When I awoke on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd, the news was brought to me of Hitler's invasion of Russia. This changed conviction into certainty. I had not the slightest doubt where our duty and our policy lay. Nor indeed what to say. There only remained the task of composing it. I asked that notice should immediately be given that I would broad-cast at 9 o' clock that night. Presently General Dill, who had hastened down from London, came into my bedroom with detailed news. The Germans had invaded Russia on an enormous front, had surprised a large portion of the Soviet Air Force grounded on the airfields, and seemed to be driving forward with great rapidity and violence. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff added, \hordes .\
I spent the day composing my statement. There was not time to consult the War Cabinet, nor was it necessary. I knew that we all felt the same on this issue. Mr. Eden, Lord Beaverbrook, and Sir Stafford Cripps – he had left Moscow on the 10th – were also with me during the day.
The following account of this Sunday at Chequers by my Private Secretary, Mr. Colville, who was on duty this weekend, may be of interest:
\Mrs. Eden, and Edward Bridges were staying. During dinner Mr. Churchill said that a German attack on Russia was now certain, and he thought that Hitler was counting on enlisting capitalist and Right Wing sympathies in this country and the U. S. A. Hitler was, however, wrong and we should go all out to help Russia. Winant said the same would be true of the U. S. A.
After dinner, when I was walking on the croquetlawn with Mr. Churchill, he revertedto this theme, and I asked whether for him, the arch anti-Communist, this was not bowing down in the House of Rimmon. Mr. Churchill replied, \nd my life is much simplified thereby. It Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons. '
I was awoken at 4 a. m. the following morning by a telephone message from the F. O. to the effect that Germany had attacked Russia. The P. M. had always said that he was never to be woken up fo
r anything but Invasion (of England). I therefore postponed telling him till 8 am. His only comment was, 'Tell the B.B.C. I will broadcast at 9 to – night. 'He began to prepare the speech at 11a. m., and except for luncheon
（= lunch）, at which Sir Stafford Cripps, Lord Cranborne, and Lord Beaverbrook were present, he devoted the whole day to it… The speech was only ready at twenty minutes to nine.\ In this broadcast I said:
\regime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism. It is devoid of all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination. It excels all forms of human wickedness in the efficiency of its cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more consistent consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty - five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past, with its crimes, its follies, and its tragedies, flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial . I see them guarding their homes where mothers and wives pray - ah, yes, for there are times when all pray – for the safety of their loved ones, the return of the bread-winner, of their champion, of their protector. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia where the means of existence is wrungso hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordialhuman joys, where maidens laugh and children play. I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking , heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents fresh from the cowing and tying down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile , brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarmof crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they believe is an easier and a safer prey.
\villainous men who plan, organise, and launch this cataract of horrors upon mankind...
\ch the great Dominions will in due concur – for we must speak out now at once, without a day's
delay. I have to make the declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one single, irrevocablepurpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us – nothing. We will never parley; we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with God's help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe... That is our policy and that is our declaration. It follows therefore that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it, as we shall faithfully and steadfastly to the end....
\ is engaged, without distinction of race, creed, or party. It is not for me to speak of the action of the United States, but this I will say
：
if Hitler imagines that his attack on Soviet Russia will cause the slightest divergence of aims or slackening of effort in the great democracies who are resolved upon his doom, he is woefully mistaken. On the contrary, we shall be fortified and encouraged in our efforts to rescue mankind from his tyranny. We shall be strengthened and not weakened in determination and in resources.
\selves to be struck down one by one, when by united action they could have saved themselves and saved the world from this tyranny. But when I spoke a few minutes ago of Hitler's blood-lust and the hateful appetites which have impelled or lured him on his Russian adventure I said there was one deeper motive behind his outrage. He wishes to destroy the Russian power because he hopes that if he succeeds in this he will be able to bring back the main strength of his Army and Air Force from the East and hurl it upon this Island, which he knows he must conquer or suffer the penalty of his crimes. His invasion of Russia is no more than a penalty to an attempted invasion of the British Isles. He hopes, no doubt, that all this may be accomplished before the winter comes, and that he can overwhelm Great Britain before the Fleet and air-power of the United States may intervene. He hopes that he may once again repeat, upon a greater scale than ever before, that process of destroying his enemies one by one by which he has so long thrived and prospered, and that then the scene will be clear for the final act, without which all his conquests would be in vain – namely, the subjugationP of the Western Hemisphere to his will and to his system.
