The Day We Went to War (14 page)

12.00pm (1.00pm), Z
YRARDOW
, W
ARSAW
D
ISTRICT

Zbigniew Leon listens on a primitive wireless set to his president’s broadcast. It comes as a real shock to Zbigniew and the others listening. They feel numb and the general mood is sombre and tense.

12.00pm (1.00pm), A
DLON
H
OTEL
, B
ERLIN

American correspondent Virginia Cowles with her friend Jane Leslie is on a flying visit to the German capital. Virginia bluntly asks a desk clerk how he feels about a world war. Virginia is astonished at the man’s reply. ‘What do you mean, a world war? Poland is Germany’s affair. What’s it got to with anyone else?’

12.05pm, P
RINCE’S
D
OCK
, T
HE
C
LYDE

SS
Athenia
, a 13,500-ton ship of the Donaldson Line, is about to leave the Clyde. She is making her way first to Belfast, and then to Liverpool before crossing the Atlantic to Montreal. On board at present are 735 people, including 315 crew. There are 143 Americans among the passengers. As the ship leaves dock, New Yorker Belle Maranov hears shipyard workers shout out, ‘Cowards! Cowards!’

12.15pm (1.15pm), B
ROACASTING
H
OUSE
, B
ERLIN
-C
HARLOTTENBURG

NBC correspondent Max Jordan is in the midst of a heated argument with the German radio censor. In his broadcast to New York, Jordan was going to say, ‘Hitler today spoke to the Reichstag almost exactly in the same vein as the Kaiser did to that body twenty-five years ago’, but the censor has cut it. He appeals to Dr Karl Boehmer of the Propaganda Ministry. But Boehmer is adamant. He asks Jordan how he can compare ‘Hitler to the Kaiser, to a Kaiser who
suffered defeat?’ Jordan tells the foreign press chief that it is his honest opinion. But Boehmer is unimpressed: ‘I don’t care how honest it is. You can’t say it. This time it isn’t a Kaiser! This time we won’t crack!’

12.30pm, V
ICTORIA
S
TATION
, L
ONDON

A party of elementary schoolchildren have just arrived at the terminus. There are about 200 people to see them off, the vast majority women. The children are belting out ‘The Chestnut Tree’ as they pass down the platform. The sound of their singing fills the station. But the mothers watching the children are quiet, and although some smile, there is a good deal of wiping of eyes with handkerchiefs.

12.30pm (1.30pm), A
DLON
H
OTEL
, B
ERLIN

Virginia Cowles and Jane Leslie are having lunch in the hotel’s courtyard with Sir George Ogilvie Forbes of the British Embassy. Virginia sees that at the next table there are a group of German officials. They stare curiously at Sir George and seem perplexed at the diplomat’s smiling and impervious expression. He has received no news yet about the British declaration of war, but it is expected at any moment.

12.30pm, T
HE
I
VY
, S
T
M
ARTIN’S
L
ANE

Noël Coward, with friends, lunches at The Ivy as usual. They are all downcast by the news of the German invasion of Poland, which has meant the abandonment of Coward’s two new plays. But to tide themselves over, at lunch they joke and gossip becoming ‘over-bright and jocular’. Coward is expecting to be employed in propaganda work, possibly with the French.

12.35pm, V
ICTORIA
S
TATION
, L
ONDON

Pupils and teachers from Buckingham Gate School arrive ready for evacuation. One of the older girls is carrying a banner, on which is
written ‘L.C.C. Buckingham Gate’. The children are greeted by their parents as they march in twos into the terminus. They are carrying bulging shoe-bags, and have haversacks on their backs. Some of the children have paper parcels and one is clutching a net bag full of tennis balls. All the children are carrying their gas masks in cardboard boxes slung round their necks with string. They, and their teachers, all have red and white LCC armlets and some of them have other pieces of cloth giving their name and school sewn or pinned on their sleeves as well. The children are mostly smiling and look happy. They are quite unselfconscious. Many are looking round for their parents, but there is no attempt to break ranks to meet up with them.

The parents, too, do not try to butt in on the procession that is now being waved on by the police. Children and parents call out to each other; ‘Ta-ta’, ‘Good-bye, dear’, ‘Cheerio, Mum’, ‘Bye-Bye’, but there is no stopping for a farewell kiss and embrace. The teachers are mostly smiling too. Occasionally, some stop for a second or so to reassure anxious parents. ‘They’ll be all right,’ says one to a mother as the children pass through the barrier. As the last children go through, the police close the barrier. Parents move up and stand close against the railings. The children have stopped near the other end of the platform and are sitting on seats or their cases. They wave to their parents, who wave back at them. ‘Well, we can’t do any more,’ says one mother. ‘Thank God they’ve gone.’

2.00pm, F
OREIGN
O
FFICE
, W
HITEHALL

A telegram is received from Sir Howard Kennard, the British ambassador in Warsaw. In it he includes the request from Polish foreign minister Colonel Beck that the RAF should mount ‘some military action from the air this afternoon’.

2.00pm (3.00pm), U
NITED
S
TATES
E
MBASSY
, W
ARSAW

Correspondent Edward Beattie is at his country’s embassy when the sirens sound again. The sky is now deep blue with occasional
high-piled banks of cloud. For the first time, Beattie sees the German raiders. There about sixty of them, and he is struck by the beauty of them as the sun silvers them against the blue sky. Puffs of AA bursts show white around them. Now the formation breaks up, and the German ’planes swing singly or in pairs in great circles over Warsaw. Three or four Polish fighters appear and chase ineffectually after them. While Beattie hears some heavy muffled explosions from across the Vistula, no bombs are dropped on the city centre. An embassy official comes up with an explanation. The German machines are just reconnaissance aircraft. This afternoon, the diplomat tells Beattie, they are pinpointing and photographing objectives for future raids.

