1941-04-27_BBC_Winston_Churchill_Westward_Look_The_Land_Is_Bright

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I was asked last week whether I was aware of
some uneasiness which it was said existed in the country
on account of the gravity, as it was described, of
the war situation. So I thought it would be a

(00:22):
good thing to go and see for myself what this
uneasy is amounted to. And I went to some of
our great cities and seaports which have been most heavily bombed,
and to some of the places where the poorest people

(00:42):
have got it worse. I've come back to front. I
were driving in the streets and wards of London or Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff,
Swansea or Bristol. It's like going out of a hothouse
on to the bridge of a fighting ship. It is

(01:04):
a tonic which I should recommend any who are suffering.
And where the odd girl of the men, women and
children has been most severe, that I found their morale
most high and stendid. Indeed, I felt encompassed by an

(01:26):
exaltation of spirit in the pit mankind and its troubles,
above the level of material facts, into that joyous serenity
we think belongs to a better world than live. Of
their kindness to me, I cannot speak because I have

(01:47):
never thought it or dreamed of it, and can never
deserve it. I can only assure you that I and
my colleagues or comrade brother, for that is what they are,
will toil with every scrap of life and strength, according
to the lights that are granted to us, not to

(02:08):
fail these people or be wholly unworthy of their faithful
and generous regard. The British nation is stirred and moved,
and it never has been at any time in its long, eventful,
famous history. And it thinks no hackneyed trope of speech

(02:32):
to say that they mean to conquer or to die.
What a triumph the life will be batter city is
over the worst with fire and bombs can do. What
a vindication of the civilized and decent way of living

(02:55):
we have been trying to work for and work towards
in our What a proof of the virtue of free institutions.
What a guest to the quality of our local authorities
and of customs and societies. Fatoris had been reserved for
the soldiers and sailors are now shared for good oriole

(03:19):
by the entire population. All are proud of being under
the fire of the enemy, old men, little children, the
crippled veterans of former wars, aged women, the ordinary, hard
pressed citizen or subject of the King as he likes

(03:42):
to call himself. The sturdy workmen who sing dianas or olderships,
the skillful craftsmen, the members of every kind of arp
service our so are proud to feel that they end
in the line together with our fighting men. When one

(04:04):
of the greatest causings is being fought out and thought out,
it will be to the end. This, indeed, is the
grand heroic period of our history, and the light of
glory shines on all. You may imagine how deeply I

(04:24):
feel my own responsibility to all these people. I respond
their sacrifices and exertions in vain. I have thought, in
this difficult period, when so much fighting and so many
critical and complicated maneuvers are going on, that it is

(04:50):
above all things important that our policy and conduct should
be upon the highest level, and that honor should be
our eyes. Very few people realize how small were the
forces with which general whom we chared in good days

(05:11):
and will back too bad. How small were the forces
which took the bulk of the Italian messes in Libya,
prisoners in none of his successive victories could General Wavell
maintain in the desert or bring into action at one

(05:33):
time more than two divisions, or about thirty a call
was made upon us which we could not resist. Let
me tell you about that call. You remember how in
November the Italian dictator fell upon the unoffending Greeks, hurled

(05:57):
his armies back at the double quick. Meanwhile, Hitler, who
had been creating and whirling away steadily forward, doping and
poisoning and pinioning one after the other Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria,

(06:19):
suddenly made it here that he would come to the
rescue of his fellow criminallys. While nearly all the Greek
groups were busy beating the Italians, remembers German military machine
suddenly powered up on their other front yard. In their

(06:39):
mortal terrill, the Greeks turned to us for succor. Strange
as were our resources, we could not say them nay
by solemn guarantee giving before the war Great Britain had
promised them her help. They declared they would fight for

(07:02):
their native soil, even if neither of their neighbors made
common cause with them, and even if we left them
to their faith but we could not do that. There
are rules against that kind of thing, and to break
those rules would be fatal to the honor of the
British Empire, without which we could neither hope nor deserve

(07:27):
to win this hard war. Military defeat or miscalculation can
be redeemed the fortunes of war article and changing. But
an act of shame would deprive us of the respect
which we now enjoy throughout the world, and thus would

(07:49):
set a potent hold upon the sentiments of the people
of the United States. Never, never in our long history,
have we been held in such admiration and regard across
the Atlantic Nation, in that great republic now in much

(08:10):
travail and stress of soul, which depends upon the destruction
of Hitler and his foul gang and even Fouler doctrines.
But in the long run, believe me for I know,
the action of the United States will pre dictated not

(08:31):
by methodical calculations of profits and loss, but by moral
sentiment and by that gleaming flash of resolve which lifts
the hearts of men and nations and springs from the
spiritual foundations of human life itself. We for our part, were,

(08:56):
of course bound to hearken to the group appeal to
the utmost limit of our strength, we put the case.
We did so, an important part of the mobile portion
of the Army of the Nile were sent to Greece
in fulfillment of our page. It happened that the divisions

(09:22):
available and best suited to this task to the mother country.
I see the German propaganda in trying to make bad
blood between us and Australia by making out that we
have used them to do what we would not have

