In his most trying times, Winston Churchill rose to the challenge.

At 65, after seeming politically dead, Churchill (1874-1965) fulfilled his goal of becoming Britain's prime minister in May 1940.

He had no time to celebrate.

Britain had turned to him with its survival at stake as Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, fresh off invading Poland in September 1939, aimed its war machine at it.

And the Allies deteriorated that spring of '40 . France also was overrun by the Nazis, and the British expeditionary force had to be evacuated from Dunkirk.

The Battle of Britain and the Nazi Blitz over London raged while America watched from afar.

In October 1941, Churchill addressed students at his alma mater, Harrow School, hoping to boost his countrymen's outlook. Speaking in the context of the war, the prime minister shared his philosophy of resiliency.

"Surely from this period ... this is the lesson: Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy," he said.

Speaking Out

Churchill's speeches to Parliament and his larger audience "served to hearten the resistance in Western Europe and to help turn popular and political opinion in America. The true level of the danger was never glossed over, but rather presented as a challenge to which Britain and her allies would rise," Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Center in England, told IBD.

By 1945, Churchill had led Britain in its comeback, achieving victory in World War II with his nation's Allies, most notably the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Driven by a zeal developed in his youth to become a great leader, he is remembered as "the only British politician of the 20th century to become an enduring national hero," wrote Paul Addison in "Churchill: The Unexpected Hero." Churchill, who "had been written off as too dangerous and irresponsible for the premiership," became England's "greatest war leader and statesman since Chatham (William Pitt of the 1700s)."

The contemporary historian A.L. Rowse called Churchill the "savior of his country."

In a 2002 poll conducted by the BBC on the 100 greatest Britons, Churchill ranked first.

Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, lauded his subject's perseverance: "So often knocked down, so often marginalized, so often out of power, out of office, Churchill never gave up."