The Day We Went to War Read online

  ‘We have been paid by the office and provision has been made for the paying of our salaries in the event of war, we are told to be in readiness to do nothing about work for three days after the actual outbreak of war and then our shift system is to try to start working – three days at a time for each shift – whether this will be possible remains to be seen.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  26 August, MOSTY (Polish Carpathian Mountains)

  Not having received the orders to halt their attack, a special unit of the Abwehr (German military intelligence), made up of ethnic Germans, capture Mosty railway station to prevent the Poles from sabotaging it. They are then ordered to withdraw back into Slovakia. This they successfully manage to do. But their supporting engineer troops have killed two Poles and captured another forty in skirmishes around the strategically important railway line.

  26 August, PARIS

  Premier Daladier sends a personal message to Hitler, asking him to hold back from war. There is no question, Daladier tells the Fuehrer, that cannot be resolved peacefully. But ‘If French and German blood is now to be spilled, as it was twenty-five years ago . . . then each of the two peoples will fight confident of its own victory. But surely Destruction and Barbarism will be the real victors.’

  26 August, BERLIN

  The commemoration ceremony to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg is cancelled. All German airports are closed, and apart from regular airline flights, the whole of the Reich becomes a prohibited zone for aircraft. German internal air services are also suspended.

  26 August, LONDON

  Sir Nevile Henderson arrives from Berlin at midday and is immediately taken to see Chamberlain at 10 Downing Street. For the rest of the day, Foreign Office officials, Sir John Simon and Halifax’s deputy R.A. Butler attempt to draft and redraft a satisfactory reply to Hitler’s offer made to Sir Nevile yesterday.

  26 August, TORQUAY

  450 members of the Prudential Assurance Company’s headquarters staff evacuate to previously hired hotels in the Devon resort.

  26 August, TERIJOKI (Finnish-Russian border)

  At 7pm, the Anglo-French military mission crosses into Finland. There is a collective sigh of relief on leaving Russia, and to his delighted surprise, Captain Beaufre sees Admiral Drax perform ‘a little dance on the platform!’

  26 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Our Russian mission is returning – they were not accorded much courtesy and had difficulty in obtaining a compartment to themselves on the journey. Strange lack of manners on the Russians’ part.

  ‘Have more or less settled the ARP hangings [the blackout] but have not taken other precautions . . . I have never seen so few people at Hampton Court, or so little traffic . . . but a good number of soldiers about.’ (Helena Mott)

  26 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘Everything seems easier. I am going to the pictures in the West End (Stoll – Love Affair with my favourite actor French Charles Boyer and Jesse James with everybody else’s favourite Tyrone Power) so it can be seen that I am less nervous than I was. I sincerely hope this continues.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  26 August, WORTHING

  ‘Our ambassador in Berlin flew to London and back to Berlin – our cabinet met at six o’clock. Great efforts being made to preserve peace. The Pope – the Scandinavian countries – President Roosevelt and the King of the Belgians all doing what they can. We still feel that all will be well.

  ‘Hitler must feel on the horns of a dilemma, especially as Japan’s protested violently against the Russo-German Pact and Italy does not look favourably on it either.’ (Joan Strange)

  27 August, BERLIN

  The annual September Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg is cancelled. The theme of this year’s rally was to have been ‘peace’.

  27 August, CAP D’ANTIBES

  The Duke of Windsor, ‘as a citizen of the world’, sends a telegram to Hitler, appealing for peace. The ex-King also cables King Victor Emmanuel of Italy asking him ‘to use your influence to prevent the catastrophe which now seems imminent’.

  27 August, LONDON

  The Central War Room (now the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms) underneath Whitehall becomes operational. It has been constructed to provide safe accommodation for Chamberlain and his ministers and other officials in case of heavy bombing. The map keepers, called up from their civilian occupations, begin their first watch in the Map Room this afternoon.

  27 August, BERLIN

  Hitler replies to Daladier, regretting that France is intending to fight to ‘maintain a wrong’. Germany must have Danzig and the Corridor returned to her. But, the Fuehrer writes, ‘I see no possibility of persuading Poland, who deems herself safe from attack by virtue of guarantees given to her, to agree to a peaceful situation.’

