WORLD WAR II - the dark days begin

70 years ago this week, Europe was thrown into conflict when the British PM, announced on September 3rd 1939 that Britain was at war with Germany.




At 11:15 AM The Prime Minister interrupted the regular radio broadcasts to announce that Britain and Germany were at war. At 11:27 AM London's air raid sirens began to wail. It was only a test, but unlike the many tests that had been conducted before, this one struck home - the country really was at war. Sandbags were hastily filled to protect important buildings, gas masks became required equipment for civilians, the nightly blackout became a way of life and children were herded aboard evacuation trains to escape the danger of the city.



The conflict, initially expected to be over by Christmas would escalate and involve virtually the entire world.











Yesterday the UK'S Daily Mirror reproduced an issue of the newspaper from Monday Sept 4th 1939. I thought Archive readers would be interested in seeing some of the pages of this historic issue and so, with permission, I have reproduced several pages from the Sept 4th 1939 issue.







The actual 3 minute radio broadcast announcing the war is also presented in the audio/video file below. The actual declaration made by Neville Chamberlin is followed by Churchill's historic, "we shall fight them on the beaches" speech.




THOUGH BE WARNED the audio/video presentation contains some disturbing images from these dark days.


World War RELATED

Recently I helped a friend do a house clearance after the death of a relative and among the family mementos he wanted to keep we came across the old gas mask. He was going to throw it away I asked if I could have it - he gave it to me, And although I don't think it's got any historic worth it holds a definite historic worth.




I placed the mask on and couldn't imagine having to wear it for any length of time. It have been absolutely terrifying to have to sit in an air raid shelter all night with one of these things on.