Five months have passed since I spoke to the British nation and Empire on the broadcast. In war-time there is a lot to be said for the motto "Deeds, not Words." All the same, it is a good thing to look around from time to time and take stock. And certainly our affairs have prospered in several directions during these last four or five months far better than most of us would have ventured to hope. We stood our ground and faced the two dictators in the hour of what seemed their overwhelming triumph and we have shown ourselves capable, so far, of standing up against them alone.
After the heavy defeat of the German Air Force by our fighters in August and September, Herr Hitler did not dare attempt the invasion of this island, although he had every need to do so and although he had made vast preparations. Baffled in this grandiose project, he sought to break the spirit of the British nation by the bombing, first of London and afterward of our great cities. It has now been proved to the admiration of the world and of our friends in the United States that this form of blackmail and murder and terrorism, so far from weakening the spirit of the British nation, has only roused it to a more intense and universal flame than was ever seen before in any modern community.
The whole British Empire has been proud of the mother country and they long to be with us over here in even larger numbers. We have been deeply conscious of the love for us which has flowed from the Dominions of the Crown across the broad ocean spaces. There is the first of our war aims-to be worthy of that love and to preserve it.
All through these dark Winter months the enemy have had the power to drop three or four tons of bombs upon us for ton we could send to Germany in return. We are arranging so that presently this will be rather the other way around, but meanwhile London and our big cities have had to stand their pounding. They remind me of the British squares at Waterloo. They are not squares of soldiers, they do not wear scarlet coats; they are just ordinary English, Scottish and Welsh folk, men, women and children, standing steadfastly together. But their spirit is the same, their glory is the same and, in the end, their victory will be greater than far-famed Waterloo.
All honour to the civil defence services of all kinds, emergency and regular, volunteer and professional, who have helped our people through this formidable ordeal, the like of which no civilized community has ever been called upon to undergo. If I mention only one of these services tonight, namely the police, it is because many tributes have been paid already to the others. But the police have been in it everywhere, all the time, and, as a working woman wrote to me in a letter, what gentlemen they are!
More than two-thirds of the Winter has now gone and so far we have had no serious epidemic. Indeed, there is no increase of illness in spite of the improvised condition of the shelters. That is most creditable to our local medical and sanitary authorities, to our devoted nursing staffs and to the Ministry of Health, whose head, as you may have seen, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, is now going to Canada in the important office of High Commissioner.
There is another thing which surprised me when I asked about it. In spite of all these new wartime offences and prosecutions of all kinds, in spite of all the opportunities for looting and disorder, there has been less crime this Winter and there are now fewer prisoners in our jails than in the years of peace.
We have broken the back of the Winter. The daylight grows. The Royal Air Force grows and is already certainly master of the daylight air. The attacks may be sharper, but they will be shorter. There will be more opportunities for work and service of all kinds, more opportunities for life.
So, if our first victory was the repulse of the invader, our second was the frustration of these acts of terror and of torture against our people at home.
Meanwhile, abroad in October a wonderful thing happened. One of the two dictators, the crafty, cold-blooded, black-hearted Italian who had thought to gain an empire on the cheap by stabbing fallen France in the back-he got into trouble. Without the slightest provocation, stirred on by lust of power and brutish greed, Mussolini attacked and invaded Greece only to be hurled back ignominiously by the heroic Greek Army, who I will say, with your assent, have revived before our eyes the glories which from the Classic Age gild their native land.
While Signor Mussolini was writhing and smarting under the Greek lash in Albania, Generals Wavell and Wilson, who were charged with the defence of Egypt and of the Suez Canal in accordance with our treaty obligations, whose task seemed at one time so difficult, had received very powerful reinforcements, reinforcements of men, cannon, equipment and, above all, tanks, which we had sent from our island in spite of the invasion threat; and large numbers of troops from India, Australia and New Zealand had also reached them. Forthwith began that series of victories in Libya which have broken irretrievably the Italian military power on the African Continent. We have all been entertained, and I trust edified, by the exposure and humiliation of another of what Byron called "those Pagod things of saber sway with fronts of brass and feet of clay."
Here, then, in Libya is the third considerable event upon which we may dwell with some satisfaction. It is just exactly two months ago to a day that I was waiting anxiously, but oh so eagerly, for the news of the great counter-stroke which had been planned against the Italian invaders of Egypt. The secret had been well kept. The preparations had been well made, but to leap across those seventy miles of desert and attack an army of ten or eleven divisions, equipped with all the appliances of modern war, and who had been fortifying themselves for three months: that was a most hazardous adventure.
