The Day We Went to War (7 page)

15 June, L
ONDON

Lord Chatfield, Minister of Coordination of Defence, gives a speech in which he says that every day that war is postponed is of the greatest value to Britain in building up her defences.

17 June, M
OSCOW

William Strang meets with Soviet foreign minister Molotov for the first time. Molotov is contemptuous of the British proposals for an Anglo-French-Soviet front against Hitler. He tells Strang, ‘If you think that the Soviet Government is likely to accept these proposals, then you must think we are nitwits and nincompoops!’

18 June, D
ANZIG

Nazi propaganda minister Dr Josef Goebbels delivers a violent speech at the end of the Free City’s Cultural Congress. He tells an
enthusiastic crowd, ‘Danzig is German. It must return to Germany. It is our understandable clear, definite and sacred wish.’ Throughout the Free City, there are huge banners proclaiming, ‘We Want To Go Home To The Reich!’

24 June, L
ONDON

The Illustrated London News
runs an advertisement from German Railways:

Seeing is believing. Come and See Germany.
Visitors from Britain are heartily welcomed at all times.
They will find that friendliness and the sincere desire to help are the
characteristics common to every German they meet.

25 June, D
ANZIG

Over 1,000 SS men from East Prussia have arrived in the Free City, ostensibly to take part in a sporting competition. This month has seen over fifty ‘incidents’ in which Danzig and Polish officials have clashed.

25 June, W
ORTHING

‘News not good – the situation in Tiensin is very ugly – the Japs are behaving abominably, stripping Britons naked publicly and so on.’ (Joan Strange)

29 June, T
EDDINGTON

‘Lord Halifax gave a speech in which no doubt is left in German minds that we are only to take action if she starts.’ (Helena Mott)

30 June, B
ERLIN

Von Ribbentrop’s deputy State Secretary Ernst von Weizacker tells the French ambassador, ‘We are not on the eve of a tremendous eruption, unless it is provoked by Polish excesses.’

30 June, W
ARSAW

The Polish Government receives official notification that the German cruiser
Koenigsberg
will be making a courtesy visit to Danzig on 25 August.

30 June, W
ORTHING

‘Everyone talking about Lord Halifax’s speech last night. “All Britain’s might behind her pledges – unchallengeable navy: air force to fear none.” It sounds like 1914 over again. Hitler is expected to snatch up Danzig – will this let loose the “dogs of war”?’ (Joan Strange)

30 June, T
EDDINGTON

‘German activity going on in Danzig. The Poles have been very patient and have handled the trouble in a statesman-like manner.’ (Helena Mott)

July

1 July, P
ARIS

In an interview with the German ambassador, foreign minister Georges Bonnet reiterates France’s ‘firm determination’ to fulfil its obligations to Poland.

2 July, L
ONDON

As a further measure of Britain’s preparations for war, the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force is given Royal Assent.

4 July, H
AMBURG

The French consul general passes on to Paris some disturbing news that he has heard: ‘If some agreement is not shortly concluded between London, Paris and Moscow, the Soviet Government will be prepared to sign a non-aggression pact with the Reich for a period of five years.’

4 July, L
ONDON

The
Daily Telegraph
begins a campaign to bring Churchill into the government. The
News Chronicle
and
Yorkshire Post
also call for Churchill’s inclusion. Hoardings appear in London with the slogan, ‘What Price Churchill?’

9 July, L
ONDON

Sir Nevile Henderson returns from Berlin to consult his specialist. On examination it is found that the ambassador’s throat cancer is only in remission. At the Foreign Office, Oliver Harvey believes Sir Nevile is ‘quite unfit to be in such a post at such a time. He ought, of course to be withdrawn at once – if only because the policy he was chosen to represent, appeasement, in which he passionately believes, has been reversed, and so long as he is there Germany and everybody else will never believe we may not have more appeasement.’

10 July, L
ONDON

In the House of Commons, Chamberlain reviews the situation developing in Danzig. The Premier tells MPs that if Poland felt obliged to use force to maintain the
status quo
in Danzig, then Britain will go to her assistance.

11 July: W
ASHINGTON
DC

President Roosevelt’s ‘Cash and Carry’ Neutrality Bill, which if passed would have greatly favoured Britain and France, fails in the Senate.

13 July, L
ONDON

Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon announces defence borrowings of £500 million.

14 July, P
ARIS

The French commemorate the 150th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille with a huge military parade. To demonstrate the
solidity of the
Entente Cordiale
, a contingent of Scots Guards take part in the march past and RAF Wellington bombers fly over the French capital. British war minister Leslie Hore-Belisha is one of the guests of honour, seated next to Premier Daladier.

16 July, M
UNICH

As a deliberate counter-blast to the Bastille commemoration, the Nazis mount a four day ‘Rally of German Art’. It is not entirely successful as it pours with rain on the main day of the festival. Hitler’s rostrum is soaked and the Fuehrer is in a very bad temper, having already lent his raincoat to his mistress, Eva Braun.

16 July, L
ONDON

Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists, holds a huge indoor rally at Earls Court exhibition hall. Mosley tells his audience: ‘If any country in the world attacks Britain then every single member of this great audience of British Union would fight for Britain [. . .] but a million Britons shall never die in your Jews’ quarrel. Why is it a moral duty to go to war if a German kicks a Jew across the Polish frontier . . .? We are going, if the power lies within us [. . .] to say that our generation and our children shall not die like rats in Polish holes.’

