Winston Churchill 20 August, 1940

The great air battle which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth.... It is quite plain that Herr Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain without sustaining most serious injury. If after all his boastings and bloodcurdling threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the world of the damage he has inflicted, of the vast numbers of our Air Force he has shot down, so he says, with so little loss to himself ...if after all this his whole air onslaught were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Fuhrer's reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength to do so...

[...]

...It must also be remembered that all the enemy machines and pilots which are shot down over our Island, or over the seas which surround it, are either destroyed or captured; whereas a considerable proportion of our machines, and also of our pilots, are saved, and soon again in many cases come into action... We believe that we shall be able to continue the air struggle indefinitely and as long as the enemy pleases.

[...]

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain...

attain - osiągnąć

put forth an effort - włożyć wysiłek

admit defeat - przyznać się do klęski

sustain injuries - odnieść rany

boastings and bloodcurdling threats - przechwalanie się i mrożące krew w żyłach groźby

inflict damage - zadać straty

to peter out tamely - tu: grzecznie się wycofać

veracity - prawdziwość, prawdomówność

impugn - podważyć, zakwestionować

lurid accounts trumpeted round the world - szokujące opowieści rozpowszechniane po całym świecie

as long as the enemy pleases - tak długo, jak wróg sobie życzy

abode - siedziba

undaunted by odds - niewzruszeni nierównymi szansami

turn the tide of war - odwrócić losy wojny

prowess - męstwo

unflinching zeal - niezmordowany entuzjazm

Cały tekst: http://wyborcza.pl/1,140601,17021958,Nigdy_tak_wielu_nie_zawdzieczalo_tak_wiele_tak_nielicznym.html#ixzz3K3H81l9p