Today is the 70th anniversary of Britain's declaration of war. On the morning of Sunday, September 3, 1939 Prime Minister Chamberlain went to the airwaves to announce to the British people that a state of war existed between their country and Germany. In a moment, the German invasion of Poland had become the World War II.

I can't remember any better relation of that moment in history than a scene from John Boorman's brilliant movie Hope and Glory: a sunny Sunday morning, long line of recently built semi-detached brick houses in a London suburb, a sign of the growing prosperity of the 1930s. Families enjoying their free day, a rattle of lawn mowers, children running around within the confines of the narrow fenced gardens. An then, suddenly, everything stops; somebody turns up the volume of the radio so that the neighbours could hear:

I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we hear from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany. (...)

And then, only weeks and months after that, everything was thrown into chaos.

The war that emerged changed the World and societies beyond all recognition. It ruined the countries, destroyed entire populations, left lifelong scars in the memories of those who had been in hell and returned. It had also frown the World into modernity, where atom bombs, space travel, Cold War, Iron Curtain, massive industrialism on a global scale had all become common occurrences. Although the World pieced itself back together, nothing was ever quite the same again.

Could this tragic and cruel period of history have turned out differently? Of course we'll never know. However, I found the following two articles interesting. Both found in the recent press:

• Second World War: Why we delayed declaration of war from the Telegraph is an essay by leading historian Andrew Roberts explaining the circumstances behind Britain's declaration of war.
  
  
• Even more thought-provoking is Peter Hitchens' elaboration on what would have happened if we hadn't fought World War 2?, from Daily Mail.

Labels: history