Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s Original Letter of Thanks to a Triumphant English People, Who Had Withstood the Nazi Onslaught

The original of a famous letter: “I have been deeply touched by all the messages of good will which have reached me at this time. Thank you so much…”

For six years, Churchill’s had been a voice in the wilderness, crying out against the mortal danger posed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. However, Great Britain was lost in a pipe-dream of peace, and Churchill was ignored and even scorned. Then the first wave of German military might overwhelmed Poland in September 1939, and Churchill was revealed as a prophet rather than a Cassandra. After a quiet winter, in April 1940 the Nazi juggernaut smashed into Denmark and Norway, followed shortly by invasions of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Soon the prospects for Britain became worse than bleak, as the lion’s share of Europe was either allied with Germany or been been conquered by Hitler ‘s armies. Shockingly, France would collapse and surrender on June 22.

In early May, as Norway tottered elements in both the country’s major parties revolted against Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s management of the war. Members of Chamberlain’s own Conservative Party were insistent on a change of leadership, with Leopold Amery, on the floor of the House of Commons, quoting from Cromwell and saying: “Depart I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Chamberlain was naturally shaken by this and reluctantly agreed to resign. Some Conservatives initially promoted Lord Halifax as his successor, as in fact did King George VI. However, as the only leader not tainted by the disastrous appeasement policies of the 1930’s, it was obvious that Churchill alone could unite the nation. Moreover, the Labour Party, for all its old distrust of Churchill’s anti-Socialism, recognized the depth of his commitment to the defeat of Hitler and insisted on him. A coalition government was formed that included all elements save the far left and right and the nationalist parties. It was headed by a War Cabinet of five, which included at first both Chamberlain and Halifax – a wise but also magnanimous recognition of the numerical strength of Chamberlainite conservatism – and two Labour leaders, Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood. The Cabinet became an agency of swift decision, and the government that it controlled remained representative of all major groups and parties. Churchill himself took, in addition to the leadership of the House of Commons, the Ministry of Defense, thus emphasizing his concentration on the conduct of the war. In fact, at this point, the Prime Minister’s life and career became one with Britain’s story and its survival.

Churchill’s task was to inspire resistance at all costs, to organize the defense of the island, and to make it the bastion for an eventual return to the continent of Europe. To do this, he needed to breathe a new spirit into the government and a new resolve into the people. His magnificent oratory, his immense confidence, and his stubborn refusal to accept anything but total victory, did just that and rallied the nation, particularly during the dark days between 1940 and the turn of the tide in 1943. From July to September 1940, all waited tensely for the German invasion of Britain to begin, as the Battle of Britain was fought to secure air supremacy. By mid-September it was clear that the RAF had denied the Luftwaffe the control the Germans needed to cross the English Channel, and the Nazi leaders decided to concentrate instead on bombing cities to pound the British people into submission. For months in succession the cities of Britain suffered night after night of air terror, and while the cities were being destroyed the people sought safety in air raid shelters, and in London, in Underground (subway) stations. This bombing of the civilian population came to be known as the Blitz. In October, being pounded by the unrelenting air assault, Churchill and his government moved to the underground cabinet war rooms. In November, Coventry was destroyed; still the bombing continued, as it would until May of 1941.

The speeches he made leading the British nation are classics and among the most moving and important ever made in the English language. From his first blunt talk to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, in which he warned “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”; to his pledge to resist – “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!”; to his memorable plea for strength and courage – “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour”. He wrote that the English would defend London house to house and see it razed to the ground rather than capitulate and lose the institutions of freedom that had been gained at such cost over a thousand years. Only Prime Minister Churchill and valiant Britain stood between the world and a new Dark Age, and his words effectively inspired the people and led ultimately to victory in the war.

Churchill himself denied that he deserved the credit for Britain’s epochal performance in standing alone against the Nazis, saying “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.” Yet that is only a half truth, as historian Isaiah Berlin points out in his article, “Churchill in 1940.” Writing of the type of emotion Churchill felt for the people of Great Britain, Berlin said, “He idealized them with such intensity that in the end they approached his ideal and began to see themselves as he saw them…So hypnotic was the force of his words, so strong his faith, that by the sheer intensity of his eloquence he bound his spell upon them until it seemed to them that he was indeed speaking what was in their hearts and minds. If it was there, it was largely dormant until he had awoken it within them.”

On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally. The work of Churchill, and the British people, in Europe was done. Quickly letters poured in congratulating Churchill on the winning of the war. These included letters from school children, adults, municipalities, and organizations of all kinds. Churchill responded by writing his correspondents: “I have been deeply touched by all the messages of good will which have reached me at this time. Thank you so much for your kind thought.” The letter was on his Prime Minister’s letterhead and was dated May 1945. It was Churchill’s letter of gratitude to the British people, and it was a very personal one.

Churchill, while Prime Minister, would annually receive many letters with birthday or holiday good wishes, more than he could take the time to sign personally. He developed a system wherein he had a response letter typed or written out on his letterhead, which he himself signed, and from that one authentic letter as many facsimiles were made as needed. With this victory letter he used the same system, signing one and sending off myriad facsimiles. We offer here his original letter, typed by his secretary and hand signed in ink, not a facsimile but the one from which the facsimiles were made. It is a true treasure.