I’ve been thinking a lot about the Blitz lately. It’s not the same as the global pandemic, obviously; our enemy is not visible to the naked eye, and while the outside world does feel scary right now, I’ll take it over German bombers screaming overhead on a nightly basis. Still, it is a time of sadness, fear, grief and uncertainty for so many, and I find myself comforted by reading about other supremely challenging times in human history, and about resilience, and hope. For this, there is no better book right now than “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz” (Crown) by Erik Larson.
Larson’s riveting book depicts Churchill’s first year as prime minister, which spanned the evacuation of Dunkirk and a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, starting with daylight raids in July 1940, known as the Battle of Britain, followed by nighttime strikes, from September 1940 till May 1941, called The Blitz.
Churchill became prime minister in May 1940 — just eight months after Britain declared war on Germany — and immediately appointed himself minister of defense. This meant he had full control of the war. (“Heaven help us,” wrote an outgoing minister in his diary.)
Days after becoming prime minister, Churchill took a walk from 10 Downing to Admiralty House. Along the way, he was met with cries of “Good luck, Winnie. God bless you” by people in the street.
“Churchill was deeply moved,” writes Larson. “Upon entering the building, Churchill, never afraid to express emotion, began to weep. ‘Poor people, poor people,’ he said. ‘They trust me, and I can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time.’ ”
But that wasn’t true. He would give them hope.
When The Blitz began in September after a tense summer, night after night bombs destroyed lives, buildings and neighborhoods with terrifying randomness. The fires still burning, Churchill would address the nation on the radio, rallying their spirits while urging them to stay strong. He would do the same with his speeches to the House of Commons. Months went by. Londoners slept in subway station shelters, or in air-raid shelters set up in gardens and backyards. Pamphlets gave citizens shelter tips, such as bringing a tin of biscuits, or hot water bottles for sleeping bags (“If we can’t be safe, let us at least be comfortable,” remarked Churchill.) As he gave his defiant radio speeches, Adolf Hitler and his deputies were also listening, with increasing disbelief. They had expected the British to surrender after a few weeks.
“When will that creature Churchill finally surrender? England cannot hold out forever,” propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary.
“The Splendid and the Vile” is about terribly difficult times and what we learn from them; it’s about courage, and the effect that inspiring words can have on a frightened population. These stirring speeches from Churchill’s first year as PM, all featured in the book, may have been written 80 years ago, but their message carries through today.
“It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage. After this battle in France abates its force there will come the battle for our Islands, for all that Britain is and all that Britain means. In that supreme emergency we shall not hesitate to take every step — even the most drastic — to call forth from our people the last ounce and inch of effort of what they are capable … Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: ‘Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.’”
— BBC speech, May 19, 1940, describing the fall of France
“I am convinced that every man of you would rise up and tear me down from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.”
— Speech to his ministers, May 28, 1940, addressing any notion of seeking peace with Hitler
“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 on the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”
— BBC speech, June 4, 1940, last day of the Dunkirk Evacuation
“If we can 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 then the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ ”
— Speech to the House of Commons, June 18, 1940
“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
— Speech to the House of Commons, Aug. 20, 1940, paying tribute to the Royal Air Force during The Battle of Britain
“I see the damage done by the enemy attacks, but I also see side by side with the devastation and the ruins quiet, confident, bright and smiling eyes, beaming with a consciousness of being associated with a cause far higher than any human or personal issue. I see the spirit of an unconquerable people.”
— Speech at Bristol University, April 7, 1941
“When I look back on the perils that have been overcome, upon the great mountain waves in which the gallant ship has driven, when I remember all that has gone wrong, and remember also all that has gone right, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage. We shall come through.”
— Speech to Parliament, May 7, 1941, almost a year to the day he became prime minister