  The provisional rationing of certain foodstuffs and soap, starting tomorrow, is announced. Foreign observers note that it has come as a heavy blow to ordinary Germans. Sir Nevile Henderson describes it as ‘a depressing measure’.

  27 August, GERMANY

  ‘Normally in the army Sunday is a free day. But this Sunday was one of the busiest ever. Live ammunition and gas masks were drawn from the stores, the issue of clothing was continued. I wrote once again to my loved ones at home. Orders were received from the battery that we were to be ready to march off at 18.00 hours on Tuesday . . . No one knew where we were going and the wildest rumours flew around.’ (Corporal Wilhelm Krey, 13th Artillery Observation Battery, German Army)

  27 August, WORTHING

  ‘News is as bad as ever – the Cabinet met this evening and our ambassador flies back to report to Hitler. What will the next three days bring forth? Mother still feels very strongly that it will be peace.’ (Joan Strange)

  27 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘Sunday, the day of prayer; lurid newspapers with descriptions of demands by Poland, demands by Germany; state of Britain’s defences, anxious listening to news bulletins . . . all the tension has returned, our short-lived hope seems to have slipped away. Will this never end? These days of excitement and constant “keyed-upness” are very wearying.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  28 August, LONDON

  Broadcasting today begins with the Daily Service. The introit for today is ‘Blessed be the Peacemakers’ and the hymn ‘A Safe Stronghold Our God Is Still’ is sung. Later in the day, county cricket matches between Middlesex and Surrey, and Hampshire versus Yorkshire are broadcast.

  28 August, BERLIN

  Sir Nevile Henderson arrives back from London by ’plane at 8.30pm. After drinking a half bottle of champagne at the embassy, he sets off for the Reich Chancellery to deliver the British note. It rejects Hitler’s offer to guarantee the British Empire. It also insists that if there are to be negotiations between Germany and Poland, the latter’s interests must be safeguarded. Furthermore, any settlement should be the subject of an international guarantee. Hitler tells the ambassador that he will receive the German reply tomorrow. A crowd of less than 500 ‘grim and silent’ Berliners stand outside the Chancellery, watching the diplomatic comings and goings.

  28 August, WORTHING

  ‘News worse and worse but the people feel everywhere that war will not come. The Mediterranean is closed to British shipping, Parliament’s to be recalled tomorrow – all merchant and fishing boats under government orders and so on.’ (Joan Strange)

  28 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Nevile Henderson flew back. Just arrived 9.05pm. I do not think Nevile H speaks German for Schmidt the interpreter was there with him and Hitler . . .. Hitler seems to have shot his bolt and missed. That of course may only make him more uncontrolled and one cannot think he’ll have brought the horse to water and then refuse to let it drink.’ (Helena Mott)

  28 August, GERMANY

  ‘In the afternoon we tested our masks in the gas chamber. Some of them didn’t fit too well, and the owners got an eye full of tear gas.’ (Corporal Wilhelm Krey, 13th Artillery Observation Battery, German Army)

 
28 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘Personally I don’t see why Poland should give up a vital piece of her land or free-land or whatever it is called just because Germany wants it – the German “Boo” tactics have lost their terror and have just become a nasty nuisance which must be stopped, I wish to God it needn’t be necessary to kill and maim thousands upon thousands of well-built men and women in order to stop it. Poor Germany, poor weary world, what a mess we people have made of it.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  28 August, WEST NORWOOD

  ‘Mum doesn’t want us to have an Anderson in the garden. She says it would be better to be bombed in the warm than to get pneumonia.’ (Nellie Violet Carver)

  28 August, TAKELEY, ESSEX

  ‘Nevile Henderson has just flown back to Berlin. We did not hear a word of his message but if Hitler’s suggestion was anything like his suggestions to the French it isn’t very peaceful. He will enter into any negociations [sic] with the provision that he gets his own way and annexes the Polish corridor, i.e. Poland. The Mediterranean has just been closed to merchant shipping. Well, well, war it must be, it seems.’ (Miss Moyra Charlton)

  29 August, LONDON

  The crowd outside 10 Downing Street continues to grow. A middle-aged working-class woman announces to bystanders, ‘What they come here to look at I don’t know. Mr Chamberlain’s fascist. They’ll find that out before long. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not Hitler’s friend. All I said was that Chamberlain is as much a fascist as Hitler.’ Her remarks are immediately repudiated by members of the crowd. An elderly woman tells her, ‘I wouldn’t like Mr Chamberlain’s mind at the moment.’

