Despite the innovations in air power, Churchill recognized that it was “not reasonable to speak of an air offensive as if it were going to finish the war by itself.” If anything, air attacks would see “the combative spirit of the people roused, and not quelled.” This lesson, learned at a time when “the Few” were much fewer, would instruct Churchill in another even greater human conflict to come.

Churchill was a great speaker because he loved the classics, which informed his composition. His vast sub-text was compiled through extensive reading, led by Shakespeare and the Bible. His capacious memory enabled him to fish up exactly the right quotation to bedizen his points. But it was all carefully rehearsed. He was not a great ad libber, but often stowed away a good line for the right moment.

“We may, I am sure, rate this tremendous year as the most splendid, as it was the most deadly, year in our long English and British story….[N]othing surpasses 1940…. The soul of the British people and race had proved invincible. The citadel of the Commonwealth and Empire could not be stormed. Alone, but upborne by every generous heartbeat of mankind, we had defied the tyrant in the height of his triumph.” —WSC, 1949