Britain's finest hour In the summer of 1940, darkness was falling over Europe. The Soviet Union had formed an unholy alliance with Nazi Germany. Norway was all but occupied. And France would soon be overrun by Germans. In July, only Great Britain remained as the last defence against Europe under the swastika's brutal arms. But Britain was no longer the invincible empire that had subjugated more than a fifth of the Earth's landmass over the previous 400 years, and the Battle of Britain would prove to be the British Empire's last moment of glory. Led by Winston Churchill, the British rediscovered the virtues that had made a humble people the rulers of the world. Ingenuity, resourcefulness and – above all – indomitable courage enabled the Royal Air Force to take on the Luftwaffe and hold off the Germans. In June 1940, Winston Churchill called the battle Britain's "finest hour", and he was right. The British Empire would not survive for long after World War II, but the Battle of Britain was its magnificent swansong, and the thousands of British lives lost saved Europe from Nazi tyranny.