The Day We Went to War (13 page)

‘Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye.’ Teachers and children from the Robert Montefiore School, Hanbury Street, Whitechapel on their way to evacuation, 1 September 1939.

10.00am (11.00am), P
OLISH
P
OST
O
FFICE
, H
EVELIUSPLATZ
, D
ANZIG

The defenders of the Polish Post Office are forced to surrender. Six have been killed in the fighting and another six are mortally wounded. Four others have managed to escape. The rest are going to be shot as
francs-tireurs.

10.15am, W
HITEHALL

With the news of the German invasion of Poland confirmed, the Defence Policy Plans Committee of the Cabinet decide on the total mobilisation of the British armed forces.

10.15am, C
ITY OF
L
ONDON

‘We have just heard that the Free City of Danzig has just returned to the Reich. If this is true there is no more to say. We are in it to the neck and over . . . the beastly and disgusting machinery of war is slowly turning, and I expect we will be in full blast almost immediately. Well, we have, we are told, brought it on ourselves by our evil and careless living, by our disregard of everything and everyone, our lack of thought, but I feel that we haven’t had much of a chance! The last war, so pathetically labelled the war to end war; what did it bring to either side? Nothing of value, only a legacy of misery and uncertainty. And what of this one – will it really be as bad as we are led to believe? Can’t any of us hope for some future? It seems not.’ (Vivienne Hall)

At the end of his speech to the Reichstag on 1 September 1939, the deputies ‘declare their unshakeable loyalty to the Fuehrer in the name of the German people’.

The beginning of
Blitzkrieg.
Men of the German 76th Motorised Infantry Regiment attacking the village of Lichnowy, 10.00am, Friday, 1 September 1939.

10.30am, E
LYSéE
P
ALACE
, P
ARIS

The French Council of Ministers meet. They agree to ask the National Assembly for a declaration of war and for a vote of funds to fight it. Foreign minister Georges Bonnet then meets with Polish ambassador Juliusz Lukasiewicz and tells him, without going into specifics, ‘France will fulfil all her obligations.’

10.30am, B
ROADCASTING
H
OUSE
, L
ANGHAM
P
LACE

In the day’s first news bulletin, the BBC reports the German invasion of Poland.

10.30am, F
OREIGN
O
FFICE
, W
HITEHALL

Oliver Harvey, private secretary to Lord Halifax, hears that the chiefs of staff want to declare tonight, ‘and get at Germany as soon as possible’. By 6pm, Harvey learns, ‘the children will have been evacuated’.

Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax receives Polish ambassador Count Edward Raczynski. The ambassador tells Halifax that German troops have crossed the frontier at a number of places. Polish towns have also been bombed. Raczynski also tells the Foreign Secretary that, in his opinion, British should now implement its guarantee to his country. Halifax replies cautiously. Provided the facts are as stated he does not suppose the Government will differ from the Polish ambassador’s conclusion.

11.00am (12.00pm), R
EICH
C
HANCELLERY
, B
ERLIN

Hitler returns after delivering his speech to the Reichstag. He is exhausted and bathed in sweat. He takes a hot bath and Dr Morrell prescribes him an Ultraseptyl for the relief of inflammation.

11.00am, P
HOENIX
T
HEATRE
, C
HARING
C
ROSS
R
OAD

The cast of Noël Coward’s two new plays,
This Happy Breed
and
Present Laughter
, due to open in just over a week’s time, assemble on the stage. They have known that, if war came, the plays would not open. But, ‘like everybody else, they had been hoping all along for a miracle to happen’. Now they all say goodbye to each other and make ‘cheerful false prophecies for the future’.

French premier Edouard Daladier
(third from the right, holding a cigarette)
and his ministers emerge from the Elysée Palace, 1 September 1939. They have decided on general mobilisation, and have just heard that Italy will not be joining the war on Germany’s side.

11.00am, B
ISHOP’S
S
TORTFORD
, H
ERTFORDSHIRE

Moyra Charlton motors in from Takeley to have her car oiled and greased. She finds the town ‘is very crowded and glum with news that has just come through that Germany has bombed Poland. They started at 5.30 this morning. Oh, that insufferable Hitler.’

