies in continuing the war alongside our allies. General Charles de Gaulle, London broadcast
Events impose this sacred duty upon me. I shall not fail to carry it out. Charles de Gaulle
In January in 1933 in a coalition government Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany. Almost immediately Hitler dissolves the Reichstag and calls for new elections. Visions of War: The World in Flames, 2003
The independent trade unions are dissolved. ibid.
Britain is more sympathetic to German demands for military parity. ibid.
A boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. ibid.
Hitler again flaunts international agreements. ibid.
The legion will fight in Spain for nearly two years. ibid.
Hitler makes territorial demands on Czechoslovakia. ibid.
Czechoslovakia is stripped of the Sudetenland. ibid.
The Munich Agreement secures Peace of our Time. ibid.
The Soviet Red Army invades Poland from the east. ibid.
After Finland the Red Army will go on the defensive. ibid.
Hitler orders a pre-emptive strike against both Norway and Denmark. ibid.
August 31st 1939, Reports of Polish soldiers invading Germany ring out: the truth is the first casualty of war. Edge of War s1e1: Hitler’s False Flag, Discovery History Channel 2013
Reichstag: a cunning act of deception and sabotage, a false flag operation. ibid.
Hitler got the war he wanted ... Against Evil, appeasement never works. ibid.
As Hitler’s regime grew ever more powerful in the 1930s the shadow of fear crept across Europe. In the main, Britain wanted to avoid war. But did our attempts to keep the peace bring some of us dangerously close to Hitler? Wartime Secrets with Harry Harris: Flirting with Hitler, Discovery 2010
One hundred and forty eight photographs of a British peace mission to Germany. It was backed by English royalty. It was organised by one of our most revered charities – the British Legion. ibid.
And why were Nazis invited to sail up the Thames in a pleasure boat? And I’m shocked to discover that in the East End of London where I come from Luftwaffe airmen were buried with full Nazi honours in a local churchyard in 1944. ibid.
Securing peace was official British Legion policy. ibid.
It’s one of the most controversial events in British Legion history. ibid.
We can already be sure that the plane came down here ... Hawkeye’s plane ... Here’s some of his medals ... Wartime Secrets with Harry Harris: Battle of Britain Mystery, Sky banner: 93-year old Spitfire girl Mary Ellis ... joins search for wreckage of rare Hurricane
Britain’s genius for innovation, spies and deception helped us to victory in the Second World War. Wartime Secrets with Harry Harris: Outwitting Hitler
Without phantom armies the D-Day landings would never have succeeded. ibid.
Colour film was almost impossible to obtain. So this is a rare find: here we can see air-raid wardens cleaning up after a bomb blast ... It’s difficult to watch ... It’s shocking ... It’s very shocking ... Civilians are helping to clear up the devastation ... Holborn Viaduct ... Right in the heart of the City of London. ibid.
Safeblower Eddie Chapman: one of the most important double agents of the Second World War. He was known by the nickname Agent Zigzag ... Chapman offered his services to the Germans ... He offered to work as a double agent ... Eddie Chapman was awarded the Iron Cross. He was the only British citizen to receive one. ibid.
The Air Ministry’s Decoy Programme was so top secret the Department didn’t even have a name. It commandeered over half of Britain’s studio space for war purposes. ibid.
Hundreds of fake planes, tanks and boats. ibid.
They tricked him [Hitler] into thinking the D-Day invasion would come from Calais. ibid.
D-Day. The future of the free world depended on it. The Allies were secretly planning the invasion of France to put Germany on the defensive. How close did it come to disaster? ibid.
Exercise Tiger: It involved eight American landing ships packed with troops, and killed nearly eight hundred men. ibid.
On the American Omaha Beach allied forces had failed to knock out German defences, and the American troops faced overwhelming odds. ibid.
In the aftermath of World War II ordinary German soldiers claimed they knew nothing of the holocaust. They blamed all its atrocities on the SS. Now, new evidence only recently discovered exposes the full extent of that lie. The evidence comes from one of the most audacious operations ever conducted by British Intelligence. German prisoners of war were secretly bugged and the conversations they thought private transcribed word for word. Spying on Hitler’s Army: The Secret Recordings, Channel 4
Three stately homes were converted into unlikely prison camps and wired for sound. ibid.
Only the transcriptions remain. ibid.
How could a normal person become a genocidal murderer? ibid.