  29 August, TAKELEY

  ‘Many notes passing between British cabinet and Hitler – we really feel war will be averted.’ (Moyra Charlton)

  29 August, TEDDINGTON

  ‘Chamberlain . . . admitted there was no easing of the tension. He spoke as “we” but he meant “he only” for there is no doubt he steadfastly intends to be England’s saviour, if such a phenomenon is likely to rise from the dead ashes after these four years’ policy. We are just waiting for one maniac’s decisive word – just a nut in the cracker, more shame to us.’ (Helena Mott)

  29 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘Another tension-filled day. Will it be today or tomorrow, will the miracle, which is the only thing that can avert war, be performed; will the air raids be really as bad as we have been led to believe . . . Hospitals are being cleared, sandbags are being heaped up in front of buildings, all ARP people are being called up or told to be ready to go to their posts with forty-eight hours’ supply of food.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  29 August, GERMANY

  ‘We drove past the Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, where thousands of Italian workers lined the streets, waved and shouted Italian battle cries.’ (Corporal Wilhelm Krey, 13th Artillery Observation Battery, German Army)

  29 August, TAKELEY

  ‘We got back just after three, in time to hear of the Prime Minister’s speech. They relayed it in strips between gramophone records of an offensively cheerful tone. He was very guarded but has not yet got Hitler’s answer. I am afraid they will go through with Danzig however politely they beg our friendship.

  ‘No news in the evening, except that Hitler has handed in his answer to Henderson. Everyone is thrusting the onus of war onto everyone else. England is indeed calm – in fact “fed up” and “browned off” with the whole crisis. I suppose we may be at war any day now. Oh dear.’ (Moyra Charlton)

  30 August, LONDON

  In the early hours of the morning, Hitler’s reply to yesterday’s note reaches the Foreign Office. He is prepared to negotiate with the Poles, but they must send a plenipotentiary, with full negotiating powers, to Berlin by 30 August. London replies at once that it is impossible for any plenipotentiary to arrive today but the document is being studied carefully. A considered reply will be sent off later today for Sir Nevile to deliver to Hitler or von Ribbentrop tonight. The unofficial Swedish peace broker Birger Dahlerus is also active today. He contacts the Foreign Office on behalf of Goering, and urges that immediate negotiations take place between Berlin and Warsaw to prevent a German invasion.

  30 August, GERMANY

  Troops are massing on the Polish border. One of them, fanatical Nazi Wilhelm Prueller, still thinks Hitler might yet pull off another bloodless victory:

  Personally, I think the ‘Affaire Poland’ will be settled peacefully; perhaps Daladier will at the last minute assume the function of a mediator. But if it does come to war, I am sure it won’t last long. For the Poles won’t be able to withstand our attack . . . it’s unthinkable for us, too, as the greatest European power, to sit back and watch the persecution of the Volksdeutsche without doing something. It is our duty to rectify this wrong, which cries to Heaven. If we fight, then we know we are serving a rightful cause. We know, however, that the Fuehrer will do all he can to avoid war.

  30 August, CITY OF LONDON

  ‘The City is now a mass of sandbags and cellophane paper is being pasted on large windows . . . The whole point of this war business is that no one knows exactly how horrible it will be, how many nations will be ultimately involved, how much gas warfare will be used, where the battlefield will be, how long will it last, how strong we or the rather problematical enemy are.’ (Vivienne Hall)

  30 August, TAKELEY

  ‘At one, four, six and nine as usual, we listened to the news. We got Hitler’s answer (though it has not been made public) and he is now waiting for ours. The idea of writing and exchanging polite replies can’t go on interminably and one wishes to goodness it could be decided one way or the other. This is a deadlock and one is bored and anxious of waiting.

