Circumstances

Churchill is elected Prime Minister during World War II

Winston Churchill delivered his “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech on 4th of June, 1940, to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. At the time of the speech, Winston Churchill had recently taken over as Prime Minister, replacing the previous government led by Neville Chamberlain, which had been considered dissatisfactory due to its approach to the war.

The speech followed Operation Dynamo, the rescue operation of British and French Allied troops from Dunkirk, in the north of France, where they were surrounded by German troops. The Battle of Dunkirk and the rescue of Allied troops from Dunkirk represented an episode in a broader conflict - World War II (1939 - 1945), a global war between two opposing military alliances: the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan, subsequently joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria), and the Allies (the US, Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia).

German invasion of other countries

During his speech, Churchill states: “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail" (ll. 235-237). By the time when Churchill delivered his speech, German forces had in...