\of any Russian fighting for his hearth ）
and home is the cause of free men and free peoples in every quarter of the globe. Let us learn the lessons already taught by such cruel experience. Let us redouble our exertions, and strike with united strength while life and power remain. \
二十二日星期天早晨，我一醒来便接到了希特勒入侵苏联的消息。这就使原先意料中的事变成了无可怀疑的事实。我完全清楚我们对此应该承担何种义务，采取何种政策。我也完全清楚该如何就此事发表声明。尚待完成的只不过是将这一切形成文字而已。于是，我吩咐有关部门立即发表通告，我将于当晚九点钟发表广播讲话。不一会儿，匆匆从伦敦赶到的迪尔将军走进我的卧室，为我带来了详细情报。德国人已大规模入侵苏联，苏联空军部队有很大一部分飞机都没来得及起飞便遭到德军的突袭。德军目前似乎正以凌厉的攻势极为迅猛地向前推进。这位皇家军队总参谋长报告完毕后又补了一句，―我估计他们将会大批地被包围。‖ 一整天我都在写讲稿，根本没有时间去找战时内阁进行磋商，也没有必要这样做。我知道我们大家在这个问题上的立场是完全一致的。艾登先生、比弗布鲁克勋爵，还有斯塔福德?克里普斯爵士——他是十号离开莫斯科回国的——那天也同我在一起。
那个周末值班的是我的私人秘书科维尔先生。由他执笔记述的下面这段关于那个星期天里切克尔斯首相官邸发生的情况的文字，也许值得一提：
―六月二十一日，星期六。晚饭前我来到切克尔斯首相官邸。怀南特夫妇、艾登夫妇和爱德华?布里奇斯等几位均在那儿。晚饭席上，邱吉尔先生说，德国人人侵苏联已是必然无疑的了。他认为希特勒是想指望博取英美两国的资本家和右冀势力的同情和支持。不过，希特勒的如意算盘打错了。我们英国将会全力以赴援助苏联。维南特表示美国也会采取同样的态度。
晚饭后，当我同邱吉尔先生在槌球场上散步时，他又一次谈到了这一话题。我当时问他，对于他这个头号反共大将来说，这种态度是否意味着改变自己的政治立场。?绝非如此。我现在的目标只有一个，即消灭希特勒。这使我的生活单纯多了。假使希特勒入侵地狱，我至少会在下议院替魔鬼说几句好话的。‘
次日清晨四点钟，我被电话铃惊醒，原来是外交部来的电话，内容是报告德国已开始进攻俄国的消息。首相一向吩咐，只有当英国遭到入侵时才可以叫醒他。因此，我等到八点钟才向他报告这一消息。他听完消息后只说了一句话：?通知英国广播电台，我今晚九点要发表广播讲话。‘他从上午十一点开始撰写讲稿，中间除与斯塔福德．克里普斯爵士、克兰伯恩勋爵和比弗布鲁克勋爵共进午餐外，这一天的全部时间都花在写讲稿上了……讲稿直到九点差二十分才写好。‖
在这次广播讲话中，我说道：
―纳粹政体与共产主义的最糟糕之处毫无两样。除了贪欲和种族统治外，它没有任何指导思想和行动准则。它在残酷压迫和疯狂侵略过程中所犯下的滔天罪行在人类历史上可谓空前绝后。在过去的二十五年中，我比任何人都更坚定而始终如一地反对共产主义。过去对共产主义所作的批评我仍然一句也不想收回。但现在展现在我们面前的景象已经将那一切冲得烟消云散了。过去的一切，连同它的种种罪恶、蠢行和悲剧全都从眼前乍然消失。此刻我眼前看到的是俄国的士兵昂然挺立于自己的国土，英勇地捍卫着他们祖祖辈辈自古以来一直辛勤耕耘着的土地。我看到他们正在守卫着自己的家园，在那里母亲和妻子正在向上帝祈祷——是啊，任何人都总有祈祷的时候——祈求上帝保佑她们的亲人的平安，并保佑她们的壮劳力、她们的勇士和保护者凯旋归来。我看见成千上万的俄国村庄，那儿的人们虽然要靠在土地上辛勤耕作才能勉强维持生计，却依然能够享受到天伦之乐，那儿的姑娘在欢笑，儿童在嬉戏。我看到这一切正面临着凶暴的袭击，正杀气腾腾地扑向他们的是纳粹的战争机器同它的那些全副武装、刀剑当当有声、皮靴咚咚作响的普鲁士军官以及它的那些奸诈无比、刚刚帮它征服并奴役了十多个国家的帮凶爪牙。我还看到那些呆头呆脑、训练有素、既驯服听话又凶残野蛮的德国士兵像一群蝗虫般地向前蠕动着。我看见天空中那些屡遭英军痛击、余悸未消的德国轰炸机和战斗机此时正庆幸终于找到他们以为是无力反抗、可手到即擒的猎物。 ―在这些刀光剑影、腥风血雨的场面背后，我看到一小撮恶棍在那里策划、组