When the brilliant, decisive victory at Sidi Barrani, with its tens of thousands of prisoners, proved that we had quality, manoeuvring power and weapons superior to the enemy, who had boasted so much of his virility and his military virtue, it was evident that all the other Italian forces in Eastern Libya were in great danger. They could not easily beat a retreat along the coastal road without running the risk of being caught in the open by our armoured divisions and brigades ranging far out into the desert in tremendous swoops and scoops. They had to expose themselves to being attacked piecemeal.
General Wavell-nay, all our leaders and all their live, active, ardent men, British, Australian, Indian, in the Imperial Army-saw their opportunity. At that time I ventured to draw General Wavell's attention to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, at the seventh verse, where, as you all know or ought to know, it is written: "Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
The Army of the Nile has asked, and it was given; they sought, and they have found; they knocked, and it has been opened unto them. In barely eight weeks, by a campaign which will long be studied as a model of the military art, an advance of over 400 miles has been made; the whole Italian Army in the east of Libya, which was reputed to exceed 150,000 men, has been captured or destroyed; the entire province of Cyrenaica, nearly as big as England and Wales, has been conquered; the unhappy Arab tribes who have for thirty years suffered from the cruelty of Italian rule, carried in some cases to the point of methodical extermination, these Bedouin survivors have at last seen their oppressors in disorderly flight or led off in endless droves as prisoners of war. Egypt and the Suez Canal are safe. And the port, the base and the air fields of Bengazi constitute a strategic point of high consequence to the whole of the war in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This is the time, I think, to speak of the leaders who, at the head of their brave troops, have rendered this distinguished service to the King. The first and foremost-General Wavell, Commander in Chief of all the armies of the Middle East-has proved himself a master of war, sage, painstaking, daring and tireless. But General Wavell has repeatedly asked that others should share his fame. General Wilson, who actually commands the Army of the Nile, was reputed to be one of our finest tacticians, and few will now deny that quality. General O'Connor, commanding the Thirteenth Corps, with General Mackay, commanding the splendid Australians, and General Creagh, who trained and commanded the various armoured divisions which were employed-these three men executed the complicated and astounding erratic movements which were made, and fought the actions which occurred. I have just seen a telegram from General Wavell. He wishes to add that the success at Bengazi was due to the outstanding leadership and resolution of O'Connor and Creagh, ably backed by Wilson.
I must not forget here to point out the amazing mechanical feats of the British tanks, whose design and workmanship have beaten all records and stood up to all trials, and shown us how closely and directly the work in the factories at home is linked with the victories abroad. Of course, none of our plans would have succeeded had not our pilots, under Air Chief Marshal Longmore, wrested the control of the air from a far more numerous enemy.
Nor would the campaign itself have been possible if the British Mediterranean Fleet, under Admiral Cunningham, had not chased the Italian Navy into its harbours and sustained every forward surge of the army with all the flexible resources of sea-power.
How far-reaching these resources are we can see from what happened at dawn this morning when our Western Mediterranean Fleet, under Admiral Somerville, entered the Gulf of Genoa and bombarded in a shattering manner the naval base from which perhaps a Nazi German expedition might soon have sailed to attack General Weygand in Algeria or Tunis.
It is right that the Italian people should be made to feel the sorry plight into which they have been dragged by Dictator Mussolini, and if the cannonade of Genoa, rolling along the coast, reverberating in the mountains, has reached the ears of our French comrades in their grief and misery, it may cheer them with the feeling that friends, active friends, are near and that Britannia rules the waves.
The events in Libya are only part of the story. They are only a part of the story of the decline and fall of the Italian Empire. That will not take a future Gibbon so long to write as the original work. Fifteen hundred miles away to the southward, a strong British and Indian army, having driven the invaders out of the Sudan, is marching steadily forward through the Italian colony of Eritrea, thus seeking to complete the isolation of all the Italian troops in Abyssinia. Other British forces are entering Abyssinia from the west, while the army gathered in Kenya, in the van of which we may discern the powerful forces of the Union of South Africa organized by General Smuts, are striking northward along the whole enormous front. Lastly, the Ethiopian patriots whose independence was stolen five years ago have risen in arms and their Emperor, so recently an exile in England, is in their midst to fight for their freedom and his throne.
Here, then, we see the beginnings of a process of reparation and of the chastisement of wrong-doing which reminds us that though the mills of the gods grind slowly they grind exceedingly small.
While these auspicious events have been carrying us stride by stride from what many people thought a forlorn position and once certainly a very grave position, in May and June, to one which permits us to speak with sober confidence of our power to discharge our duty, heavy though it be, in the future-while this has been happening a mighty tide of sympathy, of good-will and of effective aid has begun to flow across the Atlantic in support of the world cause which is at stake.
