From the moment that the French defenses at
Sedan and on the Meuse were broken at the end of the second week of
May, only a rapid retreat to Amiens and the south could have saved the
British and French Armies who had entered Belgium at the appeal of the
Belgian King; but this strategic fact was not immediately realized. The
French High Command hoped they would be able to close the gap, and the
Armies of the north were under their orders. Moreover, a retirement of
this kind would have involved almost certainly the destruction of the
fine Belgian Army of over 20 divisions and the abandonment of the whole
of Belgium. Therefore, when the force and scope of the German
penetration were realized and when a new French Generalissimo, General
Weygand, assumed command in place of General Gamelin, an effort was
made by the French and British Armies in Belgium to keep on holding the
right hand of the Belgians and to give their own right hand to a newly
created French Army which was to have advanced across the Somme in
great strength to grasp it.
However, the German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around the
right and rear of the Armies of the north. Eight or nine armored
divisions, each of about four hundred armored vehicles of different
kinds, but carefully assorted to be complementary and divisible into
small self-contained units, cut off all communications between us and
the main French Armies. It severed our own communications for food and
ammunition, which ran first to Amiens and afterwards through Abbeville,
and it shore its way up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, and almost to
Dunkirk. Behind this armored and mechanized onslaught came a number of
German divisions in lorries, and behind them again there plodded
comparatively slowly the dull brute mass of the ordinary German Army
and German people, always so ready to be led to the trampling down in
other lands of liberties and comforts which they have never known in
their own.
I have said this armored scythe-stroke almost
reached Dunkirk-almost but not quite. Boulogne and Calais were the
scenes of desperate fighting. The Guards defended Boulogne for a while
and were then withdrawn by orders from this country. The Rifle Brigade,
the 60th Rifles, and the Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a battalion of
British tanks and 1,000 Frenchmen, in all about four thousand strong,
defended Calais to the last. The British Brigadier was given an hour to
surrender. He spurned the offer, and four days of intense street
fighting passed before silence reigned over Calais, which marked the
end of a memorable resistance. Only 30 unwounded survivors were brought
off by the Navy, and we do not know the fate of their comrades. Their
sacrifice, however, was not in vain. At least two armored divisions,
which otherwise would have been turned against the British
Expeditionary Force, had to be sent to overcome them. They have added
another page to the glories of the light divisions, and the time gained
enabled the Graveline water lines to be flooded and to be held by the
French troops.
Thus it was that the port of Dunkirk was
kept open. When it was found impossible for the Armies of the north to
reopen their communications to Amiens with the main French Armies, only
one choice remained. It seemed, indeed, forlorn. The Belgian, British
and French Armies were almost surrounded. Their sole line of retreat
was to a single port and to its neighboring beaches. They were pressed
on every side by heavy attacks and far outnumbered in the air.
When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as
the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to
announce the greatest military disaster in our long history. I
thought-and some good judges agreed with me-that perhaps 20,000 or
30,000 men might be re-embarked. But it certainly seemed that the whole
of the French First Army and the whole of the British Expeditionary
Force north of the Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the open
field or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition.
These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House
and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago. The whole root and
core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were
to build, and are to build, the great British Armies in the later years
of the war, seemed about to perish upon the field or to be led into an
ignominious and starving capacity.
That was the prospect a
week ago. But another blow which might well have proved final was yet
to fall upon us. The King of the Belgians had called upon us to come to
his aid. Had not this Ruler and his Government severed themselves from
the Allies, who rescued their country from extinction in the late war,
and had they not sought refuge in what was proved to be a fatal
neutrality, the French and British Armies might well at the outset have
saved not only Belgium but perhaps even Poland. Yet at the last moment,
when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopard called upon us to come
to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave,
efficient Army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left flank
and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly,
without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the
advice of his Ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a
plenipotentiary to the German Command, surrendered his Army, and
exposed our whole flank and means of retreat.
I asked the
House a week ago to suspend its judgment because the facts were not
clear, but I do not feel that any reason now exists why we should not
form our own opinions upon this pitiful episode. The surrender of the
Belgian Army compelled the British at the shortest notice to cover a
flank to the sea more than 30 miles in length. Otherwise all would have
been cut off, and all would have shared the fate to which King Leopold
had condemned the finest Army his country had ever formed. So in doing
this and in exposing this flank, as anyone who followed the operations
on the map will see, contact was lost between the British and two out
of the three corps forming the First French Army, who were still
farther from the coast than we were, and it seemed impossible that any
large number of Allied troops could reach the coast.
