The Day We Went to War (5 page)

Dr Emile Hacha
(left)
arrives in Berlin to receive, at Hitler’s hands, ‘the old tested methods of political tactics’, 14 March 1939.

‘If you apply a bit of pressure, things happen.’ Lithuanian and German foreign ministers, Juozas Urbsys and Joachim von Ribbentrop
(seated left to right),
sign the formal agreement transferring Memel and district to the Reich, 22 March 1939.

22 March, W
ORTHING

‘Memel now under German Nazi rule. The ultimatum was delivered to Lithuania last night and accepted tonight – another “bloodless victory”(?)’ (Joan Strange)

24 March, B
ERLIN

It is announced that any German who listens to foreign radio broadcasts and spreads the news contained in them is now liable to five years’ imprisonment.

23 March, M
EMEL

Hitler arrives in the port on the pocket battleship
Deutschland
. Since leaving Swinemuende yesterday, the Fuehrer has suffered from severe seasickness. He only spends three hours in the newly ‘liberated’ territory, before returning to Berlin. Hitler nonchalantly tells his SS manservant Heinz Linge, ‘we now perform these trifles as a matter of course’.

27 March, L
ONDON

Chamberlain tells his cabinet that he is prepared to offer Poland a unilateral guarantee of her independence. The Prime Minister believes that Poland is going to be Hitler’s next objective and he hopes that a guarantee will both deter the Fuehrer and stiffen the Poles in their resistance to Nazi demands.

28 March, M
ADRID

The Spanish capital finally falls to General Franco’s forces. Throughout the Civil War, Franco has had the support of Italian ‘volunteers’ and Germany’s Condor Legion of airmen and armoured troops.

28 March, W
ARSAW

Polish foreign minister Beck warns the German ambassador that
any attempt by Germany to use force to gain Danzig will lead to war.

28 March, T
EDDINGTON

‘Madrid surrendered at 2pm after two years and four months marvellous hold out. I only hope the treatment they receive may be free from cruelty. Poor things, they’ve suffered enough.’ (Helena Mott)

29 March, L
ONDON

The Government announces plans to double Britain’s Territorial Army to bring its strength up to 340,000 men. The move is seen as part recognition that, in the event of war, Britain will have to furnish extensive land forces as well as the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. But one eager would-be recruit, on presenting himself at a recruiting office, is first asked, ‘Could you come back tomorrow morning?’ On doing so, he is told, ‘Well, you see, we can’t do anything until after Easter, but you’ll certainly get a letter from us then.’

30 March, W
ARSAW

At the Foreign Ministry, British ambassador Sir Howard Kennard delivers the terms of Britain’s guarantee to Poland. Colonel Beck accepts them ‘between two flicks of his cigarette ash’.

31 March, L
ONDON

In the House of Commons, Chamberlain announces the news of the British guarantee to Poland. He tells MPs, ‘In the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence, and which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their national forces, His Majesty’s Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Polish Government all support in their power.’

Labour’s deputy leader Arthur Greenwood says, ‘The Prime
Minister’s statement may prove as momentous as any made in this House for a quarter of a century.’ And anti-appeaser Alfred Duff Cooper, who resigned over Munich, is incredulous at Chamberlain’s reversal of policy: ‘Never before in our history have we left in the hands of one of the smaller powers the decision whether or not Great Britain goes to war.’

31 March, B
ERLIN

Hitler, on hearing of the British guarantee, falls into a terrible rage. ‘I’ll a brew them a devil’s stew that they’ll choke on,’ he raves to his staff.

31 March, B
ucharest

Roumanian foreign minister Grigore Gafencu, on hearing of the guarantee, says, ‘The British must be mad. Poland is the least moral country in Europe.’

31 March, W
ORTHING

‘Mr Chamberlain made an important announcement to the Commons which was specially broadcast at four o’clock, committing us definitely to Poland.’ (Joan Strange)

31 March, T
EDDINGTON

‘Chamberlain three o’clock in the House – England will go to war for Poland – well! Well! Well! “Bound to give Polish government all the help in our power.” Question . . . whether Russia and other powers will not join in a conference against aggression?’ (Helena Mott)

April

1 April, W
ILHELMSHAVEN

Hitler attends the launching of the battleship
Tirpitz
. After the ceremony, the Fuehrer delivers a speech in which he makes thinly veiled
attacks on Poland and Britain’s ‘encirclement policy’. He tells the crowd, ‘He who does not possess power loses the right to life.’ And in a strange echo of Stalin’s 10 March speech, Hitler says, ‘Anyone who declares himself ready to snatch the chestnuts out of the fire for the Western Powers must expect to burn his fingers.’

1 April, M
ADRID

The Spanish Civil War is officially announced to be at an end.

3 April, B
ERLIN

Hitler is presented with the Wehrmacht’s operational plans for ‘Case White’, the invasion of Poland and the destruction of its military forces. Hitler dictates a preamble to the directive which orders the armed forces to be ready to carry out ‘Case White’ at any time after 1 September 1939.

4 April, L
ONDON

Colonel Beck arrives in London for talks. An American reporter thinks Poland’s foreign minister looks like a ‘ham actor made up as the lean and hungry Cassius’. At the end of his discussions with British ministers, Chamberlain announces that Britain and Poland have agreed to sign a mutual assistance pact in the event of an attack ‘by a European power’. France also issues a similar pledge.