2.30pm, 10 D
OWNING
S
TREET

At Chamberlain’s invitation, Winston Churchill, out of office since 1929, arrives at the Prime Minister’s residence. Chamberlain tells Churchill that he sees no hope of war being averted. He proposes to form a small War Cabinet of ministers without departmental responsibilities to conduct it. Chamberlain says that while the Labour Party is not willing to share in a national coalition government, he has hopes that the Liberals will join. Chamberlain then swallows his pride, and invites Churchill to become a member of the War Cabinet. Without comment, Churchill agrees, and the two men begin to discuss ‘men and measures’. Churchill urges the Prime Minister that Anthony Eden should also be given a cabinet post. Chamberlain agrees. ‘Yes, certainly, one of the major offices of state,’ he tells Churchill.

2.30pm, T
HREADNEEDLE
S
TREET
, C
ITY OF
L
ONDON

An observer from Mass Observation asks two workmen what they think about the crisis. The first tells him, ‘Berlin was never bombed before, but it will sure get it now. It’ll get a taste of what we got. No one is getting settled with these affairs. You can’t settle.’ While
the other says, ‘People are fed up with it that they want to have done with it. Get it over.’

2.30pm, B
OLTON

A Mass Observation observer hears two women what they would like to do to Hitler. One says, ‘I would just like to get Hitler on this field at the top of the street just to give him some punishment. First thing I would do, saw his feet at the ankles, sharpen the shin bones and force him down into the earth, down to his shoulders, then I would just hammer the top of his head with my big saucepan until I’d driven him down out of sight.’ But her friend says, ‘I wouldn’t give you that chance. I should take him on the same field, warn all the women of the estate to come and see the fun, then I would strip him naked and pluck every hair from his body, from head to toe.’

3.00pm (4.00pm), A
DLON
H
OTEL
, B
ERLIN

Virginia Cowles finds out what more of the hotel staff think about war with Poland. A waiter tells her, ‘The Poles provoked Germany too far. Now they can pay the price.’ When Virginia asks him about what happens if Britain and France intervene, he replies, ‘Who says we are going to fight Great Britain and France? Poland is no one’s concern but Germany’s. We couldn’t sit back and let Poles shoot down German women and children. Why should anyone else interfere?’ A receptionist agrees. But an elderly porter, when asked if he thinks it will result in a world war, tells Virginia, ‘My God, I hope not. I had four years in the last one and that was enough.’

4.00pm, T
AKELEY

Moyra Charlton and her parents are spending the afternoon preparing their house for war. They empty the attic of junk in case of incendiary bombs, and fit black discs onto the sidelights of the family cars. Moyra has volunteered for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry [FANY], but up to now has had no orders from them. But she is going to help out at home when the evacuees arrive. Taking a quick bath, she ponders on her hatred for Hitler, ‘for bringing this terrible thing on us all. How could he do it?’

Crowds in Downing Street, 1 September 1939. A diarist recorded ‘most people fairly resigned and determined, but desperately disappointed. False cheerfulness and jokes’.

The changing of the guard. Irish Guardsmen in khaki service dress take over from their ceremonially attired comrades at Buckingham Palace, 1 September 1939.

4.00pm, B
OLTON

At a mill in the town, some of the younger hands get their calling-up papers. They change into uniform immediately and then line up to get their pay. The other mill hands give the lads, the oldest of whom is only twenty-four, a hearty send-off. They depart, ‘with a mixture of bravado and fear on their faces’.

4.00–4.30pm, B
OBROWA

‘Precisely at four in the afternoon we crossed the Polish frontier at Bobrowa. It was a strange feeling to leave the last German farmhouse behind. I have crossed many frontiers in my life to enjoy the pleasures of travel. This time I was crossing to do battle with an enemy. We reached Bobrowa at 4.30 in the afternoon. The population was unreliable. In the evening . . . after a short halt for a wash we went into position at Zsarski with twelve vehicles. Zsarski is a larger village so far untouched by the army. Crucifixes bear witness to fanatical Catholicism.

‘The Polish territory we were invading was a purely Polish district, which had belonged to Russia before the Great War. So we had to be prepared for anything.

‘We are reinforcements and at a distance from the main body. Lorry drivers keeping in touch with the forward troops are being sniped by civilians. One wonders how these people can aim, let alone shoot, when they can hardly see out of their eyes for dirt.’ (Corporal Wilhelm Krey, 13th Artillery Observation Battery, German Army)

5.00pm, F
OREIGN
O
FFICE
, W
HITEHALL

Lord Halifax telephones Paris. He suggests to his French opposite number Georges Bonnet that as a gesture Britain and France withdraw their ambassadors from Berlin. Bonnet demurs saying, ‘A hope remains of saving peace and I do not wish to destroy that hope.’

5.45pm, F
OREIGN
O
FFICE
, W
HITEHALL

Sir Nevile Henderson at the embassy in Berlin is telephoned with instructions to deliver ‘a severe warning’ to the German Government. Sir Nevile is told too that the next stage will be an ultimatum with a time limit or an immediate declaration of war. He is instructed to seek a meeting with Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop as soon as possible to hand over the warning. Sir Nevile telephones the Foreign Ministry to arrange an immediate meeting, but is put off until 9.30pm (10.30pm Berlin time). In the meantime, Henderson gets in contact with the United States Embassy. America has had no ambassador in Berlin since President Roosevelt withdrew Hugh Wilson last November in disgust over
Kristallnacht.
Now, Sir Nevile speaks with Chargé d’Affaires Kirk. He asks the American diplomat to take over responsibility for British affairs in the event of war. Both men now realise that this is only a matter of time.