I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when Challenger exploded in 1986, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and when 9/11 occured. My parents will always remember where they were and what they were doing when President Kenndy was assassinated in 1963, and when man first walked on the Moon in 1969. Where were you and what were you doing when these words were broadcast to the British Empire by Prime Minister Chamberlain on September 3, 1939? 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. What were you first thoughts and feelings? Thank you for your responses!
Not me, sadly, but my late mother was coming out of church in Evesham, Worcestershire where she had been evacuated. I managed to get her to exactly the same place at 11-15am on 3rd September 1979.
Having just finished playing a round with my father, we joined members, gathered in the lounge of West Cheshire Golf Club, to hear Neville Chamberlain's sombre words. Gerry
I was not even a twinkle in my father's eye in 1939. I have no idea what my mother was doing, except that she was a student nurse working in Lancashire at the time, so could have been at work. I suspect that it being a Sunday, my father had spent the night as usual with the landlady of the country pub him and my uncle used to frequent. If he was not sober enough to "spend the night" with the landlady, then I expect he was recovering from ten or twelve pints of bitter. In either event, he probably was in no state to listen to it.
I was born in 1962. However, my mother remembered listening to the broadcast, and everyone sitting around the radio, listening to Chamberlain's reedy voice in shock and being stunned. They could not believe it was really happening. My grandfather, a World War I veteran, was very unhappy...it brought back his memories of the Sinai campaign in Palestine. After the broadcast, he put the car on chocks, knowing that there would not be any petrol for it for a while. He was right. I don't think he ever drove the car again...he died of pneumonia in 1941.
I was train spotting at the level crossing, Towneley Railway Station, on the outskirts of Burnley on my way home from Sunday school. The Signal box man opened his side window and shouted out that we were at War. When I got home my mother was crying because she was afraid my father was going to be called up for the Army -- he and most of my uncles and grandfather had served in WW1.
Sunday 3rd September 1939 On this day, the day that war broke out, I started exploring the novelty of living by the coast in Hove and was actually swimming in the sea when the first warning siren sounded, (a false alarm as it happened). I hurriedly dried myself and hastened back to the flat at Goldstone Villas, passing on the way two women standing in the doorway of their house. The pair, probably mother and daughter, were both crying and embracing. With the sublime arrogance of a sixteen year old I called out to them "Don't worry ..... everything's gonna be all right!" They paused in their grief and turned to give me a withering look that left me in no doubt that I knew nothing of the sort of troubles that the world could offer on that day and so I shamefacedly continued homeward where I arrived just in time to listen to the radio and the voice of Chamberlain telling us that war had been declared.
I was nine when Neville Chamberlain gave that message. If it hadn't have been so serious,it would have been amusing to watch my mother (Dad was out at a pigeon fanciers meeting) she had my year old brother in one arm and with other she was putting all sort of things into and out of a suitcase and shouting for my father. Where she was thinking of going, no one knows! To make things worse, the sirens had sounded and dad came running in to tell her everything was OK. Schools were closed and teachers were on a roster, visiting childrens houses, where several children would meet together for makeshift lessons. The schools were closed while windows were strengthened and shelters and blast wall were built, then it was back to school proper! I still think, the education we got in those war time days was infinitely better that the tripe they dish out now. There were no half witted goody goodies or the stupid brainless PC Brigade, I don't think they deserve capitals!!!! My school, South Parade at Grimsby was being rebuilt, so we were sent to an old school, reopened and cleaned up, about three miles away on the other side of town, we walked, in all weathers, there were no buses in those days, we were a damn sight healthier than the poor articles of today and despite the war, we had a better education. We looked forward to air raid, no lessons, down in the shelters playing word games, oh dear the all clear has gone! For some reason, in 1942, the Germans decided to experiment on Grimsby and a couple more towns with the fiendish butterfly bomb, many children, adults and animals were killed by these terror weapons. I'll carry on another time. Ken
I too was 9 at the time, I was then living in Leeds with the Anderson shelter already in our garden, shop windows were already covered in criss-crossed sticky tape. We already had our gas masks and I seem to remember that my mother had just bought me a round long gas mask tin to replace the standard issue cardboard box with cloth covering. I remember it was yellow with a green lid and I thought it was very swish. Shops were doing a roaring trade selling tin gas mask containers. I remember listening to Chamberlain's speech and, shame to say, feeling very excited and exhilarated that I wasn't going to miss this war which seemed to me to be already as important as the Great War. I had some vague idea that there would be a long line of trenches along the Maginot Line and the Siegfried Line. Almost immediately after the declaration of war ended the sirens went off quickly followed by the all clear. When I got to school the next morning things were pretty chaotic. I had only recently changed schools from St Joseph's, a Catholic school, to a non-denominational one as we had just moved house a few weeks earlier. But when I got to school nearly all the kids had been evacuated and the school was to close. I was transferred to another Catholic school, St Francis's in Holbeck, Leeds, near my grandmother's. There I got my first and last caning. We were all assembled and after a roll call the Sister Superior said she would blow a whistle and that we were then to put on our gas masks. The whistle blew, we all put them on and they promptly steamed up. The whistle blew again and we took them off. The Sister Superior then called out two boys who had been seen fiddling with their masks in order to let air in to clear the mist. The two boys held out their hands and were caned with what I had assumed was the Sister Superior's cane walking stick rather than a normal school cane. She then asked if anyone else had pulled away the side of their masks, she said God was watching and that if we had done so we should own up. I had done so and I put my hand up. Big mistake! I was called out in front, told to put my hands out and received three mighty whacks first on both palms then on both knuckles. So the first lesson I learnt in WW2 was keep your mouth shut. What really annoyed me was that even at nine I knew darned well that had there been a real gas attack I would never have pulled the side of the mask away, but trying to reason with her earned me the extra three whacks on my knuckles.
