Be Ye Men of Valour was a wartime speech made in a BBC broadcast on 19 May 1940 by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. It was his first speech to the nation as Prime Minister, and came nine days after his appointment, during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

in the second year of World War II. The speech concludes with a quotation from the Apocrypha, which supplies the phrase by which the speech became known:

Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be. : — Taken from
1 Maccabees The First Book of Maccabees, also known as First Maccabees (written in shorthand as 1 Maccabees or 1 Macc.), is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymousRappaport, U., ''47. 1 Maccabees'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)The Oxford Bible Comme ...
3:58–60

Trivia

* Samples of the speech are featured in Dutch

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

band Within Temptation's song " Our Solemn Hour". The phrase "a solemn hour" is also included in the actual speech's beginning. An altered speech is used in their album '' Black Symphony'' where "the Germans" was replaced by "the enemy". Samples of the speech are also featured in Jay Electronica's song "Call of Duty" featuring

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American hip hop duo from New York City. The duo consisted of rappers Prodigy and Havoc. They are considered to be among the principal progenitors of hardcore East Coast hip hopEdwards, Paul, 2009, ''How to Rap: The Art & Scien ...

. Another sample of the speech can also be heard on the track "Unnatural Selection" on the metal opera album ''

01011001 ''01011001'' is the seventh studio album by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's long-running Ayreon project. "01011001" is the binary representation of the ASCII value of the letter '' Y''. ''01011001'' is a concept album that tells the story of aliens ca ...

'' from Arjen Anthony Lucassen's project Ayreon.

External links

Churchill Society: Text of "Be Ye Men of Valour"
{{Winston Churchill 1940 in radio 1940 in the United Kingdom 1940 speeches British political phrases (pre-1950) English phrases May 1940 events Speeches by Winston Churchill World War II speeches May 1940 events in the United Kingdom 1940 quotations Political quotes

Trivia

See also

External links