Defeat of Hitler remains greatest chapter in our island nation's story (2025)

RAF pilots posed together in iconic Second World War shot (Image: Popperfoto via Getty)

In his most inspiring wartime speech, delivered in August 1940, Winston Churchill declared that if Britain prevailed in the epic quest for survival against Germany, future generations would say: “This was their Finest Hour.” As the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe approaches, Churchill’s phrase continues to resonate as powerfully as ever. The defeat of Hitler’s regime is widely regarded as the greatest chapter in our island story.

In this narrative of glory, a profound sense of pride and admiration is evoked by the heroic images of that conflict, like the Arctic convoys braving icy temperatures to deliver supplies to our Soviet ally, or the troops of the 8th Army racing across the desert in pursuit of the broken German Afrika Corps in late 1942, or the Spitfires taking to the skies against the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Central to this emotional resonance is the portrayal of Britain as the brave underdog, standing alone in 1940 against the Reich’s mighty war machine. What Britain had on its side was a sense of moral purpose.

Because of the Nazis’ murderous, genocidal authoritarianism, this was no ordinary military encounter. On the contrary, it represented the eternal fight between good and evil. It was a new version of the classic myth of Saint George slaying the Dragon, the chivalrous tale of King Arthur translated into the modern world. And the Daily Express was at the heart of a different but also critical kind of battle – for public opinion. A generation of brilliant journalists like Clare Hollingworth, Alan Moorehead and Alaric Jacob used all of their skill and passion to report the news whilst also spreading confidence amongst the paper’s five-million-strong daily readership.

It was said that even the King and Queen turned to the Express rather than The Times when they wanted to understand public opinion. Australian-born Moorehead was a renowned foreign correspondent whose reporting of the war, from campaigns in the Middle East and North Africa to the liberation of Europe, won international acclaim. He was twice mentioned in despatches. Jacob spent two years with the British 8th Army in North Africa, later reporting from Tehran, Egypt, India and Burma.

Wartime PM Winston Churchill flashing is famous V-sign (Image: Getty)

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The moral dimension of good versus evil reinforced the bonds of solidarity and mutual trust, which meant that the British people never buckled, not even at the height of the Blitz. Wartime Britain was a place of political unity, symbolised by the decision of the Labour Party under Clement Attlee to join Churchill’s Coalition in May 1940. The Prime Minister did not exaggerate when he boasted “my government is the most broad-based Britain has ever known”.

Unity was further promoted by the introduction of food, clothes and petrol rationing to ensure that burdens were shared equally across society. Although the label “total war” was often applied to the 1914-18 conflict, the fight against the Reich was the first truly to engage all sections of society. The front line stretched from farms in Wales, where the Land Girls worked, to pubs in Hampshire, which were commandeered for the dispersed production of Spitfires.

The British state showed remarkable efficiency in carrying out vast logistical exercises, including the evacuation of children from the cities and the creation of a new, female-dominated workforce to manufacture tanks, planes, weapons and munitions. D-Day, the biggest amphibious operation in history, was an incredible feat of planning – made all the more astonishing by the fact its details never leaked. Just as striking was the British gift for innovation, reflected in how brilliant experts pioneered the jet engine, developed radar, cracked the Germans’ enigma code using the world’s first computer and conceived the bouncing bomb used by the Dambusters in May 1943 – a raid of extreme daring.

Britain was unique in being the only major power to fight right through the war, from the German attack on Poland in 1939 to the surrender of Imperial Japan in 1945. It was a record that added to the legend of the “Finest Hour”. But for much of the world’s population, especially those living under a German or Japanese occupier, the war was mankind’s “darkest hour”.

Churchill and cabinet colleagues, VE Day in London on May 8, 1945 (Image: Getty)

• From looting to oppression, the 'Blitz spirit' hid a mass of contradictions
• How the SAS liberated Bergen-Belsen and discovered a Nazi run hell

In their aggressive megalomania, the Axis powers ripped apart our civilisation and plunged mankind into an earthly hell of unparalleled cruelty, epitomised by the Holocaust. Altogether, it is estimated that 38 million civilians died in the conflict, along with 15 million military personnel.

From Japanese prisoner-of-war camps to the killing fields around Stalingrad, the inhumanity was almost unimaginable.

Despite its noble idealism, our country had its share of failures, humiliations and moral compromises during the war. At the end of 1941 and in the early months of 1942, for instance, our Armed Forces suffered a run of setbacks, including the fall of Tobruk, the surrenderof Singapore, defeat on Crete, the sinking of two capital ships by Japan and the escapeof part of the German fleet through the English Channel.

British military leadership was not always of the highest quality. Only Bernard Montgomery and Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, emerged as outstanding generals during the war. Harold Alexander, who led the Italian campaign, was limited as a strategist. The Royal Navy chief Sir Dudley Pound wasin decline for much of the conflict, whileSir Arthur Harris, Head of Bomber Command – though dynamic and brave – undermined his authority with his obsession with hitting German civilians rather than industrial targets.

No one knew better than the PM that the Allies had to be ruthless. Indeed, had they been bolder in standing up to Hitler in the late 1930s rather than trying to appease him, war might have been avoided. On the other hand, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain could justifiably argue that neither Britain nor France were in a position to fight in 1938, and appeasement bought time to modernise their armed forces.

It is also fashionable to declare that the war taught us the importance of challenging “fascism” and giving no quarter to the “Far Right”. This mentality has fuelled the fixation with diversity that dominates European civic culture, where attempts to uphold borders or strengthen sovereignty are often denounced for showing the taint of Nazism.

This has created the supreme irony that, in the name of tolerance, European governments have encouraged the settlement of millions of newcomers from countries in Asia and Africa where antisemitism is rife.

The real lesson is that Britain went to war – not to fight a political dogma but to defend our freedom and nationhood. Whatever the social justice warriors think, Britain’s wartime heroics were an exercise in patriotism.

• Our 11-part Second World War series runs daily in Daily and Sunday Express until May 5, with a final eight-page pullout on the 80th anniversary of VE Day on May 8. Collect them all