Winston Churchill, ”The Few,” August 20, 1940, Part 1

A year into the war, and a month into the Battle of Britain, on August 20th 1940, Churchill addresses a nation resolute and prepared for the worst: 1 1/2 million men serve part-time as the "Home Guard," armed, patrolling the streets and beeches, armed in many cases by weapons from the United States. Field defenses were hastily constructed - anti-tank lines and trenches, pillboxes, and many other means to resist a German invasion effort of the islands. Civilian evacuations from urban centers intensified. C S Lewis and his brother Warnie hosted many children in their Oxford home, the Kilns, for instance.

The invasion, of course, would never happen, but the bombing of Britain intensified and the air battle raged until May 1941. Churchill paints in realistic colors, and praises those upon whom the defense of Britain predominantly falls:

"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

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