Their Finest Hour

Delivered at the beginning of the World War II (WWII) and as France was falling to the Nazis, “Their Finest Hour” aimed to boost morale in the United Kingdom. Churchill originally delivered the speech on June 18, 1940, in the House of Commons in front of members of Parliament and Churchill’s cabinet of ministers. Later, the same speech, with some modification and omissions, was delivered to the public over the radio. Though the audience differed, the speech’s goal was more or less the same: to reassure listeners that victory was still possible.

Churchill’s overview of the lost Battle of France highlights why that reassurance would have been necessary. With the benefit of hindsight, he points out a range of mistakes that the Allies made in defending France and notes that although the evacuation at Dunkirk managed to save many troops, Britain was forced to leave behind a large amount of military equipment, including tanks, cannons, and ammunition. Furthermore, Churchill argues that with France more or less defeated, Germany will be free to focus all of its military attention on Britain (of the other major Allied participants in the war in Europe, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union would join the war until 1941).