(09:42):
asked of the British Army. I shall leave it to
Australia to deal with that thought. Let us see what
had happened. We knew, of course, that the fourth is
we could send degree would not buy them soul of grief, would,
by our intervention, be drawn to stand in the line

(10:05):
together with her quild. Time remained. How nearly that came
off will be known someday. The tragedy of Hugo Slavia
has been that the immunity by submission to the Nazi
will Thus, when at last the people of Hugo Slavia

(10:28):
found out where they were being caten and rove in
one spontaneous surge of revolt, they saved the soul and
future of their country, but it went already, to say,
its terricory. They had no time to mobilize this and
highly mechanized Han before they could even bring their army

(10:53):
into the field. Great disasters have occurred in the Balkans.
Yugoslavia has been beat and down. Only in the mountains
can she continue her resistance. The Greeks have been overwhelmed.
Their victorious Albanian army has been cuttled and forced to surrender,

(11:14):
and it has been left to the Antacs and the
British comrades to fight their way back to the sea,
leaving their mark on all who hindered to indulge a
moment of lighter relief. I dare say you have read
in the newspapers that by a special proclamation, the Italian

(11:37):
dictator has congratulated the Italian army over the Greeks. Here
surely is the world's record in the domain of the
ridiculous and the contemptible. This script jattal state that hit
the Empire comes frisking up at the side of the

(12:00):
German tiger. We yelpings not only of appetite that could
be understood, but even of triumph in different ways that
I am sure there are a great many millions in
the British Empire and in the United States. We'll find

(12:20):
a new object in life, in making sure that when
we come to the final reckoning, this a third impasta
shall be abandoned, the public justice and universal scorn. While
these regious events were taking place in the Balkan Peninsula

(12:44):
and in Greece, our courses in Libya have sustained a
vexations and damaging defeat. The Germans advanced sooner and in
greater strength than we are our generals expected. The bulk
of our armored groups, which had played such a decientive

(13:05):
part in beating the Italians, had to be refitted, and
the single armored brigade, which had been judged sufficient to
hold the front yard till about the middle of May,
was worsted and its vehicle was largely destroyed by a
somewhat stronger German armored force. Our infantry which did not

(13:27):
exceed one division, we had to fall back upon the
very large imperial armies that have been assembled and can
be nourished and maintained. In the fertile delta of the
Nile Toebrook. The forces of Toebrook, which flanked any German

(13:47):
advance on Egypt. We hold strongly there. We ever passed
many attacks, causing the enemy heavy office and taking many prisoners.
How the matter stand in Lidia and on the Egyptian front,
we must now expect the war in the Mediterranean, on

(14:12):
the sea, in the desert, and above all in the
air to become very pierce, varied and widespread. We have
cleaned the Italians out of Sara Naica, and it now
lies with us to purge that province of the Germans.
That will be a harder task, and we cannot expect

(14:36):
to do it at once. You know, I never tried
to make out that defeats our victory. I have never
underrated the German at a warrior. Indeed, I told you
a month ago that the fifth unbroken course of victories
which we had gained over the Italians could not possibly continue,

(14:58):
and that misfortunes might be expected. There is only one
thing certain about war, that it is full of disappointments
and also full of mistakes. It remains to be seen, however,
whether it is the Germans who have made the mistake
in trampling down the Balkan states, and in making a

(15:19):
river of blood and hate between themselves and the weak,
and you go starve people. It remains also to be
seen whether they have made a mistake in their attempt
to invade Egypt with the force. Look by experience, I
make it a rule not to prophesy about battles which

(15:40):
I get to before time. This, however, I will venture
to say that I should be very sorry to see
the task of the come. Personal opinion, I can well understand.
There may be different gooples. It is certain that fresh
they just this may spread eastward to Turkey and Russia.

(16:05):
The Germans may lay their hands for a time up
in the granaries of the Ukraine and the oil wells
of the Caucasus. They may dominate the Black Sea, they
may dominate the castle. Who can tell? We shall do
our best to meet them and fight them wherever they go.
But there is one thing which is certain. There is

(16:27):
one thing which rises out of the vast welter, which
is sure and solid. And if no one in his
senses can mistake Tipler cannot find safety from avenging justice
in the East, in the Middle East, or in the Faris.

(16:48):
In order to win this war, he must either conquer
this island by invasion, or he must cut the ocean
lifeline which joins us the United States. Let us look
into these alternatives. If it were many people believed the

(17:08):
Nazi boastings that the invasion of Britain was about to begin,
it has not begun yet. And with that, now God
our islands. When I compare the position, the tone as
it is today with what it was in the summer
of last year, even after making allowance for a much

(17:33):
more elablished mechanical preparation on the part of the enemy,
I feel that we have very much to be thankful for.
And I believe that provided our exertions and our vigilance
are not relaxed even for a moment, we may be
confident that we shall give a very good account of ourselves.

