1940年5月，丘吉尔临危受命，出任英国首相。1940年6月4日，丘吉尔在下院通报敦刻尔克撤退成功，之后便发表了二战中极鼓舞人心的一段讲话《我们将战斗到底（We Shall Fight on the Beaches）》。
1940年6月4日
这次战役尽管我们失利，但我们决不投降，决不屈服，我们将战斗到底。
我们必须非常慎重，不要把这次援救说成是胜利。战争不是靠撤退赢得的。但是，在这次援救中却蕴藏着胜利，这一点应当注意到。这个胜利是空军获得的。归来的许许多多士兵未曾见到过我们空军的行动，他们看到的只是逃脱我们空军掩护性攻击的敌人轰炸机。他们低估了我们空军的成就。关于这件事，其理由就在这里。我一定要把这件事告诉你们。
这是英国和德国空军实力的一次重大考验。德国空军的目的是要是我们从海滩撤退成为不可能，并且要击沉所有密集在那里数以千计的船只。除此之外，你们能想象出他们还有更大的目的吗？除此之外，从整个战争的目的来说，还有什么更大的军事重要性和军事意义呢？他们曾全力以赴，但他们终于被击退了；他们在执行他们的任务中遭到挫败。我们把陆军撤退了，他们付出的代价，四倍于他们给我们造成的损失······这已经证明，我们所有的各种类型的飞机和我们所有的飞行人员比他们现在面临的敌人都要都好。
当我们说在英伦三岛上空抵御来自海外的袭击将对我们更有好处时，我应当指出，我从这些事实里找到了一个可靠的论据，我们实际可行而有万无一失的办法就是根据这个论据想出来的。我对这些青年飞行员表示敬意。强大的法国陆军当时在几千辆装甲车的冲击下大部分溃退了。难道不可以说，文明事业本身将由数千飞行员的本领和忠诚来保护吗?
有人对我说，希特勒先生有一个入侵英伦三岛的计划，过去也时常有人这么盘算过。当拿破仑带着他的平底船和他的大军在罗涅驻扎一年之后，有人对他说：“英国那边有厉害的杂草。”自从英国远征军归来后，这种杂草当然就更多了。
我们目前在英国本土拥有的兵力比我们在这次大战中或上次大战中任何时候的兵力不知道要强大多少倍，这一事实当然对抵抗入侵本土防御问题起有利作用。但不能这样继续下去。我们不能满足于打防御战，我们对盟国负有义务，我们必须重新组织，在英勇的总司令戈特勋爵指挥下发动英国远征军。这一切都在进行中，但是在这期间，我们必须使我们本土上的防御达到这样一种高度的组织水平，即只需要极少数的人便可以有效地保障安全，同时又可发挥攻势活动最大的潜力。我们现在正进行着方面的部署。
这次战役尽管我们失利，但我们决不投降，决不屈服，我们将战斗到底，我们将在法国战斗，我们将在海洋上战斗，我们将充满信心在空中战斗！我们将不惜任何代价保卫本土，我们将在海滩上战斗！在敌人登陆地点作战!在田野和街头作战！在山区作战！我们任何时候都不会投降。即使我们这个岛屿或这个岛屿的大部分被敌人占领，并陷于饥饿之中，我们的由英国舰队武装和保护的海外帝国也将继续战斗，直到新世界在神认为恰当的时候，拿出它所有的力量来拯救和解放这个旧世界。
这次战役我军死伤战士达三万人，损失大炮近千门，海峡两岸的港口也都落入希特勒手中，德国将向我国或法国发动新的攻势，已成为既定的事实。法兰西和比利时境内的战争，已成为千古憾事。法军的势力被削弱，比利时的军队被歼灭，相比较而言，我军的实力较为强大。
现在已经是检验英德空军实力的时候了！撤退回国的士兵都认为，我们的空军未能发挥应有的作用，但是，要知道我们已经出动了所有的飞机，用尽了所有的飞行员，以寡敌众。
在今后的时间内，绝非这一次，我们可能还会遭受更严重的损失。曾经让我们深信不疑的防线，大部分被突破，很多有价值的工矿都已经被敌人占领。
从今往后，我们要做好充分准备，准备承受更严重的困难。对于防御性战争，我们决不能认为已经定局！我们必须重建远征军，我们必须加强国防，必须减少国内的防卫兵力，增加海外的打击力量。在这次大战中，法兰西和不列颠将联合一起，决不屈服，决不投降！
When, a week ago today, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history.
