An Analysis Of Winston Churchill's Their Finest Hour Speech

Introduction:

The Second World War marked one of the most important eras in the history of the British Empire. Never before had the British isles faced a threat quite like the Nazi menace across the English Channel. Yet, Britain’s situation could be viewed as even more precarious once one considers the state of Britain’s economy, but more importantly war machine, at the outbreak of the war. Years of austerity during the Great Depression had left her armies in serious decay, while Germany had built arguably the strongest military in the world. Yet, Winston Churchill’s famous “Their Finest Hour” speech illustrates a level of confidence in victory that many Brits carried. And, this was in no small part due to the fact that they knew that they had the rest of the British Empire supporting their cause. Through the empire’s contribution of both materials and

manpower, they played an integral part in Britain’s exhausted war effort. However, while Britain was able to achieve victory against the Axis powers, the war would result in marking the beginning of the end for the British Empire.
Great Britain Before The War:
The 1930s are often defined by the Great Depression and the devastation it caused in the United States, and to a lesser extent Canada, but its impact on Britain is often overlooked. While not solely due to the Depression, British economic output fell by 25% until the late 1930s. While the economy began to rebound towards 1936 due to the government beginning its rearmament campaign to match that of Nazi Germany, this would only have a minor effect on the economy as a whole. Even though the unemployment rate initially fell as a result of these measures, within a year it had increased once again. In turn, the government realized that rearmament could not be their only effort to rebuild the economy, especially due to the sheer amount of those in need. So, this period saw the rise of the British welfare state, but in particular the emergence of an unemployment insurance program to help millions of out-of work Brits. But, the combined spending of rearmament, the welfare state, as well as other government projects resulted in massive levels of debt, totalling 180% of national GDP.
In response to the growing strain on a limited amount of resources, the government was forced make numerous spending cuts to the British armed forces in an attempt to reduce the national deficit. These spending cuts fit accordingly to the appeasement policy being undertaken by the British government in the years leading up to the Second World War though, as the rationale behind these decisions was that they would not need an army if there was no war to be fought. Overall, the implications of this policy were quite devastating to Britain during the early stages of the war. One such example is that in August of 1939, one month before the outbreak of the war, a mere 60 tanks passed inspection. In addition, during the interwar period the military consisted of close to 180,000 regulars (trained professionals), of which approximately one third were stationed in India alone. Thus, the state of the British military was in a serious state of decay, and the few resources they had were spread thin across the globe.
Britain and her Commonwealth:
Prior to the outbreak of the war, Britain still controlled vast amounts of territory across the world. While parts of the empire belonged to sovereign dominions, the majority of her possessions still required assistance from Britain to ensure their protection. However, given the aforementioned decline of the British armed forces many colonies began to feel threatened of a potential attack from outside forces. These fears began to become legitimized with the rise of the German, Italian, and Japanese military juggernauts. In 1939, Australia had began to voice their concerns to Britain over their fear of a Japanese invasion, but Great Britain did nothing to quell their fears. With numerous colonies and overseas possessions within range of a Japanese attack, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, the British were woefully underprepared to defend their interests in the region, and many nationalist leaders within said colonies began to take note.
In addition, even the independent dominions still relied on protection from the British. The previously mentioned Australia, as well as New Zealand and even Canada all had their own militaries, but would still need British aid in the event of any direct assault on their territory. However, in the midst of the interwar period (1918-1939) this relationship began to change. At the Imperial Conference in 1937, Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada reaffirmed to Great Britain that in the event of a war with Germany her dominions would aid the British war effort.While Britain initially attempted to protect their possessions from invasion, during the course of the war this relationship shifted towards an unsustainable one, as the Commonwealth began to help protect British interests, even including the British isles themselves.
Even though the militaristic aspect of their relationship was changing, many of the dominions still enjoyed close ties. While their historical relationships had been built on the notions of command and subordination, they had evolved into ideals of equality and cooperation. These close relationships that Britain had with her dominions were evident following their declaration of war against Germany, as each dominion, except for Ireland, followed suit. The contributions from each of these nations would play a major role in the ensuing conflict.
Commonwealth Material Contributions to the War:
The first test of the resolve of Britain and her Commonwealth would not come until well into 1940. Following the defeat of Poland, the war entered the era now known as the “Phony War”, in which very little actually occurred. Due to this, many people began to believe that the war would be similar to that of the First World War, where most of the conflict occurred within the trenches. With the rise of the German tactic of Blitzkrieg however, the art of warfare had been revolutionized. France fell to the Nazis within weeks, and on June 14th 1940 Britain saw itself standing against the Axis powers with only its Commonwealth to aid it.
Given how Britain is an island nation, it relies heavily on food imports to feed its populace. But, due to the German occupation of continental Europe, Britain found itself with no trade partners. As a result, they turned to the dominion of Canada. Britain began to import massive amounts of supplies in a desperate attempt to supply itself with the resources it needed to continue their war effort. Not only did Canada almost single handedly supply Britain with enough wheat to feed its populace, it also began to mass produce armaments too. This is incredibly important due to the fact that Britain’s economy had not fully recovered until well into the war, as well as the “Blitz” bombing campaign by the Germans devastated some of the most important industrial centers in Britain.
However, the long trek between the two nations was a hunting ground for the German U-Boat fleet, whose goal was to eliminate the shipments so as to starve Britain out of the war. The British Navy was already heavily involved in the Mediterranean Sea at the time, and so they were unable to effectively patrol the Atlantic. So, Canada became the leading force behind the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of the Second World War. No other campaign during the war came closer to “deciding the war in Germany’s favour” and Canada played a huge role in this. If the empire had not achieved victory in this campaign then there is a highly likely scenario that Great Britain would have been starved into submission. These sorts of contributions from the Commonwealth would continue on throughout the war, as many of the other colonies and dominions would support the British war effort through the same means, albeit in different theaters.
Manpower Contributions from the Commonwealth:
While the materials that the Commonwealth supplied to Britain were able to sustain her war machine, it was the actual fighting forces they contributed that led to Britain’s victory.