Distinguished Americans have come over to see things here at the front and to find out how the United States can help us best and soonest. In Mr. Hopkins, who has been my frequent companion during the last three weeks, we have the envoy of the President, who has been newly re-elected to his august office. In Mr. Wendell Wilkie we have welcomed the champion of the great Republican party. We may be sure that they will both tell the truth about what they have seen over here, and more than that we do not ask. The rest we leave with good confidence to the judgment of the President, the Congress and the people of the United States.
I have been so very careful since I have been Prime Minister not to encourage false hopes or prophesy smooth and easy things, and yet the tale that I had to tell today is one which must justly and rightly give us cause for deep thankfulness and also, I think for sound comfort and even rejoicing. But now I must dwell upon the more serious, darker and more dangerous aspects of the vast scene of the war. We must all of us have been asking ourselves what is that wicked man, whose crime-stained regime and system are at bay and in the toils, what has he been preparing during these Winter months? What new deviltry is he planning? What new small country will he overrun or strike down? What fresh form of assault will he make upon our island homes and fortress? Which, let there be no mistake about it, is all that stands between him and the domination of the world.
We may be sure that the war is soon going to enter upon a phase of greater violence. Hitler's confederate, Mussolini, has reeled back in Albania. But the Nazis, having absorbed Hungary and driven Rumania into a frightful internal convulsion, are now already upon the Black Sea. A considerable German army and air force is being built up in Rumania and its forward tentacles have already penetrated Bulgaria with, we must suppose, the acquiescence of the Bulgarian Government. Airfields are being occupied by German ground personnel numbering thousands, so as to enable the German air force to come into action from Bulgaria. Many preparations have been made for the movement of German troops into or through Bulgaria. And perhaps this southward movement has already begun.
We saw what happened last May in the Low Countries-how they hoped for the best, how they clung to their neutrality, how awfully they were deceived, overwhelmed, plundered, enslaved and, since, starved. We know how we and the French suffered when at the last moment, at the urgent, belated appeal of the King of the Belgians, we went to his aid. Of course, if all the Balkan people stood together and acted together, aided by Britain and by Turkey, it would be many months before a German army and air force of sufficient strength to overcome them could be assembled in the Southeast of Europe. And in those months much might happen.
Much will certainly happen as American aid becomes effective, as our air power grows, as we become a well-armed nation, and as our armies in the East increase in strength. But nothing is more certain that that, if the countries of Southeastern Europe allow themselves to be pulled to pieces one by one, they will share the fate of Denmark, Holland and Belgium, and none can tell how long it will be before the hour of their deliverance strikes.
One of our difficulties is to convince some of these neutral countries in Europe that we are going to win. We think it is astonishing that they should be so dense as not to see it as clearly as we do ourselves.
I remember in the last war, in July, 1915, we began to think that Bulgaria was going wrong, so Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Bonar Law, Sir F. E. Smith and I asked the Bulgarian Minister to dinner to explain to him what a fool King Ferdinand would make of himself if he were to go in on the losing side. It was no use. The poor man simply could not believe it, or couldn't make his government believe it. So Bulgaria, against the wishes of her peasant population, against all her interests, fell in at the Kaiser's tail and got sadly carved up and punished when the victory was won.
I trust that Bulgaria is not going to make the same mistake again. If they do the Bulgarian peasantry and people, for whom there has been much regard both in Great Britain and the United States, will for the third time in thirty years have been made to embark upon a needless and disastrous war.
In the Central Mediterranean, the Italian Quisling, who is called Mussolini, and the French Quisling, commonly called Laval, are both in their different ways trying to make their countries into doormats for Hitler and his new order, in the hope of being able to keep or get the Nazi Gestapo and Prussian bayonets to enforce their rule upon their fellow countrymen. I cannot tell how the matter will go, but at any rate we shall do our best to fight for the Central Mediterranean.
I dare say you will have noticed a very significant air action which was fought over Malta a fortnight ago. The Germans sent an entire Geschwader (squadron) of dive-bombers to Sicily. They seriously injured our new aircraft carrier Illustrious, and then, as this wounded ship was sheltered in Malta harbour, they concentrated upon her all their force so as to beat her to pieces.
But they were met by the batteries of Malta, which is one of the strongest defended fortresses in the world against air attack. They were met by the Fleet Air Arm and by the Royal Air Force and in two or three days they had lost, out of 150 dive-bombers, upward of ninety-fifty of which were destroyed in the air and forty on the ground. Although the Illustrious in her damaged condition was one of the great prizes of the air and naval war, the German Geschwader accepted the defeat. They would not come any more.