11.00–11.40am, T
EDDINGTON

‘Dull morning, bright eleven o’clock. Dull again 11.40. German Embassy in London burnt their secret papers. I should say they need to – they must be pretty damning evidence of Hitler’s diabolic intentions.’ (Helena Mott)

11.00am (12.00pm), A
DLON
H
OTEL
, U
NTER
D
EN
L
INDEN
, B
ERLIN

American radio correspondent Max Jordan is in the Adlon bar at the table with a group of Germans. All are less-than-enthusiastic Nazis. One, an officer on the general staff, tells Jordan that the invasion of Poland this morning is just ‘the beginning of World War II’. Another, a countess whose husband is in von Ribbentrop’s ministry, is ‘almost beside herself’. Without bothering to keep her voice down, she tells the American, ‘Oh, if the British would only come tonight and destroy this whole city! Smash everything and us, too! What would it matter, if only these mad dogs could be stopped!’

11.00am (12.00pm), R
EICH
C
HANCELLERY
, B
ERLIN

Outside the Chancellery there is a crowd of only fifty or sixty Berliners. There are a few shouts from them for the Fuehrer to come out on the balcony. Hitler does not appear, but two windows
away, in a part of the building being decorated, three painters in white caps lean out of the window and stare inanely at the crowd.

11.30am, O
XFORD
S
TREET
, L
ONDON

Fashion writer Florence Speed sees newspaper placards announcing the German invasion of Poland. ‘For half a second’ she feels relieved, but then full realisation of what it means begins to sink in.

11.30am, 10 D
OWNING
S
TREET
, W
HITEHALL

The Cabinet meets. Chamberlain tells his ministers that they are meeting under ‘the gravest possible conditions . . . the event against which we had fought so long and so earnestly had come upon us. But our consciences are clear, and there could be no possible question now where our duty lies.’ The Cabinet orders initial preparations for war to be put in operation. Among them are the decentralisation of Smithfield meat and Billingsgate fish markets.

11.30am, B
OLTON
T
OWN
H
ALL
, L
ANCASHIRE

A women passer-by has just heard the news that Hitler has invaded Poland. She tells an observer from Mass Observation: ‘Well, I hope we knock hell out of him now. They said he couldn’t start a war. You don’t know what to expect when a madman is at the head of affairs.’

12.00pm, B
OLTON

A group of building workers discuss the news from Poland. All are agreed that ‘Hitler is a villain.’ One of them believes, ‘There won’t be a scrap of Germany left after the war. All the countries will get a bit.’ Another agrees, ‘Yes, this treaty will be worse than Versailles.’ But one of them keeps reiterating, ‘But the German people don’t want war, we must help them to get rid of Hitler.’

12.00pm, R
ADIOLYMPIA
, O
LYMPIA
E
XHIBITION
H
ALL

A Mickey Mouse cartoon is being televised. Mickey, imitating Greta Garbo, has just said, ‘Ah tink ah go home,’ but now, without warning, the screens have gone blank.

12.00pm, G
OODWOOD
G
OLF
C
OURSE

Alfred Duff Cooper, who resigned from the Cabinet over Munich last September, has finished a round of golf. In the bar, the club secretary calmly tells him that ‘Hitler started on Poland this morning.’ To Duff Cooper the news comes as a relief. Back home in Bognor, he receives a message that the Commons will be meeting at 6pm this evening. ‘In pretty good spirits’, he then enjoys ‘an excellent luncheon of lobster and cold grouse’, washed down with Montrachet 1924 and Château Yquem 1921.

12.00pm, BBC T
ELEVISION
S
TUDIOS
, A
LEXANDRA
P
ALACE

Val Gielgud, the Head of Drama, is rehearsing James Mason and the rest of the cast of Somerset Maugham’s
The Circle
. It is due to be broadcast live on Sunday night. The telephone rings, and Gielgud learns that, due to the ‘emergency’, the television service has been suspended.

12.00pm, C
ITY OF
L
ONDON

‘Rumours, posters announcing “Poland attacked by Germany”. Rumours of the bombing of Warsaw with 3,000 casualties. God, what a world to live in. The highest drama in films and plays about the last war is not exaggerated. The sight of a newspaper brings a rush to read it, newspaper men are running round the streets, reaping a harvest, everyone feels sick but we are making even more jokes about the whole business. Here we are stuck in the City with very little chance of getting home as the evacuation will, I suppose, be in full swing all day. Someone wished me a happy month, this 1st September!!’ (Vivienne Hall)

12.00pm (1.00pm), P
OLSKIE
R
ADIO
, W
ARSAW

President of the Republic Ignace Moscicki broadcasts to the Polish people. He tells them that war with Germany has broken out.