Breaking - WINSTON CHURCHILL SPEAKS ON THE NAZI ATTACK OF THE SOVIET UNION (6/22/41)

I have taken occasion to speak to you to-night because we have reached one of the climacterics of the war. In the first of these intense turning-points; a year ago when France fell prostrate under the German hammer, and when we had to face the storm alone. The second was when the Royal Air Force beat the Hun raiders out of the daylight air, and thus warded off the Nazi invasion of our island while we were still ill-armed and ill-prepared. The third turning-point was when the President and Congress of the United States passed the Lease-and-Lend enactment, devoting nearly 2,000 millions sterling of the wealth of the New World to help us to defend our liberties and their own. Those were the three climacterics.

At four o'clock this morning Hitler attacked and invaded Russia. All his usual formalities of perfidy were observed with scrupulous technique. A non-aggression treaty had been solemnly signed and was in force between the two countries. No complaint had been made by Germany of its non-fulfilment. Under its cloak of false confidence, the German armies drew up in immense strength along a line which stretches from the White Sea to the Black Sea; and their air fleets and armoured divisions slowly and methodically took their stations. Then, suddenly without declaration of war, without even an ultimatum, the German bombs rained down from the sky upon the Russian cities, the German troops violated the Russian frontiers; and an hour later the German Ambassador, who till the night before was lavishing his assurances of friendship, almost of alliance, upon the Russians, called upon the Russian Foreign Minister to tell him that a state of war existed between Germany and Russia.

Thus was repeated on a far larger scale the same kind of outrage against every form of signed compact and international faith which we have witnessed in Norway, in Denmark, in Holland, in Belgium, and which Hitler's accomplice and jackal Mussolini so faithfully imitated in the case of Greece.

All this was no surprise to me. In fact I gave clear and precise warnings to Stalin of what was coming. I gave him warning as I have given warning to others before. I can only hope that these warning did not fall unheeded. All we know at present is that the Russian people are defending their native soil and that their leaders have called upon them to resist to the utmost.

Hitler is a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder. Not content with having all Europe under his heel, or else terrorized into various forms of abject submission, he must now carry his work of butchery and desolation among the vast multitudes of Russia and of Asia. The terrible military machine, which we and the rest of the civilized world so foolishly, so supinely, so insensately allowed the Nazi gangsters to build up year by year from almost nothing, this machine cannot stand idle lest it rust or fall to pieces. It must be in continual motion, grinding up human lives and trampling down the homes and the rights of hundreds of millions of men. Moreover it must be fed, not only with flesh but with oil.

So now this bloodthirsty guttersnipe must launch his mechanized armies upon new fields of slaughter, pillage and devastation. Poor as are the Russian peasants, workmen and soldiers, he must steal from them their daily bread; he must devour their harvests; he must rob them of the oil which drives their ploughs; and thus produce a famine without example in human history. And even the carnage and ruin which his victory, should he gain it - he has not gained it yet - will bring upon the Russian people, will itself be only a stepping-stone to the attempt to plunge the four or five hundred millions who live in China, and the three hundred and fifty millions who live in India, into that bottomless pit of human degradation over which the diabolic emblem of the Swastika flaunts itself. It is not too much to say here this summer evening that the lives and happiness of a thousand million additional human beings are now menaced with brutal Nazi violence. That is enough to make us hold our breath. But presently I shall show you something else that lies behind, and something that touches very nearly the life of Britain and of the United States.

The Nazi régime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism. It is devoid of all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination. It excels all forms of human wickedness in the efficiency of its cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past with its crimes, its follies and its tragedies, flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes where mothers and wives pray - ah yes, for there are times when all pray - for the safety of their loved ones, the return of the breadwinner, of their champion, of their protector. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia, where the means of existence was wrung so hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordial human joys, where maidens laugh and children play. I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking, heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents fresh from the cowing and tying-down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they believe is an easier and a safer prey.