All the necessary repairs were made to the Illustrious in Malta harbour, and she steamed safely off to Alexandria under her own power at twenty-three knots. I dwell upon this incident not at all because I think it disposes of the danger in the Central Mediterranean but in order to show you that there, as elsewhere, we intend to give a good account of ourselves. But, after all, the fate of this war is going to be settled by what happens on the oceans, in the air and, above all, in this island.
It seems now to be certain that the government and people of the United States intend to supply us with all that is necessary for victory. In the last war the United States sent two million men across the Atlantic, but this is not a war of vast armies, hurling immense masses of shells at one another. We do not need the gallant armies which are forming throughout the American Union. We do not need them this year, nor the next year, nor any year that I can foresee. But we do need most urgently an immense and continuous supply of war materials, and technical apparatus of all kinds. We need them here and we need to bring them here. We shall need a great mass of shipping in 1942, far more than we can build ourselves if we are to maintain and augment our war effort in the West and in the East.
These facts are, of course, all well known to the enemy, and we must therefore expect that Herr Hitler will do his utmost to prey upon our shipping and reduce the volume of American supplies entering these islands. Having conquered France and Norway, his clutching fingers reach out on both sides of us into the ocean. I have never underrated this danger and you know I have never concealed it from you. Therefore, I hope you will believe me when I say that I have complete confidence in the Royal Navy, aided by the air force of the Coastal Command, and that, in one way or another, I am sure they will be able to meet every changing phase of this truly mortal struggle, and that, sustained by the
courage of our merchant seamen and of the dockers and workmen of all ports, we shall outwit, out-manoeuvre, outfight and outlast the worst that the enemy's malice and ingenuity can contrive.
I left the greatest issue to the end. You will have seen that Sir John Dill, our principal military adviser, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, has warned us all yesterday that Hitler may be forced by the strategic economic and political stresses in Europe to try to invade these islands in the near future.
That is a warning which no one should disregard. Naturally, we are working night and day to have everything ready. Of course, we are far stronger than we ever were before-incomparably stronger than we were in July, August, and September. Our Navy is more powerful, our flotillas are more numerous. We are far stronger, actually and relatively, in the air above these islands than we were when our Fighter Command beat off and beat down the Nazi attack last Autumn. Our Army is more numerous, more mobile and far better equipped and trained than in September, and still more than in July. And I have the greatest confidence in our Commander in Chief, General Brooke, and in the generals of proved ability who under him guard the different quarters of our land. But most of all I have put my faith in the simple, unaffected resolve to conquer or die which will animate and inspire nearly four million Britons with serviceable weapons in their hands.
It is not an easy military operation to invade an island like Great Britain without the command of the sea and without the command of the air, and then to face what will be waiting for the invader here.
But I must drop one word of caution, for next to cowardice and to treachery, overconfidence leading to neglect or slothfulness is the worst of martial crimes. Therefore, I drop one word of caution: A Nazi invasion of Great Britain last Autumn would have been a more or less improvised affair. Hitler took it for granted that when France gave in we should give in. But we did not give in. And he had to think again. An invasion now will be supported by a much more carefully prepared tackle and equipment for landing craft and other apparatus, all of which will have been planned and manufactured during the Winter months. We must all be prepared to meet gas attacks, parachute attacks and glider attacks, with constancy, forethought and practiced skill.
I must again emphasize what General Dill has said and what I pointed out myself last year: In order to win the war, Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He may carry havoc into the Balkan States; he may tear great provinces out of Russia; he may march to the Caspian; he may march to the gates of India. All this will avail him nothing. He may spread his curse more widely throughout Europe and Asia, but it will not avert his doom.
With every month that passes the many proud and once happy countries he is now holding down by brute force and vile intrigue are learning to hate the Prussian yoke and the Nazi name, as nothing has ever been hated so fiercely and so widely among men before. And all the time, masters of the sea and air, the British Empire-nay, in a certain sense, the whole English-speaking world-will be on-his track bearing with them the swords of Justice.
The other day President Roosevelt gave his opponent in the late Presidential election a letter of introduction to me, and in it he wrote out a verse in his own handwriting from Longfellow, which, he said, "applies to you people as it does to us." Here is the verse:
. . . Sail on, O Ship of State!Sail on, O Union, strong and great!Humanity with all its fearsWith all the hopes of future yearsIs hanging breathless on thy fate!
What is the answer that I shall give in your name to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of 130,000,000? Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt.
Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and under Providence all will be well. We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
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