Stella's Place

This story never gets old for me.

A few years ago I watched the movie, Darkest Hour (2017), about the period leading up to the rescue of the British soldiers at Dunkirk and Churchill’s famous speech (see below).

Although, like all movies, not everything is true and accurate (for instance, Elizabeth Layton did not go to work for Churchill until the next year), the basics of history are true. Churchill fought opposition in his government to continue fighting against Hitler, as many wished to pursue a negotiated peace through Mussolini with the Germans. We all know what happened next.

I believe that God led the man, Churchill, to be his very best person, and gave him the strength to lead the British people through years of deprivation to their eventual victory. If they had not won the war, it would have been the end of the British Empire and the free countries of Europe, which Churchill knew very well. I don’t think that Britain could have won without God and without Churchill.

As odd as this may seem, I had never heard of the Dunkirk boat lift until 2012, when I watched the movie, Mrs. Miniver (1942, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon).

Of course, when it happened I wasn’t born yet, and the U.S. had not yet entered the war in Europe, but this is truly a story worth knowing.

It is about the pluck and determination of the British people. In this week late in May, 1940, The British grabbed an opportunity in defeat, surviving to continue the fight against Hitler. Were it not for the evacuation of more than 300,000 troops over a period of a week, the British would almost certainly have lost the war.

Continue reading →