16 July, T
EDDINGTON

‘Hitler spoke for twenty minutes without mentioning the democracies, encirclement or the Jews. What’s happened to him? Mosley suggested return of colonies to Germany and possessions in east. Does he know even the rudiments of the matter? He just wants to ride in on some popular ignorant slogan . . . his worst characteristic is his intolerance and dislike of the Jews – while his own fortune is derived from one.’ (Helena Mott)

‘We had to join, we had to join, we had to join Belisha’s army. Ten bob a week, bugger all to eat, great big boots and blisters on your feet.’ Secretary of State for War, Leslie Hore-Belisha, addresses the first batch of Militiamen, July 1939.

At Earls Court on 16 July 1939, British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley speaks to an audience of more than 20,000. ‘I am told that Hitler is mad. What evidence have they got so far that this man, who has taken his country from the dust to the height . . . has gone suddenly mad?’

17 July, W
ARSAW

General Sir Edmund Ironside, the Inspector-General of British Overseas Forces, arrives in Warsaw. He tells the British military attaché that his main task is going to be to try ‘to obtain a guarantee from the Poles that they will not precipitate a war through a corporal blowing up a bridge’.

20 July, L
ONDON

Birger Dahlerus, a Swedish businessman with connections both in Britain, where he worked as a young man, and in Germany, meets Lord Halifax. Dahlerus is setting himself up as unofficial peace broker between the two countries. He is on friendly terms with Goering and has arranged for Germany’s second man to meet some British businessmen on 7 August to discuss how peace can be maintained.

22 July, L
ONDON

In this week’s edition of
Picture Post
there appears a bi-lingual article ‘We Want Peace – Britain Does Not Hate Germany’. The magazine urges its readers to cut it out and send it to friends in Germany.

29 July, L
ONDON

Picture Post
features an article entitled ‘And Still – War Clouds Over Danzig’. The magazine warns its readers: ‘As we move towards the 25th anniversary of the Great War, events are shaping themselves with a terrible similarity.’ In the same issue, the magazine’s proprietor Edward Hulton contributes an article with the headline ‘Mr Churchill Must Join the Cabinet’.

31 July, D
ANZIG

The Nazi-controlled Senate demands the withdrawal of all Polish
customs officials from the Free City. Poland responds with economic reprisals and a refusal to withdraw the officials.

31 July, L
ONDON

Chamberlain announces that an Anglo-French military mission will be going to Moscow for staff talks with the Soviets. Molotov has told William Strang, ‘If war comes with Germany, I wish to know exactly how many divisions each party will put into the field, and where they will be located.’

August

1 August, L
ONDON

A Government announcement is made stating that in the event of war, petrol rationing will begin immediately.

2 August, N
EW
Y
ORK

German Jewish physicist émigré Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Roosevelt, alerting FDR to the military potential of the splitting of the atom. A single atomic bomb, Einstein tells the President, if dropped on a port, ‘might destroy the whole port together with some surrounding territory’.

2 August, M
OSCOW

British ambassador Sir William Seeds gives Molotov the names of the British military mission that is coming to Moscow. The Russians again feel insulted. None of the officers, headed by Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle Drax, compares in seniority or importance to General Ironside, who was sent to Warsaw in July. In reproach, Molotov asks Sir William and Strang, ‘Do you not trust the Soviet Union? Do you not think we are interested in security too? It is a grave mistake. In time, you will realize how great a mistake it is to mistrust the government of the USSR.’

2 August, B
ERLIN

Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop meets informally with the Soviet chargé d’affaires. He tells the Russian, ‘From the Baltic to the Black Sea, there was no problem which could not be solved to our mutual advantage.’

2 August, L
ONDON

Despite the growing crisis over Danzig, Chamberlain proposes that the Commons adjourn until 3 October. Churchill is both aghast and furious at the Prime Minister’s complacency over the international situation. He tells the House, ‘At this moment in its long history it would be disastrous, it would be pathetic, it would be shameful for the House of Commons to write itself off as an effective and potent factor . . .’

Churchill’s view is echoed in a brave and passionate intervention by thirty-two-year-old Tory backbencher Ronald Cartland, who reminds MPs, ‘We are in the situation that within a month we may be going to fight – and we may be going to die.’

Despite these warnings, Chamberlain’s adjournment wins by 245 votes to 129.

4 August, D
ANZIG

Poland informs the Nazi-dominated Danzig Senate that in two days’ time it will be arming its customs officials in the Free City. Any interference with their duties, the Poles warn the Senate, will be regarded as a violent act and will be treated accordingly. The Senate protests strongly at the arming of the men.

5 August, T
ILBURY

The Anglo-French military mission leaves for Leningrad (St Petersburg), on SS
City of Exeter
. The ship has a maximum speed of only eleven knots, and the journey will take over four days. Again, the Russians are not impressed. They have serious doubts
about the sincerity of the Western Allies in wishing to enter into a military alliance. On board, the British and French confer in the children’s playroom. French captain André Beaufre notes how agreeable life is on the
City of Exeter
with ‘copious repasts of curry served by Indian stewards in turbans’.