Winston Churchill, a conservative during the 1930’s, was called to become Prime Minister in 1940 after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. What many do not know is that Churchill spent twenty years beginning in 1904 as a Liberal. Of course, during the 1930’s he warned of the German military buildup in speeches to Parliament that proved prophetic. 

In the Spring of 1940, British forces had just taken a beating in the Battle of Dunkirk. Hitler had invaded France. Churchill spoke resolutely: 

“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…”

With characteristic wit, Churchill spoke to the Parliament later in the summer of 1940: “What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Churchill closed his famous speech that day with optimism: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, 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.’” Germany attacked from the air with planes and the V-2 rocket, pummeling much of England. 

The attack failed. Britain continued to stand, alone in the world. 

One primary challenge to Britain was to keep open supply lines from the U.S. in the Atlantic. (At that time, of course, the U.S. was still neutral.) The Germans used U-Boats in attacks and on May 19, 1941, they sent the Battleship Bismarck to help. It left from Northern Europe and in its first encounter with British warships it sank one. Churchill gave his famous order, “Sink the Bismarck”, and by May 27, 1941, the British Navy had done so. 

America entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the course of the war eventually changed. Britain’s victory in 1945 proved Churchill’s adage about Democracy true: Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.