A Countdown To War - 1939

15th March 1939

Czechoslovakia surrenders after Adolf Hitler annexes the country into the Third Reich. Although the Czechs had warmly welcomed the Germans when they entered the Sudetenland months earlier, they stood silently in despair when the Nazis entered Prague.

Many historians are in agreement that if Britain and the other European powers ceased to appease Hilter and instead had taken military action against Nazi Germany during the Sudeten Crisis, the outbreak of world war could have been prevented. The military power of Germany at this point would have been overwhelmed by the standing armies of Britain and France. However, with German rearmament in full flow this imbalance was overturned by the outbreak of war some six months later.

31st August 1939

Germany's Adolf Hitler signs the order for an assault on Poland. After the Germans stage a phony raid on a Gleiwitz radio station, they blame the Polish for the "unprovoked attack."

1st September 1939

Without declaring war, Germany invades Poland. The coordinated air-and-land attack is conducted with such brutal efficiency that "blitzkrieg" becomes a feared offensive tactic.

Contemporary US Newsreel On The Outbreak of War

3rd September 1939

Honouring their treaty with Poland, France and Great Britain enter the war against Germany.

History has taken quite a dim view of Neville Chamberlain's leadership in the immediate pre-war years.With hindsight it is difficult to fault Churchill's warnings about the implications of Nazi foreign policy since the mid '30's. But, listen to the declaration of war as broadcast by Prime Minister Chamberlain on the 3rd September 1939 and it is impossible not to empathise with the man and understand, as best we can, the impact that these solemn words had on a nation that was just about getting back on its feet after the the horrors of The Great War, then less than a generation distant. It is easy for us, with the benefit of hindsight and with the visions of the camps in our minds, to look upon the efforts of appeasement in order to avoid another European War at any cost as a sign of weakness in the face of an aggressor. Looked at in the context of a country yet to be 'between the wars' the thinking has to change somewhat.