This delay entailed the loss of fifteen or sixteen French divisions and threw out of action for the critical period the whole of the British Expeditionary Force. I spoke the other day of the colossal military disaster which occurred when the French High Command failed to withdraw the northern Armies from Belgium at the moment when they knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and on the Meuse. Britain now stood alone against Adolf Hitler’s military machine, and in this speech, Churchill bolsters his countrymen’s courage to fight for freedom and the preservation of British institutions and Christian civilization. On June 18, 1940, two days after France had sought an armistice with Germany, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons about the calamitous turn of events in Europe.