And behind all this glare, behind all this storm, I see that small group of villainous men who plan, organize and launch this cataract of horrors upon mankind. And then my mind goes back across the years to the days when the Russian armies were our allies against the same deadly foe; when they fought with so much valour and constancy, and helped to gain a victory from all share in which, alas, they were - through no fault of ours - utterly cut off. I have lived through all this, and you will pardon me if I express my feelings and the stir of old memories. But now I have to declare the decision of His Majesty's Government - and I feel sure it is a decision in which the great Dominions will, in due course, concur - for we must speak out now at once, without a day's delay. I have to make the declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us - nothing. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until with God's help we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe. This applies not only to organized states but to all representatives of that vile race of quislings who make themselves the tools and agents of the Nazi régime against their fellow-countrymen and the lands of their birth. These quislings - like the Nazi leaders themselves, if not disposed of by their fellow-countrymen, which would save trouble, will be delivered by us on the morrow of victory to the justice of the Allied tribunals. That is our policy and that is our declaration. It follows, therefore, that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it, as we shall, faithfully and steadfastly to the end.

We have offered the Government of Soviet Russia any technical or economic assistance which is in our power, and which is likely to be of service to them. We shall bomb Germany by day as well as by night in ever-increasing measure, casting upon them month by month a heavier discharge of bombs, and making the German people taste and gulp each month a sharper dose of the miseries they have showered upon mankind. It is noteworthy that only yesterday the Royal Air Force, fighting inland over France, cut down with very small loss to themselves 28 of the Hun fighting machines in the air above the French soil they have invaded, defiled and profess to hold. But this is only a beginning. From now hence forward the main expansion of our Air Force proceeds with gathering speed. In another six months the weight of the help we are receiving from the United States in war materials of all kinds, and especially in heavy bombers, will begin to tell.

This is no class war, this a war in which the whole British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations is engaged without distinction of race, creed or party. It is not for me to speak of the action of the United States, but this I will say: if Hitler imagines that his attack on Soviet Russia will cause the slightest division of aims or slackening of effort in the great Democracies who are resolved upon his doom, he is woefully mistaken. On the contrary, we shall be fortified and encouraged in our efforts to rescue mankind from his tyranny. We shall be strengthened and not weakened in determination and in our resources.

This is no time to moralize on the follies of countries and governments which have allowed themselves to be struck down one by one, when by united action they could so easily have saved themselves and saved the world from this catastrophe. But when I spoke a few minutes ago of Hitler's blood-lust and the hateful appetites which have impelled or lured him on his Russian adventure, I said there was one deeper motive behind his outrage. He wishes to destroy the Russian power because he hopes that if he succeeds in this, he will be able to bring back the main strength of his army and air force from the East and hurl it upon this Island, which he knows he must conquer or suffer the penalty of his crimes. His invasion of Russia is no more than a prelude to an attempted invasion of the British Isles. He hopes, no doubt, that all this may be accomplished before the winter comes, and that he can overwhelm Great Britain before the fleet and air power of the United States will intervene. He hopes that he may once again repeat, upon a greater scale than ever before, that process of destroying his enemies one by one, by which he has so long thrived and prospered, and that then the scene will be clear for the final act, without which all his conquests would be in vain - namely, the subjugation of the Western Hemisphere to his will and to his system.

The Russian danger is therefore our danger, and the danger of the United States, just as the cause of any Russian fighting for his hearth and home is the cause of free men and free peoples in every quarter of the globe. Let us learn the lessons already taught by such cruel experience. Let us redouble our exertions, and strike with united strength while life and power remain.

Tonight information from Russia is very sparse. It is reported that no comment or address to the public has been made by Russia’s leader Josef Stalin. However, there are reports that his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov has made a radio address announcing the invasion. Other radio broadcasts in Russia have also announced the Nazi invasion like this one here,

More details on this new Nazi thrust will be made available as soon as we can get them.

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Lest we forget, when Hitler invaded Poland in 9/1939, who invaded her from the East about two weeks later?

Did Britain or France declare war on that Eastern invader?

Did WSC work very hard to mask Katyn?

At Yalta, did FDR "sell out" the Poles in exile and not those under Stalin's control (i.e., the Lublin Poles)?

So... you’re saying, Obama PICKED today for his big war speech? So, he could be like Churchill?

Hmnnn.. maybe not.

Fascinating speech from Winston. He’s mocking the US’s indifference.

Fascinating speech from Winston. He’s mocking the US’s indifference.

But don't imagine that US indifference was an elite phenomenon. According to

The New Dealers' War:: FDR and the War Within World War II
by Thomas Fleming

FDR worked to involve the US in WWII from the moment Hitler invaded the USSR. The US public, OTOH, remembered WWI and by and 80:20 margin was in no hurry for a rematch.