Over the course of the war close to 3.5 million Britons had enlisted in the armed forces, with an additional 1.5 million men enlisting in the Home Guard. However, these forces alone would have been terribly outmatched if Britain had been alone in the conflict, as the German military had close to 18 million participants over the course of the war. And, these figures do not include the additional troops fighting for Japan and Italy. Yet, Britain was able to wage war quite effectively regardless due to millions of soldiers participating from their colonies. India sent close to 2.5 million soldiers, Canada sent an additional 1.1 million participants, and at its peak Australia had 300,000 regulars and an additional 500,000 thousand militia participating in the Pacific theater. Without delving into the specific numbers for smaller contributors, we can clearly see that the Commonwealth made up a very large portion of the British Armed

Forces.
Even though heavily outnumbered on land and in the air, the British empire still maintained arguably the strongest navy in the world. While it was able to protect their trade interests, the navy was unable to fully prevent a German invasion of the British mainland due to their air superiority. As a result, the mass training of pilots began across the Commonwealth, most notably through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. This plan saw close to 140,000 aircrew personal graduate from the program in Canada alone, with tens of thousands more passing the program in other parts of the empire. This program would become invaluable to the British war effort, especially since the first graduates of the program would see their first combat engagement in the Battle of Britain. Once again, against all odds Britain was able to withstand the seemingly invincible German Army even though they were drastically outnumbered. And, once again, the contributions they received from the rest of the empire would prove to be a major factor in the decisive battle of Britain’s survival.
The cost of the plan however, was supposed to be carried by the rest of the Commonwealth. The initial projection called for 607 million dollars to support the program, with Britain providing only 185 million and the rest of the empire, mainly Canada, being responsible for the rest of the costs. In addition, these monetary expenditures were not the only costs that members of the Commonwealth had to bear so in an effort to help Britain, as 30% of the 55,573 aircrew killed and 9,784 taken prisoner were Commonwealth soldiers. The total amount of aircrew casualties for the empire in fact exceeded the number of British officers lost in the First World War.
Commonwealth Participation in Major Battles:
With the previously established importance of both the materials and manpower that the Commonwealth provided, it is important to note the presence of their troops in some of the major conflicts and campaigns throughout the war.