Winston Churchill's Speech 'Their Finest Hour'

On June 18, 1940, Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons, and later the British public, on the devastating blow the allied forces received in Belgium and their highly successful retreat with the assistance from the British Navy. Winston Churchill’s speech, “Their Finest Hour,” motivated the British people to continue fighting a war that approached ever closer. Through the sheer will of his words, did he join together a nation to stand up against a mighty foe. In this speech, Churchill uses his mastery of rhetorical speaking to promote patriotism and duty among the people while also using logic to ensure they have a fighting chance all wrapped in beautiful poetry.

The events that led up to Churchill’s speech started in 1939 with German expansion making war an unavoidable reaction. France was always going to be in danger of attack from Germany because of its strategic location;

With what was left of the government in the south at Bordeaux, many citizens fled the country in fear. Then on June 22, 1940 France signed an armistice agreement with Germany that disbanded the army and government thus giving Germany an advantage to begin their preparations to attack Britain.

Churchill’s speech, “Their Finest Hour,” sought to produce positive emotions creating a sense of unity from its listeners; yet, there is little amount of information about what the public thought of the speech, but the reactions in the minutes from the session claim that the nation had never been more joined together and that it would bring sanity back to the people even with all the bad news that was being reported and the advancing threat of attack. Though this speech and the events were decades ago, parts of the speech still are as true now as they were then and thus can be implemented in daily