November 1940: Coventry, England. Photograph by Captain Horton, War Office official photographer. This is photograph H14250 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. Winston Churchill walking through the ruined nave of Coventry Cathedral, England, after it was severely damaged in the Coventry Blitz of 14–15th November 1940. Photograph in the Public Domain.

Left: Panorama of Parliament Square and Queen Elizabeth Tower in London, United Kingdom. Photograph licensed to War History Network. Click to expand.

On 20 August 1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his famous "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" speech in response to the courage exhibited by British flyers in response to the air attack by Nazi Germany. Here are two excerpts from the 55-plus minute speech:

"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power." (Churchill, 1940)

Books and Further Reading
Memoirs of the Second World War by Winston S. Churchill is an abridgment of the six volumes of The Second World War. Originally published in 1959, both versions are still in print today. Churchill's writing was engaging and exquisite; the single volume was winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was truly a rare leader and personality, one of history's few great men.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965, was the third and final volume covering the life of Winston Churchill, written by William Manchester, and co-authored by Paul Reed. Reed was chosen by Manchester to complete this last volume due to his passing before he could complete the final work. It was published in 2012.

The late Roy Jenkins, former chancellor of Oxford University and member in the House of Lords, had a New York Times Bestseller in 2002 with Churchill: A Biography. 

Left: London, September 1940-May 1941 (date approximate). Ludgate Hill area of London with firemen, equipment, and burnt out buildings during the 'Blitz'.

In Churchill: A Biography, Roy Jenkins recounts his time working at Bletchley Park and the influence the Enigma machine and 'Ultra' had on Allied intelligence and effecting the war. While recounting "The Battle of Britain and the Beginning of the Blitz" (Chapter 33), Jenkins writes "This was despite the fact that the Enigma decrypts of wireless traffic were already providing Churchill and the very restricted circle which was privy to this information with some insight into German dispositions... From an early stage of the war Bletchley Park's decrypts (codenamed Ultra) played a vital role. According to some commentators, they more or less won the war. (Jenkins, 2002, p. 632)

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