THE BATTLE OF FRANCE
our friends can help us: it is now. We know how
magnificently the British Army and Royal Air Force
have fought, we know that they have done all that it
was possible to do. The time has come to do what
is impossible. We have complete trust in our
British Allies. We know they are as determined as
we are, we know they are ready to throw into this
fight all they possess. What we ask them to realize
is the importance of time. Remember what we call
the Spirit of Dunkirk. Before Dunkirk it was
thought impossible to evacuate in a few days from
a half-shattered harbour more than 30,000 men.
Wild optimists said 50,000. In fact, 335,000 were
saved. How was it done? Who knows it better than
you do, you who have done it? And if you show
once more the spirit of Dunkirk you can also win
this battle and this war. For Dunkirk you gave
every ship—give now every plane, every man, every
gun. Let us together ask America, now so ready to
help us, to produce in one or two months what under
general conditions would take years. It is impossible,
all experts will say, to equip, to train, and to send over
in a few weeks a large army. That is quite true. It
is impossible, but it must be done and it will be
done/
This was on the nth June at nine o'clock in the
evening. They asked me to come back at 2.30 in the
morning to speak to the United States in the same
strain but adapted to a different audience. I was
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