Re: the radio "fight them on the beaches speech" ... I seem to recall it revealed in the past year or so that it wasn't actually delivered by Sir Winston himself, but by an actor who often did "voice double" work for the P.M. when he wasn't available.   Anyone else remember hearing this on NPR?

Air-Geko

On June 4, 1940, less than a month into his first term as Prime Minister and after the extraordinary evacuation of hundreds of thousands of British (and French and Belgian) fighting men at Dunkirk, Churchill addressed the House of Commons. His speech, broadcast to a rallied British nation, would be his most famous.

Legend has it that during a pause in recording the speech, Churchill muttered, "and we'll beat the bastards about the head with bottles, because that's about all we've got."

Update:
It has since been determined that Norman Shelley didn't broadcast any of Churchill's speeches. The famous "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech was never broadcast on the BBC in its entirety.

If Shelley recorded the speech on 7 September 1942, as the record label says, why did he do it? Churchill originally delivered the speech to the House of Commons over two years earlier, and did not broadcast it at that time (portions were read by a BBC announcer). Churchill did record the speech himself - at Chartwell after the war - and it was ultimately released by Decca Records. Assuming the label to be correct, the time lag makes it clear that Shelley did not record the speech to be broadcast when German invasion was imminent. So perhaps it was intended to be used subsequently in a propaganda film. It will be interesting to see what emerges from tests carried out on the record. If the recording turns out to be genuine, it may prove that Shelley was used during the war as a Churchill voice double. But it is a huge leap to say that, just because there is evidence he recorded this Churchill speech in 1942, that he delivered BBC broadcasts in the summer of 1940.
What then was Sensimetrics analyzing? According to scholar Stephen Bungay, writing in FINEST HOUR 112 (Autumn 2001), the British Council asked Churchill to record the "Beaches" speech after the war: "Churchill suggested they use an actor instead. Shelley did the recording, Churchill heard it, was much amused, and gave his approval....It is not known for sure when, if at all, his recording was used." We may be fairly sure that Sensimetrics used it...

The Executive Committee of the Churchill Center

All this while we could not feel any assurance that the inlets and river mouths from Calais to Terschelling and Heligoland, with all that swarm of islands off the Dutch and German coasts, might not conceal other large hostile forces with small or moderate-sized ships.  An attack from Harwich right round to Portsmouth, Portland or even Plymouth, centering on the Kent promontary, seemed to impend.

We now entered upon a period of extreme tension and vigilance.....

Enigma - the German coding device.

I don't know whether that's what they called it or that's what the Allies called it but it fits.