<P> What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over...the Battle of Britain is about to begin . Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation . Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire . The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us . Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war . If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands . </P> <P> But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science . 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 ." </P> <P> The speech was delivered to the Commons at 3: 49 pm, and lasted 36 minutes . Churchill--as was his habit--made revisions to his 23 - page typescript right up to and during the speech . The final passage of his typescript was laid out in blank verse format, which Churchill scholars consider reflective of the influence of the Psalms on his oratory style . </P>

The battle of france is over. i expect the battle of britain is about to begin