Our Finest Hour

Our Finest Hour
By Winston Churchill

This book is a second in a series of five and spans the historical moment of a man who wrote his own history. As a continuation of the first book The Gathering Storm, Churchill begins with the grave World situation at the very moment he took the office of England’s Prime Minister. After 12 years of arm waving and foot stomping about the German build up, England and the World gave Winston Churchill the opportunity once denied him at the close of The Great War. It was at this time in history that Churchill formed a government under his leadership. With Churchill’s accounting of the job he undertook, the reader of this series gets to learn the merit of diplomacy and war and the intrigue of how they work hand in hand.

In the opening Churchill continues to criticize the French. This continues throughout, with the exception of de Gaulle. In the first book it was the governments inability to recognize a threat and do anything about it. This book opens with two chapters of narrative on how poorly prepared and organized the French army was. They were poorly prepared in terms of capability at all levels. Churchill is most critical of the leadership of the French Army and the Vichy government. And today the French arrogance continues, even though there exists museums that document the betrayal of the Vichy government we allow it…I am guessing or hoping it is because of their wine, women, food, and appreciation for the good life.

While the French government and her Army were politely criticized at many important junctures leading up to and during their quick fall to Germany the reader would be inclined to have a feeling of empathy towards the French people. After all it is cliché to say “it’s the government not the people”. But in this book is where the reader gets to the story describing events in the face of German army being three days from Paris, and an Italian declaration of war on France, the French people were found moving country carts and lories on an airfield to prevent British bombers from launching an attack on Milan and Tourin; one begins to wonder about “things French”.

Contemplating this in the wake of the excessive war reparation France imposed on Germany after WWI compels one to think even twice about things French. It is nice to believe that the world could be peaceful, but if world history were studied in the Science Colleges or vice-versa there would be a higher level of rational thought dedicated to applying lessons learned? Perhaps a step in that direction would be for our Universities to do a better job providing our youth with an appreciation of all the other aspects beyond their specific majors of our interrelated world. I’d recommend a curriculum entitled “Putting It All Together, Personally, Professionally, & Socially”. I know the reader might hand me Poly Si curriculum but then only 2% of those who needs to learn this actually do…and the rest of the 98% call the Poly Si majors and/or Law grads (Lawyers) crooks. Beware of the broth cooked in a black kettle or which kettle is black.

To punctuate the French fall with French request for Britain to agree to a French surrender, which was agreed they would never do three months earlier, exposes the fortitude of the French culture once again. This in conjunction with the French request to Roosevelt for help and Roosevelt’s refusal pressed by American people in the face of very apparent eminent domination of the world by an evil axis of power, reminds me of how dangerously French-like we are here in America. To punctuate this with an exclamation point, reading this fresh off of Churchill’s Gathering Storm, America cannot continue making alliances involving military protection as the French did to all of Europe and then falling short at the first or any sign of difficulty. In war there are no predictable outcomes. Making an alliance means exactly what Churchill wrote to France’s leadership at the time when Reynuad asked for relief of the French commitment to fighting Germany… in short he said NO. Churchill’s book includes the three-paragraph letter, which makes it an honorable and respectful no. I hope this passage of diplomacy in itself compels this reader to read Churchill.

Without the benefit of reading this book, my generation of Americans does not appreciate Churchill’s deeds to the same degree as one experiencing the same in first person. While the book is fraught with communiqué to an from key participants in history the following passage strikes at the heart of Churchill’s profound leadership. As The Battle of France closed Churchill wrote the following to his people and published it to the world. As I know it is unlikely for my readers to read the book…I provide this excerpt.

"""However matters may go in France or with the French Government or another French Governments, we in this island and in the British Empire will never lose our sense of comradeship with the French people…If final victory rewards our toils they shall share the gins-aye, and freedom shall be restored to all. We abate nothing of our just demands; not one jot or tittle do we receed… Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, have joined their causes with our own. All these shall be restored.

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our British life, and long the continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. 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 say, “ This was their finest hour”.""""

What I find most honorable is that these words were written by a man who had experienced years of French capitulation on commitment to common cause. He saw it immediately preceding this with French reneging on the Pols and Czecs. And most dramatically while the Battle of France was actually happening a large contingent of the French Government Ministers were taking action to surrender to the Germans as they would prefer to be subservient to a German regime as opposed to being a Anglo/French Union. What the reader also learns in this book it that while Churchill held a place in the future for the French, so did Herr Hitler, as was stated and documented in the dialogue minutes between Molitov and Rippentrop in the meeting preceding the Tripartite Act. What I find interesting and at the same time amusing is that while Molitov and Hitler were meeting relative to their interests in the “Pact”, Churchill sniffed out the meeting and bombed the city indiscriminately. He did this to show Stalin that England is indeed a lethal threat.

Mixed in with the above notes in history are the events, among many, of Dakar where it became imperative to defend the West African Coast so that England could sail around the Cape and the Atlantic Ocean would be safe for shipping to and from the Americas. In preparation to land in Dakar, under fire from French War Ships, Churchill made the importance of this painfully clear to Roosevelt, and the book describes the tribulation Churchill observed in Roosevelt in how to “sell” American involvement to a French (head in the sand) thinking American public. The reader is once again and not purposefully, I believe, drawn to question things French.

