Blood, toil, tears and sweat- Winston Churchill

                           BLOOD, TOIL, TEARS AND SWEAT

                                     WINSTON CHURCHILL

On May 10th, 1940, Germany invaded France and the Netherlands. That same day in England, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped down from his post and King George VI tapped Winston Churchill to replace him. World War II was on, and Britain needed the right leader to guide the nation. The horrifying challenges^[1] of the summer of 1940 produced some of Winston Churchill's greatest speeches, those including his memorable promises to "fight on the beaches" and "never surrender," offered on June 4, and his determination to make his country's "finest hour," presented on June 18. But the most famous is the one he gave on May 13th, Churchill gathered his war cabinet and went to address Parliament. The speech he delivered that afternoon “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat” has become known as one of the most rousing speeches in British history. The question we can ask is, what is the interest of these speeches ? As a starting point we will explain the political context of these speeches and then we will turn to how he tried to encourage the population and convince the office. And finally we will show why the population needed tobe encouraged.

        « We shall fight in France » pronounced on the fourth of June, embodies well the context of that time. On May 10, 1940, Germany attacked France, the next month they invaded Denmark and Norway. These two operations marked the end of the Phoney War (which started in September 1939). Bristish troops asides to the French ones tried to defend France thus stop the German offensive. But unfortunately the Wehrmacht used the Blitzkrieg^[2] tactic which is very efficient, they were defeated very quickly. Moreover the Allied troops were led by officers with an old vision of war inherited from The First World War. On May 21, British troops were encircled Dunkirk, they succed to evacuate, not without effort, around 300 000 British and French soldiers on the fourth of June, this operation was named Dynamo. Churchill declares on the fourth of June « We shall fight in France » which is quite a paradox whan we know that at the same time British troops were evacuated to England. Paris was taken by the Germans on June, 14, three days later the Marechal Pétain asked for the end of battles in France, Churchill confirms it on his June, 18 speech by declaring « the battle in France is over ».                                                                                          In his first speech as the United Kingdom Prime Minister he addresses the war cabinet « as I said to those who have joined this Government », he set it up with politicians of all parties : liberal, conservative and labour. The cabinet was given by the Parliament all authority concerning the war. So Churchill had all powers during the conflict.

« Blood, toil, tears and sweat » was Churchill’s first address to parliament as prime minister. Hitler had invaded France only days earlier, and Chamberlain, whose non-aggression policy towards Germany had been found wanting, had been forced to resign. Churchill was a conservative like Chamberlain, but had argued for a long time that Germany had to be fought more actively. He had not been elected but appointed prime minister by the king, on the suggestion of Chamberlain. This is important to keep in mind as we read the speech : Churchill being new in the office cannot count on the audience having trust in him from the outset, but must win their confidence through his speech. As the message he wants to convey is that the war against Germany must intensify, his primary aim must be to create a sense of unity within the country, since internal tensions could prove fatal in a war. He must also instill the notion that the war can be won, and therefore must be able to turn a growing sense of despair into a sense of hope. “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us ; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” This line identifies the purpose of the whole entire speech. He also uses superlatives to stress the importance to wage war against Germany. He uses phrases like “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.” Here he uses “of the most” to really stress what fascism faces the country. He also goes ahead and uses“[ … ] victory at all cost [ … ] victory, no matter how long and hard the road may be.” Here he develops the tone that they will settle for nothing less than victory. Churchill tugs at emotions when he states, “without victory, there is no survival.” At that time Nazi Germany was sweeping through Europe with ease and was looking invincible. Churchill is very blunt which was his intent with this speech. He knew the only way to get parliament to act was to tell them the honest truth.  Either Parliament declared war on Germany or Germany declared war on Britain and then Parliament would cease to exist. Churchill later goes on to use the phrase “lamentable catalogue of human crime” in order to describe the actions committed by Hitler. This gives foresight to the actions that could be committed on them if they do not declare war on Germany. He also uses words like “grievous” and the repetition of “victory” to stress how much Britain needs to declare war.

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