70 Years Since War Declared

Today is the 70th anniversary of Britain and France declaring war on Hitler's Nazi Germany.

The historic move came on foot of the invasion of Poland by Germany.

It began on September 1, 1939 with the Luftwaffe bombarding several targets in Poland including Krakow, Lodz and Warsaw.

The German navy then ordered a battleship - the Schleswig-Holstein - to open fire on the Polish military transit depot at Westerplatte in the Free City of Danzig on the Baltic Seaand. By 8am, troops of the German army, still without a formal declaration of war having been issued, launched an attack near the Polish town of Mokra.

A general mobilisation of the British Armed Forces was declared by the British Government while plans began for evacuation in preparation for the onslaught of German air attacks on British cities.

On September 2, as the Nazis razed the enfeebled Poland, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Germany.

It demanded that German troops evacuate Polish territory. It was to go entirely unheeded by Hitler and his commanders and PM Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany at 11am on 3 September 1939.

Earlier, a non-aggression pact was signed in Munich in September 1938, after which Chamberlain arrived back in the UK declaring the accord with the Germans signalled "peace for our time".

He told parliament the pact had "averted a catastrophe which would have ended civilisation as we have known it".

The pact stated Adolf Hitler's desire never to go to war with Britain again, but less than a year later, his Nazi troops invaded Poland and on 3 September 1939, Chamberlain was forced to declare war on Germany.

In his declaration of war, broadcast to the nation, Chamberlain said: "You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed.

"Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more, or anything different, that I could have done."

Neville Chamberlain resigned in May 1940 soon after British efforts to liberate Norway failed and he was attacked from all political sides.

He was succeeded by Winston Churchill, who remained in office until after the war.

Chamberlain died of bowel cancer six months after leaving office.

Paying tribute to him in the House of Commons, Churchill said Chamberlain had acted "with perfect sincerity...to save the world".

The anniversary is tinged with great sadness, and made all the more emotive with news today that another UK soldier has been killed in a more current conflict.

He died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the Ministry of Defence has said.

(BMcC/KMcA)