Winston Churchill and the End of the Beginning

Winston Churchill blessed us with one of his most famous quotes in the wake of a successful battle that spanned the last week of October through the first week of November 1942. Thirty-eight months after Britain declared war on Germany, Allied forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had routed Erwin Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa at El Alamein in Egypt. This decisive action reopened the Middle East for the Allies, and was followed within days by Operation Torch, which led to Allied control of North Africa.
 
In his November 10, 1942 address to the Lord Mayor (of London’s) banquet, Churchill declared:
 
“I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil, and sweat. Now, however, we have a new experience. We have victory.”
 
Ninety seconds further into his speech, Churchill spoke these cautionary but long-remembered lines.
 
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
 
When the International Churchill Society inaugurated its podcast series last year, “The End of the Beginning” was selected as a very fitting title. I recently had the distinct honor of joining ICS Executive Director Adam Howard for a fireside chat version of “The End of the Beginning” … in front of a literal burning fireplace (fortunately, we could not feel the heat!) and a live audience at the Union League in Philadelphia. The 46-minute video of our conversation includes a 15-minute Q&A session with members of the Union League’s Chartwell Club, who were our very gracious hosts. (I did my best to look professional and sound knowledgeable, but just between us … this was an incredibly cool experience).

The Union League, which was founded in 1862, has a library with an impressive collection of more than 33,000 items. As if this cake needed any more icing, a copy of “Operation Catapult” now sits on one of those shelves.

Thanks for reading and watching.
 
Bill
 
PS: Here is a link to a four-minute recording of Churchill’s “End of the Beginning” speech. As inspirational as it is to read Churchill’s words, hearing them in his voice takes this experience to an entirely different level.