Britain goes to war to protect Poland. Stalin joins in the invasion of Poland. Hitler invades the Soviet Union. Churchill allies with Stalin.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S allies with Stalin when Hitler declares war on the U.S.The U.S and Britain maintain the fiction, and try to force that fiction on the Poles , that the Germans shot the Poles at Katyn. Churchill and FDR largely abandon the Free Polish government.

Stalin refuses to help the Polish Home Army when they rise in Warsaw in 1944, after being urged to do so by the Russians. FDR and Churchill do not force the issue.

Stalin occupies Poland and sets up a puppet government lickety split.Churchill/ Atlee and FDR/ Truman do nothing, but demobilize their armies.

So why did Britain go to war, again?

FDR sold out the Poles? What was he supposed to do, threaten Stalin with war? The Allies were well aware they were no match for the Russian war machine. In fact the Allies were no match for the Wehrmacht either. Most Americans have no idea the power of those armies. The largest force the Americans had in their history was about 85 divisions. The Russians had over 400! The M4 Sherman tanks were no match for the T35’S. The Wehrmacht attacked Russia with 250 divisions. If Hitler didn’t invade Russia, it would have been impossible for the Allies to defeat Germany at least until we got the bomb.

Thanks for that information. I love history, but I’m not sure I’ve ever know what a disparity in numbers there was - amazing. I did know that without the Soviets we probably would not have won. Of course if only half of the men or less in your 400 divisions are armed, that takes away some of the threat!

The Eastern Front was the largest blood bath in History. The United States lost over 400,000 men on all fronts in the entire war. They estimate the Russians lost over a million men in Stalingrad alone. The German Sixth Army which was one of the finest armies ever assembled was utterly destroyed. Of 250,000 men only 90,000 survived to surrender to the Russians. Of those 90,000, only about 6,000 survived the war.

I was just reading something about the Civil War, and was the mention of the slaughter there was they were using Revolutionary War tactics with “modern” weapons.

I always envisioned the Eastern Front more like WWI with fairly entrenched lines, etc. - so maybe the carnage there was somewhat caused by WWI tactics with modern weapons.

Or perhaps even older than that with the “seiges” of the Russian cities, and of course the cold winters that helped kill off a lot of Nazis.

No wonder Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz were always so worried about getting sent to the Eastern Front!

Seems, however, that when WWII ended the only power with the atomic bomb was ... the US.

That "ace in the hole" was not used as leverage for a "balance of power" or a "sphere of influence". Who won WWII ... Stalin did!

Oh, by the bye, the USSR got "nuclear" materials, including enriched uranium, in the Spring of 1943 via the Lend-Lease program.

The head of Lend-Lease at the time was one Harry "The Hop" Hopkins, FDR's alter-ego, and Soviet agent "No. 19" from the Venona project.

Of course Stalin won. He got all of the gains from the Nazi-Soviet pact (Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) for the USSR and he also got Koeningsberg in East Prussia.

But, of course, he should not have.

What was WWII about, again?

Save the British Empire?

A US "jobs" program which persist to today?

What?

jamaksin: "What was WWII about, again?"

For the US at war's end, it was about the freedom of western Europe and Asia -- including West Germany and Japan.

As for Eastern Europe -- the Soviets lost something like 20 million lives defeating the Germans and killed around 75% of all Germans who died in the war.
For that they "earned" Eastern Europe, and no American was going to die to take it away from them.

By contrast, the western allies lost a few hundred thousand killed, and the US the fewest of all, for which we won Western Europe, and most of the rest of the world.
So, with possible exception of George Patton, no American was willing to die to take Eastern Europe back from the Russians -- much less to invade Russia itself.

As for A-bombs -- to my knowledge, the US has never threatened to use them for any purpose except in retaliation for a major attack on us.

Worst of all from the German point of view were personnel losses. During Barbarossa, casualties equaled one
regiment destroyed each day for the entire campaign……..

I was working on archiving when I ran across your comment here.

Oh, by the bye, the USSR got "nuclear" materials, including enriched uranium, in the Spring of 1943 via the Lend-Lease program.

I was wonder where you heard this? It seems unlikely that any U²³⁵ was sent to the Soviet at all in 1943, but even if this is the case it would have to be such small amounts that it is almost insignificant. You have to realize that the first facility to produce U²³⁵ in non-laboratory quantities, the Y-12 electromagnetic isotope separation plant didn't even begin production until November 1943. This is the facility that produced the material used in the Little Boy device. Even if everything produced in November and December of 1943 were given to the Soviets it would have been a very small amount of material.

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