This week in the war, on 4 June 1940, Winston Churchill declares to the House of Commons that the nation will continue to fight, no matter what.
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Britain’s army has been successfully evacuated from Dunkirk—minus all of its equipment. The country is virtually unarmed. In the whole of the British Isles, there are only 500 field guns, many of which are museum-pieces.
The hastily thrown together Local Defence Volunteers—shortly after to be renamed ‘The Home Guard’—are shown on the right (and were more recently featured on a 60 pence memorial postage stamp, drilling with broom handles).