The Windsors at War by Alexander Larman

Author:Alexander Larman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Chapter Twelve

‘The Hard Sacrifice’

On 10 August 1941, the queen made a radio broadcast to the women of America. She had not made a similar broadcast since the outbreak of war, and took the chance to address her millions of listeners in largely her own words, with only minor changes made by Hardinge and Churchill. Her purpose was twofold: to thank them for their support and to make it clear that Britain, and what remained of Europe, needed American help more than ever.

She spoke with both conviction and anger. She did not conceal the dreadfulness of the situation (‘as yet, save in the valour of our people, we have not matched our enemies’), and bemoaned the ‘heavy burden’ that the British faced. ‘In many cities … homes lie in ruins, as do many of those ancient buildings which you know and love hardly less than we do ourselves. Women and children have been killed, and even the sufferers in hospital have not been spared.’

Yet she extolled the ‘warmth and sympathy of American generosity’. She said it had ‘touched beyond measure the hearts of all of us living and fighting in these islands’, and expressed her gratitude for how ‘canteens, ambulances and medical supplies have come in an unceasing flow from the United States’. She praised her audience woman to woman, saying, ‘It gives us strength to know that you have not been content to pass us by on the other side; to us, in our time of our tribulation, you have surely shown that compassion which has for two thousand years been the mark of the Good Neighbour. Believe me – and I am speaking for millions of us, who know the bitter, but also proud, sorrow of war – we are grateful. We shall not forget your sacrifice.’

Her peroration struck a note of solidarity between the two English-speaking nations. ‘To you, tyranny is as hateful as it is to us; to you, the things for which we will fight to the death are no less sacred; and – to my mind, at any rate – your generosity is born of your conviction that we fight to save a cause that is yours no less than ours: of your high resolve that, however great the cost and however long the struggle, justice and freedom, human dignity and kindness, shall not perish from the earth.’1

Her speech was well received.* Roosevelt wrote to the king after he heard it to say, ‘Will you be good enough to tell the Queen that her radio address yesterday was really perfect in every way and that it will do a great amount of good.’2 Yet although the royal couple’s recent lunch with Hopkins had been both amicable and productive, longed-for action had not followed, which was increasingly critical. The country was in a dreadful state. Almost 1,500 British citizens died in one night of bombing on 10 May, and nearly half a million tons of desperately needed provisions and munitions were sunk in the Atlantic over the course of two months.

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