Who said our finest hour

Churchill, Their Finest Hour. A squadron can reach its destination in a few hours, but its establishments, depots, fuel, spare parts, and workshops take many weeks, and even months, to develop.

Successful preliminary experiments were made, but before this fuze was developed in England the Americans, to whom we imparted our knowledge, actually succeeded not only in perfecting the instrument but in reducing its size so much that the whole thing could be put into the head not merely of a rocket but of a shell.

But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing. We had to check this tendency for administrative reasons. Nelson said that a six-gun battery could fight a gun ship-of-the-line. When he got inside the raid had begun. Why should we not divide? She is no more use as a Power. Thus Britain was saved. On this point we should never have given way, but the refusal would have been bitterly resented by our struggling Ally, and would have poisoned all our relations.

It was even with an actual sense of relief that some of our high commanders addressed themselves to our new and grimly simplified problem. Welcome back. Churchill believed that Britain must fight on.

Peace talks would put Britain on a slippery slope of making one concession after another. It also was unclear what would have to be conceded to Hitler to obtain a settlement. One hallmark of rational decision making is the requirement to test the assumptions behind a policy stance.

He was willing to explore the prospect of negotiations. He did not want to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire—he wanted to preserve it by ending the war. It drives me to despair when he works himself up into a position of emotion when he ought to make his brain think and reason. The British military chiefs were asked to weigh in as well with their strategic appraisal.

We and our great dominions overseas stand, and shall continue to stand, four square against the forces of evil. If they have the strength they pretend to have and they come over and knock off the British air force, it will not make the slightest difference what land precautions the British have made.

No country can stand up unless it has air parity with another country. Churchill and the British people were fortunate in that they possessed an outstanding military commander in Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding to conduct the Battle of Britain.

The aerial contest between Britain and Germany became a battle of attrition, fought out by a few thousand pilots over the British skies, rather than by hundreds of thousands of infantrymen in the mud of Flanders as had happened but a generation before.

Both the British and German air forces suffered heavy casualties in their constant clashes. Germany came out the loser in this slugging match. Yes, the bomber did get through, as Stanley Baldwin had predicted. The British civilian population in the bomb-wracked cities suffered grievous loss of life.

By the end of , German bombing raids killed about 25, British civilians. To give some perspective, these losses amount to seven or eight times the fatalities suffered by the United States on September 11, The bombing of London convinced some German leaders that Britain would soon want to open negotiations. Despite the onslaught, British morale did not collapse.

Without that all would have failed. Upon that rock, all stood unshakable. The courage of the British people provided an answer to the question posed by the British military chiefs as to whether they could withstand the strain of air bombardment. To defeat Germany required that Britain find powerful and determined allies. Thus, another known unknown was whether Britain could acquire allies to join in a coalition against Germany. Of special importance was whether the United States would come into the war and project its strength across the Atlantic to the fighting fronts in Europe.

In response to a question posed by President Franklin D. In time, the United States would take action with Britain against the common danger posed by Hitler. For this coalition to form, however, Britain needed to play for time, to demonstrate its ability to carry on the fight, and show up the limits of German power. By protracting the war, Britain also would provide time for the United States to rearm, to mobilize its economy, and convince the American people of the necessity to fight.

Faced by threats from Germany in Europe and Japan in Asia, the United States had several strategic options open to it during the second half of These options were examined by the U. One strategic option identified by Admiral Stark was for the United States to build up and husband its military might to fight in defense of the Western Hemisphere.

Hemispheric defense was an option that, given the dangerous international setting, would command wholehearted support across the American political spectrum. If Joseph P. Kennedy or Charles Lindbergh had been president instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States would have chosen this strategic alternative. Another strategic option was to prepare the country for war against Japan, to roll back Japanese aggression in China. Admiral Stark examined an American offensive across the Pacific if war erupted with Japan.

Under this Pacific-first option, defeating Japan, either alone or in coalition with the British Empire, would represent the main American military effort. Admiral Stark did not pull his punches: he projected that a war against Japan would require a huge and protracted effort by the United States. This Pacific-first strategy would provide little to help Britain in the fight against Germany. He recommended that the United States prepare for a Europe-first offensive strategy to support Britain in defeating Germany.

Churchill was fortunate that Roosevelt occupied the White House. Roosevelt possessed a brilliant strategic mind. He agreed with Admiral Stark that the United States should give strategic priority to defeating Germany. The president wanted to move as quickly as American public opinion and rearmament would allow the United States to get involved in the struggle against Germany. We know how history unfolded: Hitler would invade the Soviet Union and then declare war on the United States after Japan attacked American forces in the Pacific.

There are few certainties in war. In addition, there can be no denying that emotions ran high during the crisis of year of How could it have been otherwise? He received hardheaded strategic assessments from the military chiefs, canvassed political and public opinion, and listened to opposing points of view in reaching a decision. Churchill showed judgment borne of experience as well as passionate attachment to the cause of destroying a dangerous evil.

One is aeroplanes and the other is America. In wagering that Britain could withstand the German air onslaught, the odds favored Churchill. On the other side of the Channel, Germany had not prepared for the scenario of an invasion of Britain. The German air force found it difficult to gain air superiority over southern England. If defeated, Germany also would have suffered the loss of valuable air and ground assets, weakening its overall strategic position.