An intriguing strategy at the fall of France was Churchill’s immediate decision to swiftly capture or destroy the French Fleet. This was done the day after France signed an armistice with Germany. The reader becomes aware of the Naval consequence of world dominance by the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. As Britain drew her fleet home, the Pacific lay now free for Japan to roam. And Japan did just that. To those with wild conspiracy theories against Roosevelt, I say bunk. What occurred whether there existed details of Roosevelt folly prior to Pearl Harbor is immaterial to our national security derived from our “head in the sand” mentality as an American people with French traits. I fear those traits exist still today. I say this as I reflect on these words of Churchill that represent his mind set as he wrote those famous “Finest Hour” words to the world:

"""During our first four years of the last war the Allies experienced nothing but disaster and disappointment…We repeatedly asked ourselves the question “ How are we going to win? And no one was ever able to answer it with much precision, until at the end, quite suddenly, quite unexpectedly, our terrible vision collapsed before us, and we were so glutted with victory that in our folly we threw it away."""

Of Things French “ because I think a certain way, so must the world” my quote and critique of the French. This book and Churchill’s first book The Gathering Storm indirectly leads one to draw this conclusion. In my opinion the French lifestyle could be convincing. However history tells a darker story that would lead one to look at the other side of a coin to guarantee its authenticity.

Things American contrasted by things Roosevelt in the face of an American public opinion in 1940 that matched that of the French of the 1930’s you read in the letters from “Former Navel Person to President Roosevelt” (Churchill when he was Prime Minister) the influential hand in guiding Roosevelt to the eventual pearls becoming eminent upon the United States. While I can be critical of Roosevelt’s handling of the economy, I can be grateful for his attention to the words of Churchill. In this book those letters are made public and in my opinion should be mandatory history lessons to our American people, if for no other reason but to ward off the head in the sand mentality to looming international dangers. Also made apparent were the anxieties of Churchill, as he had to decipher the American newspapers to get a feel for American support towards the cause for freedom. Roosevelt’s deal on 50 destroyers and some of the details, from Churchill’s perspective of the precedent setting move of a Lend Lease Act are included in this book. While Churchill was a guiding light, Roosevelt did have to find a way to wake up his people and he did. Although December 7 is a day of infamy, much credit must be given to leaders who were prepared to respond accordingly.

Things magnanimously Churchill: among many was his un wavering allegiance to the French people, despite the Vichy government’s betrayal to not only her Continental allies but to England as they gazed upon the opportunities of subservience to Germany. In spite of this was his memorial statement to Chamberlain, a person of whom he was very critical of in the handling of the looming German threat in the 1930’s. When I read the passage I marked the pages for documentation in my closing. And now having finished the book I close with the statement as I strongly feel that we must continue to use history as written by the participants to mold our children as our future leaders and therefore guide our destiny.

“""At the lychgate we may all pass our own conduct and our own judgment under a marching review. It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong. Then again a few years later, when the perspective of time as lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all of this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield. Because we are often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the Fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour”

“Whatever else history may or not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating acts in which we are now engaged…”""

Can we learn two things from this piece of history? First can we learn to be undaunted in the travails of a war of any kind? Second, can we do a better job in managing the peace? I think the answer in those questions lay largely in the character of the British as since then America has struggled to match those qualities. And to be more specific, perhaps the qualities are not generally British but specifically Churchill.





Simple notes of corollary conversance to today:

Here at the beginning of the German invasion of France is an interesting bit of information gleaned from Churchill’s accounting of the British retreat from Belgium. This combined with more yet separate collection of history makes for not just interesting, but ironic turns of events. There are more to come. The Germans leaving the British to have to fight their way to Dunkirk for an escape by the sea encircled the essential Generals of the British army. The German Panzer tank supremacy could have stopped this if it were not for direct orders from Hitler to not risk the tanks in the honeycombed cannel geography of Belgium. I read an earlier book called What If. Hitler was a Private in WWI and was part of a defeated division in that exact place. “What If” described an event where Hitler almost lost his life..What IF he did. Well not losing his life, lead Hitler to make a blunder that allowed the British command to escape, regroup and though much had to occur it was these same Generals that led the liberation of Europe five years later where Hitler took his own life anyway.


Page 322 Churchill gave orders to shoot down German Red Cross aircraft. This was in the face of the cry from German doctors that called a violation of the Geneva Convention. Churchill boldly said bunk to a country that violated every treaty it signed with other nations. Both the World and England accepted and praised Churchill’s actions. There were no indictments or criminal investigations. Churchill closed this section sighting that England rather picked up the airmen from the “shot down aircraft” in fishing boats and then the Germans blew up the fishing boats.-

Page 364 I found it interesting that Churchill had an open sense of retaliation towards German in a tit-for-tat war. HE equally endorsed the indiscriminate bombing of German cities. The strategy was the same...to demoralize the German citizens. In today’s Terrorist War, we experience an agenda by the terrorist to sway public opinion and vote (Jimmy Carter, Spain) and it worked both times. However somewhere in war history and the Geneva Convention as interpreted by today’s far fetched anti war mongrels, we must raise above the character of the enemy as though we are running a police action as opposed to a war. If President Bush made his war message more clear in 2001, there would have been a lot more support for all the domino action that followed and will continue. He did say the War on Terror will be long, protracted, and with a hard to identify enemy. He only said it once.

In the development of Operation Compass a plan to take the offensive in Egypt, I found it interesting that the Generals who developed the plan did so in secret, even from Churchill. They did so to maintain a high level of surprise on Mussolini and Hitler. When Churchill found out about it in due course, he was pleased and approved it into action. I contrast it with today’s far fetched left news “investigative journalist” who are prone to site some concoction of our laws to indict the plotters; all in a frenzy to fulfill the political agenda of their respective agencies. In 1940, this level of secret operative planning led to freedom. In 2006, the treasonous exposure is leading to the demise of our way of life.