5 April, L
ONDON

The Government’s plans for civilian defence are debated in the House of Commons. Minister of Health Walter Elliot tells MPs that plans are being prepared for the immediate evacuation of 2,500,000 children in the event of war. It will be, Elliot tells them, ‘a colossal task’. The Minister then goes on to say that 279,435 Anderson shelters, providing cover for 1,500,000 people, have already been distributed, and 80,000 are being delivered each week.

It is also revealed that twelve regional commissioners, ‘men of national standing, capable of undertaking great responsibilities’, are to be appointed. They will have sweeping powers in the event of their region being cut off from London by enemy action.

7 April, R
OME

Mussolini, piqued at Hitler’s foreign policy successes and bloodless conquests, occupies his own client state of Albania. King Zog, Queen Geraldine and their day-old son Prince Leka flee the country, and Italian King Victor Emmanuel is proclaimed King of Albania. Count Ciano notes in his diary that ‘international reaction (is) almost nonexistent’ and that the British ‘protest’ note ‘might have been written by our own offices’.

7 April, W
ORTHING

‘On an extra news bulletin at one o’clock heard that Italy has “smashed and grabbed” Albania. Just like Hitler and his methods. What will result? The nine o’clock news reports fighting there.’ (Joan Strange)

8 April, V
ATICAN

Much to the annoyance of Mussolini, the new Pope Pius XII denounces violations of international treaties.

8 April, L
ONDON

Picture Post
publishes an article which argues that an Anglo-French alliance with Russia is now vital. It concludes, ‘Let Mr Chamberlain fly there.’

8 April, T
EDDINGTON

‘20,000 Italians land simultaneously at four Albanian towns. Zog’s queen had to travel to Greece two days after her baby was born. King Zog is expected to have gone too . . .’ (Helena Mott)

13 April, B
UCHAREST
and A
THENS

Roumania and Greece accept British and French guarantees similar to that already given to Poland.

15 April, W
ASHINGTON
DC

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dispatches personal messages to both Hitler and Mussolini. He proposes an exchange of pledges of non-aggression pacts for ten or possibly twenty-five years between the dictators and thirty-one states. The pledges would then be followed by an international conference to discuss disarmament, raw materials and international trade. Mussolini is contemptuous of FDR’s proposal. ‘A result of progressive paralysis,’ he tells Count Ciano.

16 April, W
ORTHING

‘Germany and Italy seem somewhat stunned by Roosevelt’s proposal. There is a very bitter anti-British press campaign going on in the German press just now and now Roosevelt will be vilified too.’ (Joan Strange)

20 April, B
ERLIN

Hitler’s fiftieth birthday is celebrated with a massive military parade. The British, French and American ambassadors are all conspicuous by their absence, but among the guests is Emil Hacha, now puppet President of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The parade goes on for nearly five hours, and propaganda minister Dr Josef Goebbels enthuses, ‘The Fuehrer is fêted like no other mortal has ever been.’ Among the telegrams of congratulations is a restrained one from King George VI.

20 April, T
EDDINGTON

‘Hitler’s birthday. He had an immense show of tanks, arms and aeroplanes for five solid hours. I hope he enjoyed himself.’ (Helena Mott)

23 April, L
ONDON

Roumanian foreign minister Grigore Gafencu, on a tour of European capitals, arrives in Britain. At an audience at Buckingham Palace with the King and Queen, Queen Elizabeth asks Gafencu what Hitler is like. The foreign minister replies that he got the impression that the Fuehrer could be ‘very simple in manner if he wished, but that made him all the more to be feared’. The Queen replies, ‘If he is simple, it might be that he is really great, unless it should be greatness of another sort.’ When Gafencu meets with Chamberlain, the Prime Minister is more forthright in his opinion of Hitler. ‘He is a liar,’ he tells the Roumanian statesman.

26 April, L
ONDON

Chamberlain announces to the Commons the introduction of compulsory military training. This is the first time that conscription has been introduced in peacetime in Britain, and the Prime Minister acknowledges that ‘it is a departure from our cherished ideals’. But Chamberlain tells MPs, ‘A very little weight one way or another might decide whether war is to come or not.’ The Military Training Bill for all men between the ages of twenty and twenty-one will be introduced on 1 May.

28 April, B
ERLIN

Hitler addresses the Reichstag. He denounces both the 1934 Non-Aggression Pact with Poland and the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement, ‘since the British Prime Minister was not able to trust German assurances’. Hitler also sarcastically replies to President Roosevelt’s proposals of a fortnight ago. None of the states named by the President, Hitler says, feels threatened by Germany. But he boastfully reminds Roosevelt: ‘I have brought back to the Reich provinces stolen from us in 1919. I have led back to their native country millions of Germans who were torn away from us and
were in misery . . . and Mr Roosevelt, without spilling blood and without bringing to my people, and consequently to others, the misery of war . . .’

28 April, W
ORTHING

‘Hitler made his two-and-a-quarter-hour speech in the Reichstag in answer to Pres. Roosevelt’s Peace Statement. He demands Germany’s former colonies, denounces the Anglo-German Naval Treaty, makes demands on Poland. But on the whole the situation is no worse.’ (Joan Strange)