Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" (Winston Churchill)

    Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" (Winston Churchill)

      This speech, given on June 4, 1941, is probably Churchill's most famous. And just like in "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat," the famous line comes towards the end. (Churchill believed in building up to a strong ending). But unlike "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat," he was pretty passionate and poetic throughout—even when he was talking business.

      Churchill gave this speech to the House of Commons after the relatively successful evacuation of the British forces from near-disaster in Dunkirk. He described the situation in great detail and explained why the evacuation was necessary: "the German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the Armies of the north." He described 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" (source).

      Wow Winnie, tell us how you really feel about Germany.

      Most of the speech is a detailed description of the circumstances leading up to the evacuation at Dunkirk, the effort to rescue the survivors, and the aftermath of the event. He praised all those who assisted with the evacuation, from French soldiers to fighter pilots to the medical services. He emphasized the need to consider the victory of the evacuation, despite it being an evacuation. There are a lot of great lines about this "miracle of deliverance" and several references to Napoleon. Who doesn't love a good Napoleon shout-out?

      Like BTTS, the last paragraph is where he gets repetitive for the sake of glorious emphasis. These are the lines that everyone at least vaguely knows, although it's often slightly misquoted. He was discussing the future German invasion of Britain that everyone was expecting by this point. That's when he busted this out:

      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. (Source)

      What a finish. It pretty much all came true.