(17:57):
More than that, it would be boastful to say if
so many of our merchant ships are sunk that we
cannot bring in the food we need to nourish our
brave people, causing the supplies of war materials and war
weapons which the United States are seeking to send us

(18:18):
in such enormous quantities, should in large part be sunk
on the way. In one of his raving out bursts
threatened us with a terrifying increase on our islands. But
thanks to his use of French and Norwegian harbors, and
thanks to the denial to us of the Irish bases

(18:43):
fall upon our shipping far out into the Atlantic, we
have taken and are taking all possible measures to meet
this dead monavy and air force. By the hundreds of
mine creeping vessels, which, with their minds of the suppliances,
keep our ports clear in spite of all the enemy

(19:05):
can do. By the men who build and repair our
immen's fleets of merchants ships, by the men who load
and unload them, and need I say, by the officers
and men of the merchant navy who go out in
all with us, and in the teeth of all dangers,
the fight for the life of their native land, and

(19:27):
for the cause they comprehend and serve. Still, when you
think how easy it is to think ships at seed,
and our hardest is to build them and protect them,
And when you remember that we have never less than
two thousand ships afloat and three or four hundred in

(19:48):
the danger zone, when you think of the great armies
we are maintaining and reinforcing in the East, and of
the worldwide graffic we have to carry on. When you
remember all this, can you wonder that it is the
Battle of the Atlantis which holds the first place in
the thoughts of those upon whom rests the responsibility for

(20:13):
procuring the victory. It was therefore with indescribable relief that
I learned, as a tremendous decision lately taken by the
President and people of the United States, the American fleet
and flying boats have been ordered to patrol the wide

(20:36):
waters of the Western Hemisphere, and to warn the peaceful
shipping of all nations outside the combat zone of the
presence of lurking few boats or raiding cruisers belonging to
the two aggress of nations. We British, will therefore be

(20:58):
able to concentrate our protecting forces far more upon the
roots nearer home, and to take a far heavier toll
of the U boats there. I felt for some time
that something like this was bound to happen. The President
and Congress of the United States, having newly fortified themselves

(21:24):
by contact with their electors, have solemnly pledged their aid
to Britain in this war. Because they deem our cause
just and because they know their own interests and safety
would be endangered if we were destroyed. They are taxing
themselves heavily. They've passed gate legislation. They have turned a

(21:49):
large part of their gigantic industry to making the munitions
which we need. They've even given us all nus valuable
weapons of their I could not believe that they would
allow the high purposes to which they have set themselves
to be frustrated and the products of their skill and

(22:12):
labor sunk to the bottom of the sea. You bote
warfare and conducted by Germany is entirely contrary to international
agreement freely subscribed to by Germany only a few years ago.
There is no effective blockade, but only a merciless murder

(22:33):
and marauding of the wide indiscriminated areas utterly beyond the
control of the German sea power. When I said ten
weeks ago, give us the tools and we will finish
the job, I meant you've done to us put them

(22:54):
all in our reach. It now seems the Americans gain
to do. And that is why I feel a very
strong conviction that though the Battle of the Atlantic will
be long and hard, and its issue is by no
means yet determined it had entered upon a more goom,

(23:17):
but at the same time a far more favorable phase
when you come to think of it. The United States
are very closely bound up with the slow and have
engaged themselves deeply in giving us moral material, and within

(23:40):
the limits I have mentioned, naval support. It is just
worthwhile therefore taking a look on both sides of the
ocean at the fourteenth, which are facing each other in
this awful struggle from which there can be no drawing back.

(24:04):
No prudent and far seeing man can doubt that the
eventual and total defeat of Hitler and Mussoline is certain.
In view of the respective declared resolves of the British
and American democracy, there are less than seventy millions malignant hands,

(24:27):
some of whom are curable and are then killable, most
of whom are already engaged in holding down Auscians, czechs Oles,
and of any other ancient races. They now bathe and pillage.
The peoples of the British Empire and of the United

(24:49):
States number nearly two hundred millions. In their homeland and
in the British dominions alone. They possess the unchallengeable command
of the oceans, and will soon obtain deciding superiority in
the air. They have more wealth, more technical resources, and

(25:10):
they make more steel than the whole of the rest
of the world put together. They are determined that the
cause of freedom shall not be trampled down. Now the
tide of world's progress turned backwards by the criminal dictators.
While therefore we naturally view with sorrow and anxiety much

(25:34):
that is happening in Europe and in Africa, and may
happen in Asia, we must not lose our sense of
proportion and thus become discouraged or alarmed. When we face
with a steady eye the difficulties which lie before us,
we may derive new confidence by remembering those we have

(25:56):
already overcome. Nothing is happening now is comparable in gravity
with the dangers through which we passed last year. Nothing
that can happen in the East is comparable with what
is happening in the West. Last time I spoke to

(26:20):
I quoted the lines of Longfellow, which President Roosevelt had
written out for me in his own hands. I have
some other lines, which I well know, but which seem
act and appropriate to our fortunes tonight, and I believe

(26:40):
they will be so judged wherever the English language is
spoken or the flag of freedom flies. For while the
tired waves, vainly breaking, seem here no painful inch to
gain far back through creeks and inlets, making comes silent

(27:05):
flooding in the main and not by eastern windows. Only
when daylight comes comes in the light in front. The
sudden climbs slow, how slowly, But westward look the LND
is bright.