We Shall Fight On The Beaches

Churchill delivered this speech to the House of Commons on 4 June 1940, following the evacuation of over 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk — the largest military evacuation in history, made necessary by the sweeping German conquest of France and the Low Countries. The speech served the dual purpose of preparing Britain for a possible invasion and sending a direct appeal to a still-neutral United States. The famous concluding passage uses anaphora — the repeated "we shall fight" — building to the four-word release: "we shall never surrender." Because the House of Commons was not wired for sound in 1940, the well-known recording was made in 1949 at Churchill's country home, Chartwell.