I thought-and some good judges agreed with me-that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked. But it certainly seemed that the whole of the French First Army and the whole of the British Expeditionary Force north of the Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the open field or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition.
These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago. The whole root and core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were to build, and are to build, the great British Armies in the later years of the war, seemed about to perish upon the field or to be led into an ignominious and starving captivity.
The enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and fierceness, and their main power, the power of their far more numerous Air Force, was thrown into the battle or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches.
Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both from the east and from the west, the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches by which alone the shipping could approach or depart.
They sowed magnetic mines in the channels and seas; they sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft, sometimes more than a hundred strong in one formation, to cast their bombs upon the single pier that remained, and upon the sand dunes on which the troops had their eyes for shelter.
Their U-boats, one of which was sunk, and their motor launches took their toll of the vast traffic which now began. For four or five days an intense struggle reigned. All their armored divisions-or what Was left of them-together with great masses of infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix within which the British and French Armies fought. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help of countless merchant seamen, strained every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops; 220 light warships and 650 other vessels were engaged.
They had to operate upon the difficult coast, often in adverse weather, under an almost ceaseless hail of bombs and an increasing concentration of artillery fire. Nor were the seas, as I have said, themselves free from mines and torpedoes.
It was in conditions such as these that our men carried on, with little or no rest, for days and nights on end, making trip after trip across the dangerous waters, bringing with them always men whom they had rescued.
The numbers they have brought back are the measure of their devotion and their courage. The hospital ships, which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded, being so plainly marked were a special target for Nazi bombs; but the men and women on board them never faltered in their duty.
Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force, which had already been intervening in the battle, so far as its range would allow, from home bases, now used part of its main metropolitan fighter strength, and struck at the German bombers and at the fighters which in large numbers protected them.
This struggle was protracted and fierce. Suddenly the scene has cleared, the crash and thunder has for the moment-but only for the moment-died away.
A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all. The enemy was hurled back by the retreating British troops. He was so roughly handled that he did not hurry their departure seriously. We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.
But there was a victory inside this deliverance, which should be noted. It was gained by the Air Force. Many of our soldiers coming back have not seen the Air Force at work; they saw only the bombers which escaped its protective attack.
They underrate its achievements. I have heard much talk of this; that is why I go out of my way to say this. I will tell you about it.
This was a great trial of strength between the British and German Air Forces.
Can you conceive a greater objective for the Germans in the air than to make evacuation from these beaches impossible, and to sink all these ships which were displayed, almost to the extent of thousands?
Could there have been an objective of greater military importance and significance for the whole purpose of the war than this?
They tried hard, and they were beaten back; they were frustrated in their task. We got the Army away; and they have paid fourfold for any losses which they have inflicted.
When we consider how much greater would be our advantage in defending the air above this Island against an overseas attack, I must say that I find in these facts a sure basis upon which practical and reassuring thoughts may rest.
I will pay my tribute to these young airmen. The great French Army was very largely, for the time being, cast back and disturbed by the onrush of a few thousands of armored vehicles.
May it not also be that the cause of civilization itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen?
There never has been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth.
The Knights of the Round Table, the Crusaders, all fall back into the past-not only distant but prosaic; these young men, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, of whom it may be said that:
Every morn brought forth a noble chance
And every chance brought forth a noble knight,
deserve our gratitude, as do all the brave men who, in so many ways and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready to give life and all for their native land.
Nevertheless, our thankfulness at the escape of our Army and so many men, whose loved ones have passed through an agonizing week, must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster.
The French Army has been weakened, the Belgian Army has been lost, a large part of those fortified lines upon which so much faith had been reposed is gone, many valuable mining districts and factories have passed into the enemy’s possession, the whole of the Channel ports are in his hands, with all the tragic consequences that follow from that, and we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately at us or at France.
We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles. This has often been thought of before. When Napoleon lay at Boulogne for a year with his flat-bottomed boats and his Grand Army, he was told by someone.“There are bitter weeds in England.” There are certainly a great many more of them since the British Expeditionary Force returned.
I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them.
That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving,
then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
1940年，40万英法联军被德军包围在敦刻尔克的海滩。背水一战的英国发起“发电机行动”（Operation Dynamo），通过海路撤退困在敦刻尔克的盟军。九死一生逃回英格兰的士兵打开当天的报纸，以为会读到全国人民的鄙夷和唾弃，谁知头版竟是丘吉尔在下议院（House of Commons）振奋人心的讲话。
