by Max Arthur
The day war was declared, the admiral called us together in the wardroom and gave us champagne and gave us a toast - 'Damnation to Hitler'.
No one wanted to admit that another European conflict was inevitable - the horror of the last war was such that, to some, almost any compromise would be acceptable to avoid conflict again. In 1938, however, Hitler's foreign policy became more aggressive and he made plans to annexe parts of Czechoslovakia. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to discuss Czechoslovakia with the German, French and Italian leaders, and returned having agreed to cede the disputed Sudetenland area to Germany, with a promise of 'Peace for our time'.
However, as 1939 dawned, the Allies began to prepare for war in earnest. Hitler continued his steady drive to take over Europe, unperturbed by any signed agreements, and his troops invaded Czechoslovakia in March. By mid-May, Hitler had joined with Italy in 'The Pact of Steel', and revoked the non-aggression pact with Poland, reaching an agreement with Stalin in August as to how they would partition Poland. The Polish Army mobilised as Hitler's sent a force of some 750,000 men into Poland on 1 September. Britain and France honoured their obligation to their ally, and declared war on Germany on 3 September.
Britain's army at the outbreak of war had been boosted by the introduction of conscription for the first time during peace - but it was still an under-manned, under-equipped British Expeditionary Force that sailed for France on 9 September.
On land there was no full-scale fighting. There were naval confrontations when on the night of 3 September U-30 sank the British passenger liner Athenia, and the navy sank U-39 in the Atlantic. As 1939 drew to a close, Poland had been divided between Germany and Russia, and Soviet forces had invaded Finland, but Europe seemed to hold its breath. A strange sense of anticlimax reigned.
The Outbreak of War
Young men joined up, many before conscription reached them - and women too embraced a new life in the forces. Those who remembered the previous conflict, however, saw bleak times ahead. Gas had proved a deadly weapon in the trenches - and the prospect now was that it could be inflicted on the civilian population. Gas masks were issued to the public, air-raid sirens were tested, Air Raid Precautions demanded that full black-out be achieved during hours of darkness, and people dug up their gardens to erect air-raid shelters. After a flurry of sand-bagging and bomb-proofing, there was an atmosphere of fearful anticipation. Western Europe waited for the first action, and hoped fervently that the troops would be home before Christmas.
Evelyn White
Civilian in Birmingham
I remember vividly 'peace in our time' - Neville Chamberlain coming back from Munich. We thought, 'Thank God, it's going to be peace. It's not going to be war.' But of course, events proved wrong. I began thinking, 'Is it going to be like the First World War?' when thousands of men were killed. In a way, they were human fodder. I thought, 'Is it going to be a repeat? What's going to happen to my brothers?'
Muriel Tucker
Civilian, aged 13, in London
I remember the bother with Czechoslovakia, and we thought there was going to be a war. My father certainly did - and we were quite prepared for it. Then of course it all blew over temporarily, and I remember Dad bought us a dolly each to celebrate, because it seemed as if it was going to be all right - and of course, it wasn't.
Frederick Winterbotham
Secret Intelligence Service
We had an agreement with our man in Warsaw that he would let us know the moment hostilities started. And I think it was when the first bomb dropped on Warsaw that he got through to us at once - and I had the signal brought in to me and I was sleeping in the office, of course, at the time. I had the pleasure of ringing up the Secretary to the Cabinet, who was sleeping at that time, and happened to be a friend of mine. I said, 'I've got a job for you. War has broken out and I think you'd better advise the cabinet.' I won't repeat his language at the other end, because he didn't get another wink of sleep that night. But we were now at war. Chamberlain talked about the subject on the radio a few days later.
Dorothy Williams
Teenager at outbreak of war
It was a very anxious time. My parents followed the events very closely, so when we knew that war could break out - I think it was 11 o'clock in the morning - we were really keyed up. I was frightened. We didn't know what was ahead. We had relatives who had been badly gassed. Father said if the Germans ever landed, he would kill us all rather than us ever fall into their hands. That frightened us a little bit too - we didn't know which was going to be the worse of the two. Oh yes, he meant it. He had been right through the previous war and he had seen a lot.
We had to go to a hall in the village and collect our gas masks. I never found mine very comfortable. For babies there were the big gas masks in which the child lay. I know my baby sister was absolutely terrified of it. I don't know what would have happened if she had remained in it for a long time because she was so frightened. She screamed the place down and went quite blue in the face. Of course we had to carry them everywhere we went in those little cardboard boxes with a piece of string attached. We never moved without them. I took mine with me until I joined up.
Doris Scott
Civilian from Canning Town, East London
I was terrified of what would happen, since I had been through the First World War, and had had to take shelter in a chapel on the corner of the street where we lived. The air power of the First World War wasn't anything like that of 1939, but those raids were frightening enough. The possibility of war was really frightening, especially with two young children.
