Remembering Churchill’s speeches

75 years ago, Churchill’s words enraptured U.K.

When Winston Churchill woke up in 10 Downing Street on Monday, May 7, 1945, Capt. Richard Pim, the head of his map room, brought him the longed-for news: the unconditional surrender of German forces in Europe, which had been signed by Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz and Maj.-gen. Alfred Jodl at Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters in Germany.

Churchill read the document, initialled it and handed it back to Pim, teasing him that for three or four years he had brought him bad news, but now he had “redeemed himself.”

It was decided between the American and British staffs that the following day would be designated “Victory in Europe Day” — and Churchill declared it a public holiday.

For the whole morning of Tuesday, May 8, Churchill worked as usual. He then went to Buckingham Palace for lunch with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother).

“The PM came to lunch,” the king noted in his diary. “We congratulated each other on the end of the European war.”

Churchill then returned to Downing Street to make his broadcast to the Empire.

He started formally, saying that hostilities would end officially at one minute after midnight, and that, “the German war is, therefore, at an end.”

He summed up the course of the war over the past six years and said that, after Russia and America had entered the conflict in 1941, “finally, almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.”

The enormity of the moment only seemed to be slowly entering the consciousness of a people who had experienced such extremes of suffering and sacrifice. It had only been three months since the last flight of V-bombs fell on the U.K.

“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing,” Churchill continued, “but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued.”

That evening, Churchill spoke to a vast crowd in Whitehall from the balcony of the ministry of health.

“This is your victory,” he told the crowds. They roared back: “No, it’s yours!”

“It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land,” he continued. “In all our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best. Everyone has tried.

“Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attacks of the enemy, have in any way weakened the independent resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.”