A Declaration of War – September 1939

At dawn, on Friday September 1st, 1939 (with the Nazi-Soviet pact firmly in place), the German invasion of Poland began with a devastating air and artillery bombardment, followed by thousand of troops and armoured divisions crossing the German/Polish border.

In London that same morning the mobilisation of British forces was ordered, and in the Houses of Parliament the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, came under increasing pressure from both sides of the House to “Speak for England!”, which, sadly, he seemed unable to do, even to a country now united and waiting for war.

All that morning Winston Churchill had been pacing the Chinese carpet in his Pimlico flat, drinking brandy and listening to the radio for any further news about Poland. He was eager to get back into government and play his part, whatever that might be. In the early afternoon he received a telephone call from Chamberlain asking him to become a member of a small war cabinet of six ministers, and to call at Number 10 later that day. Chamberlain explained to the cigar smoking Churchill that he wanted to create a coalition government, and that he had already sent out invitations to the leaders of both the Liberal and Labour parties, but felt they were unlikely to accept.

In their meeting at Number 10 later that day, Chamberlain was unable to tell Churchill when his appointment to the war cabinet was to begin, and that it would probably have to wait until the current crisis over Poland had resolved itself; and with the French government unwilling to declare war immediately – they needed time to mobilise their own forces – there was no possibility of Britain declaring war until at least the 3rd. Even a declaration then was not certain as Chamberlain still wanted to negotiate with somebody, anybody, to avert war.

The consequence of these last minute delays meant that Churchill – as a prospective minister – could not add his considerable political weight (and considerable criticism of Chamberlain) to the parliamentary debate scheduled for the evening of the 2nd of September, a debate that was likely – due to the German invasion, and Britain’s known obligations to Poland – to be in favour of war.

And Chamberlain’s seeming lack of leadership, and his willingness, yet again, to negotiate with a regime that had shown itself to be a murderous sham, turned parliament – even most of Chamberlain’s staunchest supporters in other parties – against him, teaching them, as Poland burned, that there does come a time when political parties, people, governments, nations, have to fight to secure their right to say no to war. The pressure for Chamberlain to declare war was simply too great to resist, and, after personal telephone calls to the French and American presidents, Chamberlain instructed Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, to instruct the British Ambassador in Berlin to hand a written ultimatum to the German Government at 9am British time on Sunday the 3rd.