Resolve: Victory at all Costs

to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940 in his firstaddress as the newly appointed Prime Minister.


We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."

Why should mere words charge hearts to resolve? Them's fightin' words, the English Bulldog growling "Oh Yeah!"

The Senate drizzzles "On no...but maybe, sort of, we kinds of thinks...brrrrr".

I wouldn't follow them to a bonfire on a January day.