The Day We Went to War

by Terry Charman

  16 August, LONDON

  Registrar-General Sir Sylvanus Vivian announces that, in event of war, everyone in Britain will have their own National Registration number and an identity card.

  19 August, OBERSALZBERG

  Hitler receives from his ambassador in Moscow a message that the Russians are prepared to receive von Ribbentrop on 27 or 28 August to negotiate and sign a non-aggression pact. The Fuehrer is jubilant but because of the date set for the attack on Poland, he wants von Ribbentrop’s visit to be brought forward.

  20 August, OBERSALZBERG

  From the Berghof, Hitler sends a personal message to Stalin. He proposes that ‘in view of the international situation’ von Ribbentrop should go to Moscow by 23 August at the latest.

  20 August, OUTER MONGOLIA

  In an undeclared war, Soviet forces under General Georgi Zhukov engage the Japanese in the biggest battle fought since the First World War. Over 150,000 troops are involved, and the Russians employ 690 tanks and 300 aircraft. The Japanese suffer their greatest military reverse to date, with over 18,000 casualties and the loss of 300 ’planes.

  21 August, WILHELMSHAVEN

  Pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee departs to take up its war station off the coast of Brazil.

  21 August, HOLLYWOOD

  Charlie Chaplin, born just four days before Hitler in April 1889, delays the production of his new film, tentatively called The Dictators. Chaplin ‘hesitates to go before the cameras while the European situation remains so uncertain’. It is rumoured that the US State Department is also bringing pressure on the British-born Chaplin ‘to avoid incensing Hitler and Mussolini in the present delicate state of international relationships’.

  21 August, OBERSALZBERG

  At 10.50pm, Stalin’s reply arrives while Hitler, Eva Braun and their guests are having dinner. The Soviet dictator agrees to von Ribbentrop’s coming to Moscow on 23 August. Hitler is overjoyed. He bangs the table so hard that the glasses and cutlery rattle, and exclaims, ‘I have them! I have them!’

  21 August, BERLIN

  Just before midnight, German home service radio announces the news of the pact with Russia. Propaganda minister Dr Goebbels writes confidently in his diary, ‘We’re on top again. Now we can sleep more easily.’ From Berlin, The Times correspondent notes that among ordinary Germans the initial reaction is: ‘This means that nobody will dare fight against us, and we can do just as we please.’ But many old Nazi Party members are dismayed at a pact with the Bolsheviks. The garden of the Brown House, the Nazi Party headquarters in Munich, is reportedly littered with the Party’s swastika badges thrown there by disillusioned Nazis. Official and public opinion in Japan, Spain, Italy and Hungary is also aghast at Hitler’s volte face.

  21 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Tension increasing – nurses called up, soldiers being inoculated – heavy troops being called up – Poland advises foreigners to leave.’ (Helena Mott)

  22 August, LONDON

  The Cabinet meets to discuss the crisis. Lord Halifax rather airily dismisses the German–Soviet non-aggression pact as ‘perhaps of not very great importance’. During the nine o’clock news this evening it is announced that Parliament is being recalled. This is the first time that this has been done over the radio. Chamberlain, mindful of the accusations levelled at Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey in August 1914, writes to Hitler:

  Whatever may prove to be the nature of the German-Soviet Agreement, it cannot alter Great Britain’s obligation to Poland which His Majesty’s Government have stated in public repeatedly and plainly and which they are determined to fulfil.

  It has been alleged that, if his Majesty’s Government had made their position more clear in 1914, the great catastrophe would have been avoided. Whether or not there is any force in that allegation, His Majesty’s Government are resolved that on this occasion there shall be no such tragic misunderstanding.

  The Prime Minister’s message is dispatched to the Berlin embassy for Sir Nevile Henderson to personally deliver to Hitler.

  22 August, WILHELMSHAVEN

  The German submarine U-30 commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp leaves base to take up its war station in the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty other U-boats also leave this week.

