Part One
A Great Victory
CHAPTER 1
The People
Those who have the least give the most
In September 1939 Britain faced up to the awful realisation that, in an attempt to save Poland from the Nazi invasion, together with the French nation we had declared war on Germany. Throughout the country on September 3rd at 11.15am we had all sat by our wireless sets to hear the solemn words from Mr Neville Chamberlain, our Prime Minister:
This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard 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.
We were not certain what offensive military action we could take, but we all expected that very soon we would be bombed by the largest air force in the world. We already knew that our young men would be conscripted into one of the services. They would leave home, some not to return for a long time and some never to return. Although naturally everyone hated the thought of war, there was a kind of understandable inevitability about what was happening, with an acceptance that we were making the great sacrifice because the evil of German Nazi tyranny had to be fought and halted no matter what the cost.
Among the ordinary people of Britain there were very few dissenters and pacifists. The British Communist Party denounced and opposed the war as a capitalist war to benefit the arms manufacturers and they organised factory strikes. Later, in June 1941, within a very few days after the announcement that Germany had attacked Russia, the Communists then proclaimed that our war against Germany had changed and was now a war for democratic freedom. They then outlawed strikes.
There was no feeling of panic, but rather as happened later when France surrendered in June 1940, there was a feeling of a nation bonding together to fight the problem. This bonding stayed with the Country throughout the war and was a major factor in our continued determination to carry on the fight. Britain’s forces were already at readiness and air raid precautions had been prepared and were put into effect.
Many declarations of war have been challenged as being needless or even evil. I have never heard such statements made about the decision by Britain and France to take up arms against Nazi Germany, not even by the most ardent pacifist.
Even if we had not declared war against Germany, our Country would still have been in grave danger. It would have meant eventual acceptance of German Nazi domination over Europe with the ending of democracy. We would sooner have gone down fighting.
I believe that a crucial factor in this attitude was that prior to the war, the people in Britain could volunteer to take an active part in its defence. They could join the reserves of the Army, and the Royal Navy, and for young men there was a wonderful opportunity to train at weekends to become Volunteer Reserve pilots or aircrew. There was auxiliary training for the fire brigades, ambulance services and air raid defence in which women could also take a part. Above all we would be fighting to defend our own Country of which we were proud. It would be easy to refer to it as the ‘people’s war’.
Britain was to be the first country to prove that determined citizens cannot be bombed into surrender. The effect of the raids is first to make them angry, and then to make them even more determined to fight on. Another factor was that we had had time to make preparations for the war. Air raid shelters had been built, the blackout had been rehearsed, emergency services had been planned, and the Government had ensured that everyone, even the babies, had been supplied with a personal gas mask to be kept close at all times.
I think it is important to understand that, having with a heavy heart entered into a state of war in order to save the freedom of another country hundreds of miles away, our people believed in the cause and were united. But after this grand, sincere and defiant gesture, the Country began to pay the price. Our food was rationed. No one would go hungry but the standard two ounces of butter, four ounces of margarine, and a meat allocation equal to two chops per week would be incomprehensible to us today. People formed long queues for food that could not be obtained with a ration card, and vegetables soon became the staple diet.
I felt that the rigidly enforced blackout, especially in the winter, was one of the worst aspects of the war. It was depressing and dangerous. In our cities our young children were taken from their