The
enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and fierceness, and
their main power, the power of their far more numerous Air Force, was
thrown into the battle or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the
beaches. Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both from the east and from
the west, the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches by which
alone the shipping could approach or depart. They sowed magnetic mines
in the channels and seas; they sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft,
sometimes more than a hundred strong in one formation, to cast their
bombs upon the single pier that remained, and upon the sand dunes upon
which the troops had their eyes for shelter. Their U-boats, one of
which was sunk, and their motor launches took their toll of the vast
traffic which now began. For four or five days an intense struggle
reigned. All their armored divisions-or what Was left of them-together
with great masses of infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in vain
upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix within which the
British and French Armies fought.
Meanwhile, the Royal
Navy, with the willing help of countless merchant seamen, strained
every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops; 220 light warships
and 650 other vessels were engaged. They had to operate upon the
difficult coast, often in adverse weather, under an almost ceaseless
hail of bombs and an increasing concentration of artillery fire. Nor
were the seas, as I have said, themselves free from mines and
torpedoes. It was in conditions such as these that our men carried on,
with little or no rest, for days and nights on end, making trip after
trip across the dangerous waters, bringing with them always men whom
they had rescued. The numbers they have brought back are the measure of
their devotion and their courage. The hospital ships, which brought off
many thousands of British and French wounded, being so plainly marked
were a special target for Nazi bombs; but the men and women on board
them never faltered in their duty.
Meanwhile, the Royal
Air Force, which had already been intervening in the battle, so far as
its range would allow, from home bases, now used part of its main
metropolitan fighter strength, and struck at the German bombers and at
the fighters which in large numbers protected them. This struggle was
protracted and fierce. Suddenly the scene has cleared, the crash and
thunder has for the moment-but only for the moment-died away. A miracle
of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect
discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by
unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all. The enemy was hurled
back by the retreating British and French troops. He was so roughly
handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously. The Royal Air
Force engaged the main strength of the German Air Force, and inflicted
upon them losses of at least four to one; and the Navy, using nearly
1,000 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and British,
out of the jaws of death and shame, to their native land and to the
tasks which lie immediately ahead. We must be very careful not to
assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not
won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance,
which should be noted. It was gained by the Air Force. Many of our
soldiers coming back have not seen the Air Force at work; they saw only
the bombers which escaped its protective attack. They underrate its
achievements. I have heard much talk of this; that is why I go out of
my way to say this. I will tell you about it.
This was a
great trial of strength between the British and German Air Forces. Can
you conceive a greater objective for the Germans in the air than to
make evacuation from these beaches impossible, and to sink all these
ships which were displayed, almost to the extent of thousands? Could
there have been an objective of greater military importance and
significance for the whole purpose of the war than this? They tried
hard, and they were beaten back; they were frustrated in their task. We
got the Army away; and they have paid fourfold for any losses which
they have inflicted. Very large formations of German aeroplanes-and we
know that they are a very brave race-have turned on several occasions
from the attack of one-quarter of their number of the Royal Air Force,
and have dispersed in different directions. Twelve aeroplanes have been
hunted by two. One aeroplane was driven into the water and cast away by
the mere charge of a British aeroplane, which had no more ammunition.
All of our types-the Hurricane, the Spitfire and the new Defiant-and
all our pilots have been vindicated as superior to what they have at
present to face.
When we consider how much greater would
be our advantage in defending the air above this Island against an
overseas attack, I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis
upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest. I will pay my
tribute to these young airmen. The great French Army was very largely,
for the time being, cast back and disturbed by the onrush of a few
thousands of armored vehicles. May it not also be that the cause of
civilization itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few
thousand airmen? There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in
all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. The Knights of
the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past-not only
distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard
their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands
these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be
said that
Every morn brought forth a noble chance
And every chance brought forth a noble knight,
deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men who, in so many ways
and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready to give life
and all for their native land.
I return to the Army. In
the long series of very fierce battles, now on this front, now on that,
fighting on three fronts at once, battles fought by two or three
divisions against an equal or somewhat larger number of the enemy, and
fought fiercely on some of the old grounds that so many of us knew so
well-in these battles our losses in men have exceeded 30,000 killed,
wounded and missing. I take occasion to express the sympathy of the
House to all who have suffered bereavement or who are still anxious.
