Some years after WW II, Winston Churchill reflected on his role as the leader and great orator of Britain, saying his country always “had the lion’s heart,” while he merely “had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.” History should record few men were better equipped to do so. Churchill already gave two memorable wartime speeches in the British House of Commons: the first during the start of the German invasion of France (“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”) and during the evacuation at Dunkirk (“We shall fight on the beaches … we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”). His third one, like the first, would not shrink from the grim reality, but use it to stir up patriotism and inspire the fighting men.

On this day, June 18, in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, just a month into his term as Prime Minister, confronted the greatest threat to Britain’s existence with his “Finest Hour” speech.

Two days before, France signed an armistice, officially surrendering to Germany. The U.S. had not yet entered the war and Germany had not yet invaded Russia. Churchill knew the entire force of the Nazi war machine would soon be turned against his island nation. “[I]f we fail,” he said in his speech “then the whole world … will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age …. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty 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.’”