Winston Churchill
British prime minister

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

In June of 1940, the Western democracies of continental Europe fell to Germany one by one, leaving Great Britain alone in its resistance to Adolf Hitler's plans for Nazi world domination. With British armed forces outnumbered by their German counterparts in almost every respect, and U.S. aid not yet begun, it seemed certain that Britain would soon follow the fate of France. However, Winston Churchill, the new British prime minister, promised his nation and the world that Britain would ‘never surrender,’ and the British people hastily mobilized behind their defiant leader. On June 18, 1940, Churchill gave one of his incomparable speeches on the upcoming ‘Battle of Britain,’ explaining that dependent upon victory was not only the future of British sovereignty, but the very fate of free Christian civilization. Three weeks later, Hitler ordered his powerful air force--the Luftwaffe--to wipe out the British Royal Air Force (RAF), and the Battle of Britain commenced. Destruction of the RAF would pave the way for the German invasion,code-named Operation Sea Lion and scheduled to begin in the fall. Over the next three months, however, the outnumbered RAF flyers successfully resisted the massive German air invasion, relying on radar technology, more maneuverable aircraft, and exceptional bravery. For every British plane shot down, two Luftwaffe warplanes were destroyed. In October, Hitler delayed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely, but ordered a massive bombing campaign against London to crush British morale. Despite significant loss of life and tremendous material damage to the city, British resolve remained unbroken and in May of 1941, the German air raids essentially ceased. By denying the Germans a quick victory, depriving them of forces to be used in their invasion of the U.S.S.R., and proving to the U.S. that increased arms support for Britain was not in vain, the outcome of the Battle of Britain greatly changed the course of World War II.