Churchill by Winston Churchill

Author:Winston Churchill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2012-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

‘THE STORM WILL NOT PASS. IT WILL RAGE AND IT WILL ROAR’

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill bore a heavy burden, as German warships and U-boats continued to attack British warships and merchant shipping. On 20 January 1940, he gave the House of Commons a survey of the war at sea and the equally dangerous war on land, where Poland had been partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union, and Soviet forces had invaded Finland:Here we are, after nearly five months of all they can do against us on the sea, with the first U-boat campaign for the first time being utterly broken, with the mining menace in good control, with our shipping virtually undiminished, and with all the oceans of the world free from surface raiders. It is true that the Deutschland escaped the clutches of our cruisers by the skin of her teeth, but the Spee still sticks up in the harbour of Montevideo as a grisly monument and as a measure of the fate in store for any Nazi warship which dabbles in piracy on the broad waters.

As you know, I have always – after some long and hard experience – spoken with the utmost restraint and caution about the war at sea; and I am quite sure that there are many losses and misfortunes which lie ahead of us there, but in all humility and self-questioning I feel able to declare that at the Admiralty, as, I have no doubt, at the French Ministry of Marine, things are not going so badly after all. Indeed, they have never gone so well in any naval war. We look forward as the months go by to establishing such a degree of safe sailings as will enable the commerce of all the nations whose ships accept our guidance, not only to live but to thrive. This part – this sea affair – at least, of the Nazi attack upon freedom is not going to bar the path of justice or of retribution.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.