by Patrick J. Buchanan – September 4, 2002

“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.’” So declaimed Churchill to Parliament as the Battle of Britain began.

Six weeks before, on May 10, 1940, the Battle of France had begun suddenly when Hitler’s Panzers, bypassing the Maginot Line, slashed through the Ardennes and cut to the Channel to isolate the British Expeditionary Force on the French-Belgian coast.