I’ve just learned from a post at the BOBHS forum that yesterday was the day when the phrase “the Few” was invented, the one used by Winston Chruchill in his immortal speech:

“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Although the speech took place in the House of Commons on 20th August 1940, Churchill reportedly first uttered the same phrase four days aerlier, after his visit at 11 Group’s operations room and moved by what he witnessed. Athough Churchill never admitted it, it may have been inspired at least in part by Shakespeare’s Henry V St. Crispin’s Day speech.

“We few, we happy few,
we band of brothers…
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day”

“The Few” has ever since become the name of the airmen of Fighter Command who won the Battle of Britain.

Actually they were not so few of “the few”. In fact nearly 3,000 men were awarded the Battle of Britain Clasp. However, in military terms it was a puny manpower – well below a force of but one infantry division, so Churchill was absolutely right saying that their feat saving the fate of a nation was without precedence in history.

As of 2009, fewer than 90 of the surviving Few are still with us. Hats off to them all.