June 3, 2015

Finest Hour 101, Winter 1998-99

Page 06

On Armistice Day we welcome the dedication of a statue in Paris to the only man who held high office in both World Wars. Lady Soames left promptly at the close of the International Churchill Conference in Virginia in order to attend this event, made possible by many generous Frenchmen, including The Churchill Center’s good friends at Champagne Pol Roger. Ten years ago while visiting Epernay we had the honor to recall the words that meant so much to embattled France in 1940:

“Francais! Pendant plus de trente ans, en temps depaix comme en temps de guerre, j’ai marcbe avec vous etje marche encore avec vous aujourd’hui, sur la meme route…. “

“Frenchmen! For more than thirty years in peace and war I have marched with you. I am marching with you still along the same road. Tonight I speak to you at your firesides, wherever you may be, or whatever your fortunes are. I repeat the prayer upon the Louis d’or, ‘Dieu protege la France.’ Here at home in England, under the fire of the Boche, we do not forget the ties and links that unite us to France….Here in London, which Herr Hitler says he will reduce to ashes…our Air Force has more than held its own. We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes…

“Good night then: Sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France! Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and fuller age.”

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On Armistice Day 80 years on, we remember above all those who never returned, of whom Winston Churchill spoke on 14 July 1940: “This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a war of the Unknown Warriors; but let all strive without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark curse will be lifted from our age.”

Reviewing the film “Saving Private Ryan,” (FH99), Dick Feagler of the Cleveland Plain Dealer describes a scene during the invasion of Normandy in 1944: “A squad of American Rangers is sent behind enemy lines to save a man whose three brothers have been killed in battle. Higher headquarters wants him shipped home to spare his mother the agony of having all her sons killed in combat. So eight Rangers risk their lives for one man. And when one of the Rangers is mortally wounded, he asks Private Ryan to bend over so he can whisper to him. ‘Earn this, he says.

“And that is the request of all the young men who have died in all the wars, from the Somme to Normandy to the Chosen Reservoir to Da Nang to the Gulf:

“Earn this.”