  22 August, OBERSALZBERG

  Hitler addresses his military chiefs on the imminent invasion of Poland. He tells the generals that with the non-aggression pact with Russia, he now has Poland ‘in the position in which I want her’. He is scornful of Chamberlain and Daladier: ‘our enemies are small fry. I saw them in Munich.’ Hitler goes on to say that he will provide a propaganda pretext, however implausible, for the invasion. In any case, ‘The victor will not be asked afterwards whether he told the truth or not. When starting and waging war it is not right that matters, but victory. Close your hearts to pity. Act brutally. Eighty million people must obtain what is their right. Their existence must be secured. The stronger man is right. The greatest harshness.’

  22 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Like a bombshell the Russian news in the morning papers fell on us at breakfast. Well! We have asked for it and no doubt Germany has read books that have pointed out what an invincible combination these two powers would make . . . Still, we have nothing whatsoever of which to be proud nor has our policy been anything but weak and reprehensible. If Neville Chamberlain had no means of gauging the trend of events he is certainly not fit to hold the position of prime minister of an empire. To make us the laughing stock of the world is scarcely an accomplishment of which to be proud – to shilly shally as he has done is not only madness but criminal lunacy.

  ‘I am listening to Mozart’s “sinfonia concertante” for violin, viola and orchestra in E Flat. How lovely! It seems impossible to connect such beauty with this present age and time of bestiality, misery and war madness.’ (Helena Mott)

  22 August, WORTHING

  ‘Crisis again. Amazing news of a Berlin–Moscow Pact. Sworn enemies but uniting in a non-aggression pact. “World shocked” say the placards.’ (Joan Strange)

  23 August, PARIS

  The Council of Ministers hold an emergency meeting to discuss how the situation has been affected by the Nazi–Soviet pact. Foreign minister Georges Bonnet thinks that to avoid war France should put pressure on Poland to compromise. But Daladier, most of the other ministers and the military chiefs present, believe that France must stand by the Poles.

  23 August, OBERSALZBERG

  Ambassador Henderson arrives with Chamberlain’s letter. Sir Nevile finds Hitler in a violent mood, and he attacks both the Poles for their intransigence and the British for giving them a ‘blank cheque’. He tells Sir Nevile that he wants only friendship with Britain. Henderson is then dismissed only to be recalled shortly afterwards to receive Hitler’s reply to Chamberlain’s letter. The Fuehrer is calmer now, but tells the ambassador that he is fifty and prefers war now rather than in five or ten years’ time. He finishes by saying that only a complete reversal of British policy towards the Reich would convince him of Britain’s good faith. Sir Nevile leaves, and Hitler, having put on an act of rage for Henderson’s benefit, laughingly tells his staff, ‘Chamberlain won’t survive this discussion. His cabinet will fall this evening.’

  23 August, MOSCOW

  Von Ribbentrop arrives by air to conclude the non-aggression pact, which he and Molotov sign. Under the terms of the pact’s secret protocol, Germany and the Soviet Union carve out respective spheres of influence in central and eastern Europe. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, the Roumanian province of Bessarabia, and eastern Poland are all assigned to Russia, while Germany claims the rest of Poland and Lithuania. At the signing, Soviet champagne and vodka are served, and Stalin proposes a toast to Hitler: ‘I know how much the German nation loves its Fuehrer. I should therefore like to drink his health.’

  In preparation for the invasion of Poland, Hitler addresses his generals at the Berghof, 22 August 1939. A secret account of the meeting claimed that Goering, ‘wild with enthusias
m, climbed on a table, rendered fervent thanks, and promised to carry out the blood-thirsty orders’.

  Molotov signs the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, Moscow, 23 August 1939. ‘Public opinion in our country, and probably in Germany too, will have to be prepared slowly for the change in our relations this treaty is to bring about,’ was Stalin’s comment after the signing.

  At the British Embassy in Moscow, correspondents gather to hear a statement by Sir William Seeds on the future of Anglo-French-Soviet relations in the light of the new pact. While waiting for the ambassador, they ask press attaché John Russell what Sir William is going to say. Russell replies, ‘I don’t know what he’s going to tell you, but it is my opinion that the British government has just been administered a considerable kick up the arse!’

  23 August, DANZIG

  The Senate decrees that thirty-seven-year-old Bavarian-born Nazi Party Gauleiter and former bank clerk Albert Forster is Danzig’s head of state.

