Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Zelensky invoking Churchill's famous speech

 Earlier today the President of Ukraine Zelensky whose country is pulverized by the Russian invasion invoked Winston Churchill while addressing the British Parliament via video from his remote location. It prompted me briefly to revisit history.


During the initial days of the World war II London was facing incessant bombing and V2 rocket raids from Nazi Germany. The city was under seize and its fall looked imminent. One day a bomb fell on Prime Minister Churchill's 10 Downing St residence destroying a portion of it and nearly killing him.

Words of this attack spread like wild fire. Without heeding to his trusted advisors who suggested him to leave his official building, Churchill went to the basement. Sitting there he made the famous Radio address to the nation - "We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the sea, we shall fight on the beach, and we shall fight on the hills.... But we shall NEVER EVER SURRENDER".

This speech was enough to rally the British moral which at that time was at its historic low. The war ravaged nation whose legendary gritty character lied dormant due to German Blitzkrieg was suddenly aroused. The Royal Air Force fought back bravely, making a spectacular comeback. The war slowly started to turn around. The yet invincible Luftwaffe (German Air Force) started suffering heavy losses, enough to force Hitler to abandon his Britain mission and divert his attention to Russia. The rest we know is history...

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