The early months of 1942 were shadowed by the avalanche like advance of the Japanese. The Germans were beginning to suffer reverses at the hands of the Russians, but they were still everywhere deep in the Soviet state, and during the summer advanced to Stalingrad.
There the Russians held them and flung them back.
As the year ended, the Japanese also were held, and success at last attended Allied arms in North Africa.
This change is reflected in these quotations from two speeches by Britain’s Prime Minister
Mr Churchill Broadcasts the News of the fall of Singapore, February 15th 1942.
When I survey and compute the power of the United States and its vast resources and feel that they are now in it with us, in with the British Commonwealth of Nations all together, however long it lasts, till death or victory, I cannot believe there is any other fact in the whole world which can compare with that…
But there is another fact in some ways more immediately effective.
The Russian armies have not been defeated. They have not been torn to pieces.
The Russian peoples have not been conquered or destroyed.
Leningrad and Moscow have not been taken; Russian’s armies are in the field…
Here, then are two tremendous fundamental facts which will in the end dominate the world situation and make victory possible in a form never possible before.
But there is another heavy and terrible side to the account which must be set in the balance against this inestimable gain.
Japan has plunged into war and is ravaging the fertile, prosperous, and densely populated lands of the Far East…
The Mediterranean is closed and all our transports have to go round the Cape of Good Hope, each ship making only three voyages in the year.
Not a ship, not a aeroplane, not a tack, not a anti tank gun or A.A. gun has stood idle.
Everything we have has been deployed either against the enemy or awaiting his attack.
We are struggling in the Libyan Desert where perhaps another serious battle will soon be fought.
We have to provide for the safety and order of liberated Abyssinia, of conquered Eritrea, of Palestine, of Liberated Syria and redeemed Iraq, and our new ally Persia.
A ceaseless stream of ships, men and materials had flowed from this country for a year and a half in order to sustain our armies in the Middle East, which guard these vast regions on either side of the Nile barrier.
We had to do our best to give substantial aid to Russia.
We gave it in her darkest hour, and we must not fail in our undertakings now.
How then in this posture, gripped and held and battered as we were, could we have provided for the safety of the Far East against such an avalanche of fire and steel as has been hurled upon us by Japan?
Always this thought overhung ours minds.
There was one hope and one hope only namely, that if Japan entered the war with her allies Germany and Italy, the United States would come our side, thus far more than repairing the balance.
For this reason I have been most careful all these months not to give any provocation to Japan, and to put up with Japanese encroachments, dangerous though they were, so that if possible, whatever happened, we should not find ourselves forced to face this new enemy alone.
I could not be sure that we should succeed in this policy. But it has come to pass.
Japan has struck her felon blow and a new, far greater champion has drawn the sword of implacable vengeance against her and on our side…
To night the Japanese are triumphant. They shout their exultation round the world. We suffer.
We are taken aback. We are hard pressed. But I am sure even in this dark hour that criminal madness will be the verdict which history will pronounce upon the authors of Japanese aggression after the events of 1942 and 1943 have been inscribed on its sombre pages….
The overthrow for a while of British and U.S. sea power in the Pacific was like the breaking of some mighty dam.
The long gathered, pent up waters rushed down the peaceful valley carrying ruin and devastation forward on their foam and spreading their inundations far and wide.
No one must underrate any more the gravity and efficiency of the Japanese war machine.
Whether in the air or upon the sea or man to man on land, they have proved themselves formidable deadly, and I am sorry to say, barbarous antagonists…
I have never prophesied or promised smooth or easy things and now all I have to offer is hard adverse war for many months ahead.
I must warn you, as I warned the House of Commons before they gave their generous vote of confidence a fortnight ago, that many misfortunes, severe torturing losses, remorseless and gnawing anxieties lie before us…
Tonight I speak to you at home; I speak to you in Australia and New Zealand, for whose safety we will strain every nerve, to our gallant allies the Dutch and Chinese, tour loyal friends in India and Burma, tour allies in Russia and to our kith and kin in the United States.
I speak to you all under a shadow of a heavy and far reaching military defeat.
It is a British and Imperial defeat.
Singapore has fallen.
All the Malay Peninsula has been overrun. Other dangers gather about us out there, and none of the dangers which we have hitherto faced successfully at home and in the East are in any way diminished.
This therefore is one of those moments when the British nation can show its quality and genius.
This is one of those moments when it can draw from the heart of misfortune the vital impulse of victory….
We must remember that we are no longer alone.
We are in the mist of a great company.
Three quarters of the human race are now moving with us.
The whole future of mankind may depend upon our action and conduct.
So far we have not failed. We shall not fail now.
Mr Churchill at the Mansion House Speaks of the Victorious Battle of Egypt, November 10th 1942.
I noticed, My Lord Mayor, by your speech that you had reached the conclusion that the news from the various fronts have been some what better lately.
In our wars the episodes are largely adverse, but the final results have hitherto been satisfactory….
… I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil, and sweat.
Now however we have a new experience.
We have victory a remarkable and definite victory.
The bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers and warmed and cheered all our hearts…..
…. General Alexander, with his brilliant comrade and lieutenant, General Montgomery, has gained a glorious and decisive victory in what I think should be called the Battle of Egypt.
Rommel’s army have been defeated.
It has been routed; it has been very largely destroyed as a fighting force….
….. The Germans have been outmatched and outfought with the very kind weapons with which they had beaten down so many small peoples, and also large unprepared peoples.
They have been beaten by the very technical apparatus on which they counted to gain them the domination of the world…
… When I read of the coastal road crammed with fleeing Germans vehicles under the blasting attacks of the R.A.F. I could not but remember those roads of France and Flanders, crowded not with fighting men, but with helpless refugee’s women and children fleeing with pitiful barrows and household goods, upon whom such merciless havoc was wreaked.
I have, I trust a humane disposition, but I say I could not help feeling that what was happening, however grievous. Was only justice grimly reclaiming her rights…?
There was a time, not long ago when for a whole year we stood all alone.
Those days, thank GOD, have gone.
We now move forward in a great and gallant company.
