Battle of Britain: Churchill's 'few' remembered
Updated on 20 August 2010
As a ceremony marks 70 years since Winston Churchill famously spoke of the "few" fighting for the Battle of Britain, historian Richard Overy tells Channel 4 News the words captured the spirit of the nation.
The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain will be marked today by a reading of the speech and a flypast outside the Churchill War Rooms in central London.
Churchill's stirring "so much owed by so many to so few" address will be read at 3.52pm - exactly 70 years after the wartime prime minister delivered it in parliament.
Veterans from the 1940 battle are expected to attend. Following the ceremony a Spitfire and Hurricane fighter will fly over Whitehall.
More than 2,900 British, Commonwealth and Allied aircrew took part and successfully fought off the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain which began on July 10 1940 and ended on October 31 that year. The triumph helped wreck Hitler's plans to invade Britain and is believed to have laid the foundations for Allied victory five years later.
In a speech on 20 August 1940, Churchill told MPs: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Author and historian Prof Richard Overy told Channel 4 News that the Churchill's phrase encapsulated the "myth of the battle" which still resonates today.
"At the time Churchill didn’t expect the impact [of the words] at all," he said.
"The phrase caught the imagination and immediately people took it up as a way of describing a David v Goliath view of RAF fighter command.
"I think really people were looking for language to describe how they saw the battle and these few lines somehow captured that spirit."
The history of the speech
The speech was not actually recorded until 11 years after it was first delivered to parliament. In 1949 he made a recording of his war speeches for EMI records, and they were distributed in the 78rpm record format.
Because it was a recording, the delivery was quite stylised. It might sound the same as when it was in its first incarnation - the phrase has a lot of momentum - but actually the mood on that day is described as being sleepy and languid rather than oratorical.
But the phrase was taken up by the press. One of Churchill's great friends Violet Bonham Carter told him "this phrase will become immortal," while General Ismay, Churchill's Chief of Staff told the prime minister the phrase had been 'burned on his mind.'
There is evidence that Churchill had been formulating the phrase from as early as 1899. He used it during a trip to Uganda, when describing a dam there he said something along the lines of: "never has so much water been held back by so little masonry."
Really it was a bit of a myth as the sides were roughly equal in the Battle of Britain in terms of the numbers of Spitfires and Hurricanes. The Germans may have had a few more pilots but when theirs crashed they were taken prison, whereas the British ones parachuted down and went straight back into the skies.
Among the pilots it was a bit of a joke- they used to apply it to their mess bills! But really it became a buzzword for the battles of the era and it really entered the English language and lexicon.
Dr Piers Brendon is a professor of history at Cambridge University and the author of the biography Winston Churchill: A Brief Life
Prof Overy told Channel 4 News that despite a steady supply of British pilots at the time, the description of the "few" gave an image of "English lads against the might of Luftwaffe".
Churchill's original speech to parliament was actually poorly attended, Prof Overy said, but the print media of the time used the words to describe the gravity of what was at stake.
"There were not many MPs in parliament when he gave the speech," he said.
"People and the media were looking for something in Churchill to get people enthused. In full, it was actually a pretty boring speech about war in east Africa and bomber command."
What might Churchill say today?
@sking1981: in 2010 Churchill might write 'never in the field of conflict were so few aware, why so many had died'
@failtosucceed: Never have so few squandered the sacrifice of so many.
@IanSanders: on the banks being bailed out: 'Never was so much owed by so few to so many'
@SpangularDiva: britain owes so much to so many, I've got to ebay the unemployed into slavery.
@sjhoward: Maybe just cut it off after the first five words... "Never was so much owed"
@IanPJ:'Never was so much taken by force from so many to the benefit of so few'
@himupnorth: Never in the field of human speeches has so much been so misquoted by so many
@Doctor_Hutch: 'New health and safety measures will ensure that the RAF stop shooting down German planes over populated areas.'
@deadbloke: nice 1 m8 innit l8tz
Follow Channel 4 News on twitter @channel4news
Phil Reed, director of Churchill War Rooms, said: "In this speech, Churchill epitomised his ability to capture in the most stirring way the spirit of a nation fighting for its existence, as Britain stood firm against the Nazi war machine.
"Now part of the general folklore of the battle, the speech is today considered a defining moment of the conflict and one of Churchill's most emotive and stirring pronouncements."