The President of the Board of Trade [Sir Andrew Duncan] is not here
today. His son has been killed, and many in the House have felt the
pangs of affliction in the sharpest form. But I will say this about the
missing: We have had a large number of wounded come home safely to this
country, but I would say about the missing that there may be very many
reported missing who will come back home, some day, in one way or
another. In the confusion of this fight it is inevitable that many have
been left in positions where honor required no further resistance from
them.
Against this loss of over 30,000 men, we can set a
far heavier loss certainly inflicted upon the enemy. But our losses in
material are enormous. We have perhaps lost one-third of the men we
lost in the opening days of the battle of 21st March, 1918, but we have
lost nearly as many guns -- nearly one thousand-and all our transport,
all the armored vehicles that were with the Army in the north. This
loss will impose a further delay on the expansion of our military
strength. That expansion had not been proceeding as far as we had
hoped. The best of all we had to give had gone to the British
Expeditionary Force, and although they had not the numbers of tanks and
some articles of equipment which were desirable, they were a very well
and finely equipped Army. They had the first-fruits of all that our
industry had to give, and that is gone. And now here is this further
delay. How long it will be, how long it will last, depends upon the
exertions which we make in this Island. An effort the like of which has
never been seen in our records is now being made. Work is proceeding
everywhere, night and day, Sundays and week days. Capital and Labor
have cast aside their interests, rights, and customs and put them into
the common stock. Already the flow of munitations has leaped forward.
There is no reason why we should not in a few months overtake the
sudden and serious loss that has come upon us, without retarding the
development of our general program.
Nevertheless, our
thankfulness at the escape of our Army and so many men, whose loved
ones have passed through an agonizing week, must not blind us to the
fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal
military disaster. The French Army has been weakened, the Belgian Army
has been lost, a large part of those fortified lines upon which so much
faith had been reposed is gone, many valuable mining districts and
factories have passed into the enemy's possession, the whole of the
Channel ports are in his hands, with all the tragic consequences that
follow from that, and we must expect another blow to be struck almost
immediately at us or at France. We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan
for invading the British Isles. This has often been thought of before.
When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats
and his Grand Army, he was told by someone. "There are bitter weeds in
England." There are certainly a great many more of them since the
British Expeditionary Force returned.
The whole question
of home defense against invasion is, of course, powerfully affected by
the fact that we have for the time being in this Island incomparably
more powerful military forces than we have ever had at any moment in
this war or the last. But this will not continue. We shall not be
content with a defensive war. We have our duty to our Ally. We have to
reconstitute and build up the British Expeditionary Force once again,
under its gallant Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort. All this is in train;
but in the interval we must put our defenses in this Island into such a
high state of organization that the fewest possible numbers will be
required to give effective security and that the largest possible
potential of offensive effort may be realized. On this we are now
engaged. It will be very convenient, if it be the desire of the House,
to enter upon this subject in a secret Session. Not that the government
would necessarily be able to reveal in very great detail military
secrets, but we like to have our discussions free, without the
restraint imposed by the fact that they will be read the next day by
the enemy; and the Government would benefit by views freely expressed
in all parts of the House by Members with their knowledge of so many
different parts of the country. I understand that some request is to be
made upon this subject, which will be readily acceded to by His
Majesty's Government.
We have found it necessary to take
measures of increasing stringency, not only against enemy aliens and
suspicious characters of other nationalities, but also against British
subjects who may become a danger or a nuisance should the war be
transported to the United Kingdom. I know there are a great many people
affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate
enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at
the present time and under the present stress, draw all the
distinctions which we should like to do. If parachute landings were
attempted and fierce fighting attendant upon them followed, these
unfortunate people would be far better out of the way, for their own
sakes as well as for ours. There is, however, another class, for which
I feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us the powers
to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand, and we shall
use those powers subject to the supervision and correction of the
House, without the slightest hesitation until we are satisfied, and
more than satisfied, that this malignancy in our midst has been
effectively stamped out.
Turning once again, and this time
more generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there
has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast
when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious
raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon the
same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel
might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the
chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled the
imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are
told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we
see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our
enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of
novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I
think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered
and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a
steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and
those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.
I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if
nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they
are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our
Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of
tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that
is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's
Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the
nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in
their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native
soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their
strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous
States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the
odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go
on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas 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, and even if, which I do not for a moment
believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and
starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the
British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time,
the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue
and the liberation of the old.