  ‘Tonight’s news was more sinister. Hitler won’t relinquish one jot of his Polish demands and troops are massing on the frontiers. Aircraft and searchlights very busy to-night but there is brilliant moonlight.’ (Moyra Charlton)

  31 August, BERLIN

  Just after midnight, von Ribbentrop and Sir Nevile Henderson have a stormy interview. At one point, interpreter Paul Schmidt thinks that the two men are going to come to blows. Von Ribbentrop, despite his perfect English, reads out quickly in German to Sir Nevile sixteen proposals to be put to a Polish plenipotentiary. Hitler has been working on these for most of the day, although they are only intended to be a smokescreen for his real intention to invade Poland. Henderson’s German is less than perfect, and he is unable to take them all down, but von Ribbentrop refuses to let him read them. He tells the ambassador that they are now out of date anyway, as no emissary arrived from Warsaw by midnight to negotiate. Sir Nevile, whose own diplomatic manners are faultless, reports to London, ‘Herr von Ribbentrop’s whole demeanour during an unpleasant interview was aping Herr Hitler at his worst.’

  Hitler sends a reply to the Duke of Windsor’s telegram of 27 August. He tells the Duke, ‘You may rest assured that my attitude towards Britain and my desire to avoid another war between our two peoples remain unchanged. It depends on Britain, however, whether my wishes for the future development of German–British relations can be realised.’

  31 August, LONDON

  At 11.17am, the Government issues orders that the evacuation from Britain’s towns and cities of schoolchildren and other vulnerable groups is to begin tomorrow morning.

  31 August, ROME

  Count Ciano and Mussolini meet mid-morning and come up with a proposal that they hope might yet prevent war. The Italians suggest that there should be a five-power conference to be held on 5 September, perhaps at San Remo, ‘for the purpose of reviewing those clauses of the Treaty of Versailles which disturb European life’. The proposal is sent to the British and French. Their initial reaction is favourable.

  31 August, BERLIN

  At 12.30pm, Hitler issues his Directive No. 1 for the Conduct of War. Its preamble reads, ‘Now that every political possibility has been exhausted for ending by peaceful means the intolerable situation on Germany’s eastern frontier I
have determined on a solution by force. The date and time of the attack are now fixed: 1 September at 4.45am.’

  31 August, ROME

  Count Ciano calls in British ambassador Sir Percy Lorraine and commits ‘an indiscretion’. Ciano tells Sir Percy that Italy, despite the Pact of Steel, will not be going to war at Germany’s side. ‘Can’t you understand,’ he asks Lorraine, ‘that we shall never start a war against you and the French?’ Lorraine is much moved and near to tears as he departs. Ciano then telephones Mussolini to tell him of the interview. To lessen the tension, the Duce has ordered that Rome’s blackout be suspended.

  31 August, LONDON

  At 11pm, the Foreign Office receives a telegram from the embassy in Rome. In the telegram, Sir Percy Lorraine passes on Count Ciano’s message. As he told Ciano earlier, Sir Percy has been aware for over a fortnight that Italy would not be marching with Germany. But the fact that the Italian foreign minister has now told him officially surely means that Germany is about to invade Poland.

  31 August, GLEIWITZ

  At 8pm, Alfred Naujocks’s party of five SS men force their way into the Gleiwitz radio station and overpower the staff. Breaking into a relay broadcast from Radio Breslau, a Polish-speaking SS man takes over the microphone. Claiming to represent the ‘High Command of Polish Volunteer Corps of Upper Silesia’, he tells listeners that Gleiwitz is in Polish hands. He calls on local Poles to rise up against the Nazis. After four minutes, the broadcast ends with shouts of ‘Long Live Poland!’ To make the ‘attack’ sound authentic, revolver shots are fired in the air. A grislier touch is added when the body of a murdered anti-Nazi, Silesian Franciszek Honiok, is left on the scene to provide ‘proof’ of the Polish ‘attack’ to foreign correspondents. Two similar ‘incursions’ take place near Gleiwitz at Pitschen and at Hochlinden. At Hochlinden, ‘Polish’ soldiers and irregulars storm the customs house and hold it for an hour and a half before it is ‘recaptured’ by German border guards. Six concentration-camp inmates, dressed in Polish uniforms, drugged and then shot, are left by the building to demonstrate Polish ‘guilt’. Heydrich has given them the cynical codename Canned Goods.