The Way Back Home — Part 1

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Jack Davis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The Way Back Home — Part 1

By
Jack Davis

‘The Way Back Home’ is the war memories of Jack Davis. Jack’s son Stephen Davis has added the Quotations from Churchill’s speeches.

The memories of his friend, and member of the F.F.I. the French underground movement, Nelly Goss were told to Jack Davis on the understanding that Nelly and he never spoke of them ever again.

England - Whither Goest Thou?

Events Unfold and Churchill Speaks

April 03, 1936
The dear desire of all the peoples, is to avoid another horrible war in which their lives and homes will be destroyed or ruined, and such civilisation as we have been able to achieve, reduced to primordial pulp and squalor. Never till now were great communities afforded such ample means of measuring their approaching agony. Never have they seemed less capable of taking effective measures to prevent it. They can yet feel themselves slipping, sinking, rolling backward to the age when "....the earth was void and darkness moved upon the face of the waters."

Manchester, May 09, 1938
...People in this country, after all we have gone through, do not mean to be drawn into another terrible war...

March 24, 1939
If the Nazi Dictator had the time to study English history he would see that on more than one famous occasion, this island had lost great military advantages in Europe by its intense reluctance to be involved in Continental struggles, and yet in the end, led the way to victory ...how could Louis XIV believe that the England which had tamely watched his occupation of all the Belgian fortresses in 1701 would reach a long arm to strangle his armies on the Danube in 1704?

September 03, 1939 House of Commons on the day war was declared
In this solemn hour it is a consolation to recall and to dwell upon our repeated efforts for peace. All have been ill-starred, but all have been faithful and sincere. This is of the highest moral value - and not only moral value, but practical value at the present time, because the wholehearted concurrence of scores of millions of men and women, whose co-operation is indispensable, and whose comradeship and brotherhood are, indispensable, is the only foundation upon which the trial and tribulation of modern war can be endured and surmounted. Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its gales. Our hands may be active but our consciences are at rest.

Winston Churchill, October 01, 1939
Directions have been given by the Government to prepare for a war of at least three years. It was for Hitler to say when the war would begin; but it is not for him or for his successors to say when it will end. It began when he wanted it, and it will end only when we are convinced that he has had enough.

Manchester, January 27, 1940
Come then let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil - each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honour the brave. Let us go forward together in all parts of the Empire, in all parts of the island. There is not a week, not a day, nor an hour to lose.

House of Commons, May 13, 1940
I would say to the House as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is your policy? I will say: it is to wage war by sea, land, and air with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is your aim? I can answer in one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be: for without victory, there is no survival.

House of Commons, June 04, 1940
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 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 liberation of the old.

House of Commons, June 04, 1940 - after Dunkirk
I will pay tribute to these young airmen. May it not also be that the cause of civilisation itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen. There never had 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 sand 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 of 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.

Broadcasting, June 17, 1940
We have become the sole champions now in arms to defend the world cause. We shall do our best to be worthy of this high honour.

Broadcasting on June 18, 1940
I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, 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."

Speaking to the House of Commons August 20, 1940
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.

Broadcasting to France October 21, 1940
Good night then, sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and the true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France! Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and fuller age.

Broadcasting on February 09, 194I
President Roosevelt, in a letter of introduction to me, wrote out a verse, in his own handwriting, from Longfellow, in which he said, "applies to you people as it does to us."
Here is the verse:
Sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
What is the answer that I shall give, in your name? Here is the answer that I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith, and your blessing, and under Providence, all will be well.
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down.
Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

Broadcasting on May 07, 1941
It is a year almost to the day since men of all parties joined hands together to fight this business to the end. When I look back on the perils, which have been overcome, upon the great mountain waves through which the gallant ship has driven, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage! We shall come through!

Speaking at a Dominions Conference in London June 12, 1941
Hitler may turn and trample this way and that through tortured Europe. He may spread his course far and wide, and carry his curse with him; he may break into Africa or into Asia. But it is here, in this island fortress that he will have to reckon in the end. We shall strive to resist by land and sea. We shall be on his track wherever he goes. Our air power will continue to teach the German homeland that war is not all loot and triumph.
This then is the message which we send forth today to all the States and nations bound or free, to all men in all the lands who care for freedom's cause, to our allies and well wishers in Europe, to our American friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean: this is the message - Lift up your hearts. All will come right. Out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind.

Speaking in Ottawa December 30, 1941
We did not make this war, we did not seek it. We did all we could to avoid it. We did too much to avoid it. We went so far at times in trying to avoid it as to be almost destroyed by it when it broke upon us. But that dangerous corner has been turned, and with every month and every year that passes, we shall confront the evil-doers with weapons as plentiful, as sharp, and as destructive as those with which they have sought to establish their hateful domination. I should like to point out to you that we have not at any time asked for any mitigation in the fury or malice of the enemy. The peoples of the British Empire may love peace. They do not seek the lands or wealth of any country, but they are a tough and hardy lot. We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.
The French Government had at their own suggestion, solemnly bound themselves with us not to make a separate peace, but their generals misled them. When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks, England will have her neck wrung like a chicken."
Some chicken - some neck!

Speaking in London March 26, 1942
We must confront our perils and trials with that national unity which cannot be broken, and a national force which is inexhaustible: We must confront them with resilience and ingenuity which are fearless, and above all with that inflexible will-power to endure and yet to dare for which our island race has long been renowned. Thus, and thus alone, can we be worthy champions of that grand alliance of nearly thirty States and nations which without our resistance would never have come into being, but which now has only to march on together until tyranny is trampled down.

Speaking in London November 10, 1942
...We have not entered this war for profit or expansion, but only for honour and to do our duty in defending the right. Let me, however, make this clear, in case there should be any mistake about it in any quarter. We mean to hold our own...
Here we are, and here we stand.

Pr-BR

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.