"I do not at all under-rate the severity of the ordeal which lies before us, but I believe our countrymen will show themselves capable of standing up to it like the brave men of Barcelona"
From 18 June 1940 "Finest Hour" speech by Winston Churchill June 1940
Yet, Churchill had backed Franco and argued against intervention in Spain and had given full support for fascist Italy
“with her ardent Fascisti, her renowned Chief, and stern sense of national duty,” and even more so on Mussolini, whom he saw as “the Roman genius…the greatest lawgiver among living men.”
Cartoon
Note the famous Neville Chamberlin umbrella (which had become a byline for German appeasement)