  23 August, LONDON

  The Imperial War Museum closes as usual for the day at 6pm. But later in the evening Ernest Blaikley, the Museum’s Assistant in Charge of Pictures, is telephoned at home by the Office of Works to be told that the Museum is to close tomorrow and the evacuation of its works of art will begin at midday. The possibility of having to evacuate the Museum’s most valuable contents in the event of another war was first considered way back in November 1933.

  23 August, WEST NORWOOD

  ‘Things are working up to another serious crisis, almost identical with this time last year. We hope against hope, that even now war may be averted, but each day brings more dread news.’ (Miss Nellie Violet Carver, Supervisor, Central Telegraph Office)

  23 August, HUDDERSFIELD

  ‘The Russo-German Pact is signed and the crisis begins. With the dramatic signature . . . Germany claims a diplomatic triumph which she declares will end resistance to her plans against Poland. She expects to get Danzig and the Polish Corridor without fighting. She is confident Britain and France will not carry out their pledge to help Poland if she is attacked. Germany is wrong . . . The world begins to realize that war is dangerously near.’ (Mrs Marjorie Gothard, wife of master butcher)

  24 August, OBERSALZBERG

  At 1am, von Ribbentrop telephones from Moscow and reports complete success. Once again, Hitler is both delighted and confident. Of Britain and France, he believes the signing of the pact ‘will hit them like a bombshell’.

  24 August, WILHELMSHAVEN

  Pocket battleship Deutschland sails to take up position across the British sea lanes of the North Atlantic.

  24 August, WASHINGTON DC

  From the White House, President Roosevelt sends a personal appeal to Hitler. In it, the President calls for the settlement of the Danzig question by means of direct negotiation, arbitration or the appointment of an impartial mediator. Roosevelt concludes: ‘I appeal to you in the name of the people of the United States, and I believe in the name of peace-loving men and women everywhere, to agree to the solution of the controversies existing between your government and that of Poland through the adoption of one of the alternative methods I have proposed.’ A similar appeal is sent to President Ignace Moscicki of Poland. The Poles accept Roosevelt’s offer. Hitler ignores it completely.

  24 August, LONDON

  Parliament reconvenes and immediately passes the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939. This will form the basis of the Defence Regulations to come into force in the now-likely event of war. The BBC broadcasts a Government announcement that all schoolteachers are to return to their schools as soon as possible. This is a precaution in case evacuation has to take place.

  At midday the first lorry arrives at the Imperial War Museum to evacuate the Museum’s paintings. It is soon loaded and sets off for Colworth House, Sharnbrook. Another lorry arrives, is loaded, and routed to Penn House, Amersham. Across the river from Lambeth, at the Tate Gallery, Director John Rothenstein gives orders to close at midday. As the last of the public are ushered out, the Tate’s staff start preparing for the evacuation of the Gallery’s works of art. A similar exercise is also taking place under Sir Kenneth Clark at the National Gallery.

  From the US Embassy, ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy cables the State Department. Kennedy is extremely pessimistic about the chances of peace. His son Jack has just arrived back from Berlin, where the US Chargé d’Affaires Alexander Kirk has told him that war will start within a week. Kennedy himself has just seen Chamberlain. He wires Washington that the Prime Minister ‘says the futility of it all is the thing that is frightful. After all, they cannot save the Poles. They can merely carry on a war of revenge that will mean the destruction of all Europe.’

  24 August, VATICAN

  Pope Pius XII broadcasts an appeal for peace. But even devout Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh thinks that it was delivered ‘in terms so general and trite that it passes unnoticed here, where no one doubts that peace is preferable to war’.

