Churchill in the War
ACTIVITY 1
Get ready to brainstorm and make hypotheses.
a. Listen and tell the class what the sounds you hear remind you of.
b. Fill in the spidergram below to organise your ideas.
c. Look at the pictures and add some more words related to the situation you see.
d. Use the information in the spidergram to make sentences about the situation using
may, might, could or would.
People must have been… • I guess they could… •
A plane might have…
ACTIVITY 2
A. Group A – Read the text and answer the questions.
1. Based on Activity 1, deduce what the RAF and the Luftwaffe are.
2. Pick out the two adjectives in Paragraph 1 that describe Hitler's state of
mind. Find the consequence it had.
3. Analyse the Germans’ strategy.
a. Former target(s) and new target(s):
b. Reasons for the change:
c. Expected results:
d. Duration of the bombings: ___________________________________
4. Using the text, define "the Blitz".
5. Did what actually happened match Goering's expectations?
6. Get ready to recap what you have learnt so far to your partner from the other
group.
B. Group B – Read the text and answer the questions.
1. What was remarkable about the attack?
___________________________________________________________ 2. Using
the context, give a definition of "dogfight".
3. What did the British fear?
4. List the consequences the air raids had. Deduce the meaning of "beacon".
5. Analyse Churchill's metaphor. Imagine the effect it produced on the general
public.
6. Get ready to recap what you have learnt so far to your partner from the other
group.
ACTIVITY 3
Look at the pictures and complete.
1. In your opinion, what were these rooms used for? Who used them?
2. In pairs, think of the advantages and drawbacks of such a place.
Advantages
Drawbacks
3. Imagine the state of mind of the people who worked there.
The staff working there must have felt… • They may have… •
For the leaders of the country, it might have been…
4. Get ready to report your ideas to the class.
ACTIVITY 4
A. Group A – Listen to the interview about Churchill's war rooms and complete.
1. Pick out the dates mentioned. What do they correspond to?
2. Why were the rooms established?
3. List the places mentioned. What do they have in common?
4. What decision was taken? According to the speaker, was this a good
decision? Prove your point with one word from the recording.
5. How prepared were the Germans? Where did they get their information?
6. What did Churchill do there? Did it last long?
B. Group B – Listen to the interview about Churchill's war rooms and complete.
1. Where did Churchill take his visitors? Why?
2. Pick out the words that describe the rooms as they were then.
3. Name the two positions Churchill occupied.
4. The decisions
a. Made by:
b. On the basis of:
c. Type of decisions:
d. The most important decision made there was:
ACTIVITY 5
A. GROUP A. Analyse Churchill's rhetoric in the speech below.
1. Find all the examples of repetition. What is their aim and what effect do they
produce?
2. Analyse the use of positive and negative ideas in the first part. What impression do
they make?
3. What modal is used several times in the last part? Why did he use that one?
4. Get ready to recap what you have learnt so far to your partner from the other
group.
This is not a question of fighting for Danzig or fighting for
Poland. We are fighting to save the whole world from the
pestilence of Nazi tyranny and in defence of all that is most
sacred to man. This is no war of domination or imperial
aggrandisement or material gain; no war to shut any country
out of its sunlight and means of progress. It is a war, viewed in
its inherent quality, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the
rights of the individual, and it is a war to establish and revive
the stature of man. Perhaps it might seem a paradox that a war
undertaken in the name of liberty and right should require, as a
necessary part of its processes, the surrender for the time
being of so many of the dearly valued liberties and rights. In
these last few days the House of Commons has been voting
dozens of Bills which hand over to the executive our most
dearly valued traditional liberties. We are sure that these
liberties will be in hands which will not abuse them, which will
use them for no class or party interests, which will cherish and
guard them, and we look forward to the day, surely and
confidently we look forward to the day, when our liberties and
rights will be restored to us, and when we shall be able to
September
Commons,
share them with3,
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peoplesHouse
to whom of
such
blessings are at the outbreak of World War II.
www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill
unknown.
B. GROUP B. Analyse Churchill's rhetoric in the speech in the next column.
1. Find all the repetitions. What is their aim and the effect they produce?
2. Why do you think Churchill keeps asking questions all through his speech?
3. List the references to universal values. What effect is created?
4. Get ready to recap what you have learnt so far to your partner from the other
group.
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We
have before us many, many long months of struggle and of
suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage
war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the
strength that God can give us; to wage war against a
monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable
catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is
May 13, 1940, First Speech
our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all
Prime Minister to House of
costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and
Commons.
hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no
survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival
for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move
forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy
and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail
among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all,
www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill
and I say, "Come then, let us go forward together with our
united strength."
as
C. Listen to Churchill delivering one of his most famous speeches at:
www.bbc.co.uk/learning/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/speeches/churchill_fin
est_hour.
1. Pay attention to when his voice rises and when it falls.
2. The pace of his delivery: what words are followed by a pause?
3. Read the paragraph you studied in A or B out loud, rehearsing your delivery skills.
ACTIVITY 6
Write a speech and deliver it to the nation.
Use all the elements you have studied to write a vibrant speech to urge your fellow
citizens to keep fighting. Describe the situation you are in, list the potential
consequences of a lack of action and give the reasons why the fight must go on.
Enthrall your audience by using rhetorical devices and a delivery that will galvanise
them.
ACTIVITY 7
Reflecting about the syllabus notions – Lieux et formes du pouvoir.
1. Consider the following questions:
a. To what extent does a place shape the power exercised in it?
b. Do we always need extraordinary people in extraordinary situations?
c. Is real power always embodied in just one person?
2. Work in groups of four and prepare a five-minute oral presentation on the notion
Power: types and places.
a. Two of you will proceed as follows:
Focus on one of the issues above – use what you have learnt in the previous
activities to illustrate your answer – finish with a wider definition of the notion.
b. The other two will proceed as follows:
Start with a series of examples from the preceding activities – explain how they relate
to the notion – use them to tackle one of the issues above and answer the question.
c. Exchange views on the advantages and drawbacks of both methods.