  24 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Halifax . . . spoke on Poland. “The British government do not go back on their obligations.” A little late to make that observation, but steps back in the right direction . . . Forster is made Head of State and dictator in Danzig. The atrocity tales against Poland are very fierce in Berlin.’ (Helena Mott)

  24 August, WORTHING

  ‘News blacker and blacker. Parliament recalled and the PM (Chamberlain) made a momentous statement our guarantee to Poland holds good. In this way the situation differs from that of last September over Czecho-slovakia.’ (Joan Strange)

  24 August, GERMANY

  ‘Captain Wellmann gave a short address in which he informed us that the movement orders had been received. The situation is grave and we must do honour to the traditions of our battery. We gave another cheer for Fatherland and Fuehrer and marched off from the barrack square behind the battery colours, singing heartily. Our train started shortly after eight passing through Schoenebeck, we reached Magdeburg where we had to change. Everywhere one saw masses of men laden with trunks and parcels, making their way to the mobilisation points. Many of them wore medal ribbons from the Great War. Were those who had already experienced the horrors of 1914–18 to go campaigning once more? It was scarcely imaginable.’ (Corporal Wilhelm Krey, 13th Artillery Observation Battery, German Army)

  24 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘New hats, frocks, coats, theatres and even holidays are forgotten and replaced by purchase of tinned foods, black curtains and adhesive tape.

  ‘The railway stations had their blue anti-glare lights fixed, provision all over the country for a quick black-out is being made and everything is, apparently, ready for the “big bang”.

  ‘For twelve long weary months we have lived with the threat that on such-and-such a date war will be declared and as each date passes nerves become more strained, the tension grows tighter and we wait with a jagged dread for the next date. Of course, we carry on and live and eat and sleep and generally behave as though nothing was worrying us at all but all the time there is a little devil deep inside that whispers “what’s the use of making this arrangement – we probably shalln’t be here when the time comes to fulfil it.”’ (Miss Vivienne Hall, aged thirty-two, shorthand typist with the Northern Assurance Co. of Moorgate, London EC2, living with her mother in Putney)

  25 August, LONDON

  The BBC starts broadcasting news bulletins from 10.30am. Up until today the first news had gone out as late as 6pm. Britain and Poland sign a five-year military mutual assistance agreement. It is an unambiguous declaration that Britain will fight if Poland is invaded.

  25 August, DANZIG

  Instead of the cruiser Koenigsberg promised in June, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein arrives on a ‘courtesy visit’ to the Free City. The crew consists in the main of naval cadets. Three days ago, navy commander-in-chief Admiral Erich Raeder warned Hitler that Polish coastal batteries might very well sink the old battleship, with the loss of over 300 cadets. Hitler replied with a d
ismissive wave of his hand.

  25 August, MUNICH

  Because of the Nazi–Soviet Pact, Radio Munich abruptly cancels a scheduled talk entitled, ‘I accuse Moscow – the Comintern Plan for World Dictatorship’. It is replaced by thirty minutes of Russian music.

  25 August, NEW YORK

  Despite the crisis, the Columbia Broadcasting System insists that its European correspondents, including William Shirer in Germany, go ahead with a programme Europe Dances featuring dance band music from Paris, London and Berlin. Shirer suggests calling it off as ‘war’s too imminent for that sort of thing’.

  25 August, BERLIN

  Sir Nevile Henderson is asked to meet with Hitler at 1.30pm. In an attempt to detach Britain from Poland, Hitler tells the ambassador that once the Polish ‘question’ has been settled, he is prepared to make Britain ‘a large comprehensive offer’ and to guarantee the British Empire. He puts an aeroplane at Sir Nevile’s disposal to take the offer to London next morning.

  Hitler receives a message from Mussolini. The Duce tells Hitler that Italy is in no position to render Germany any military assistance at the present time. This news, and the signing of the Anglo-Polish alliance, makes Hitler change his mind and at 7.45pm orders are sent to halt the attack on Poland scheduled to start at 4.30 tomorrow morning.

  25 August, WORTHING

  ‘News very bad but we are hopeful in this household that war will not come. Mother hasn’t got any extra food in, any black stuff for black-outs or even a gas mask.’ (Joan Strange)

  25 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Dull, some rain and the most oppressive day I’ve known. The sun did not break through once. One felt utterly exhausted. It couldn’t have been a more appropriate setting for the news.’ (Helena Mott)

  25 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘Another day of strain – last night there were the usual stories of “incidents” on the frontiers between Poland and Germany, speeches of determination from Hitler and Poland . . . Britain (via Lord Halifax) issued her warning that we and France would stand by our obligations to help Poland – the Pope sent a message to the world to try and be reasonable and somehow stop the senseless slaughter of millions of people.